Improving the learnability of mobile devices for older adults

ii Mobile computing devices, such as smart phones, offer benefits that may be especially valuable to older adults (age 65+). However older adults have been shown to have difficulty learning to use these devices, which is a barrier for technology adoption. The main goal of the research reported in this dissertation was to investigate three promising design approaches – increasing the interpretability of graphical icons, incorporating a multi-layered interface, and augmenting the mobile device’s display – to determine whether each can improve the learnability of mobile devices for older adults. We involved both older and younger adults in our studies to uncover benefits unique to older adults. In our investigation of graphical icons, we conducted an experiment to determine which icon characteristics affect initial icon interpretability for older adults. We found that icon interpretability can be improved for older adults by reducing the semantic distance between the objects depicted in the icon and the icon’s function, and by labelling icons. In our investigation of multi-layered interfaces, we prototyped a two-layer smart phon