Skip to main content

Never too Old to Use a Tablet: Designing Tablet Applications for the Cognitively and Physically Impaired Elderly

  • Conference paper
Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 8547))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

People live longer than ever before and the population of elderly is increasing. Many elderly visit day care centres in order to avoid loneliness and continuously look for new methods of entertainment. A possible new mean of entertainment can be found in the use of tablet applications. However, due to the physical and/or cognitive impairments of these elderly, most tablet applications are not accessible. This research tries to design an elderly-friendly entertainment application. Several design guidelines were determined via a literature review and a contextual inquiry for the design of three prototypes. These prototypes successfully eliminated problems concerning button size, navigation, readability of the fonts and swiping. Furthermore, results indicated that the elderly had a strong preference for the design which had a low number of icons, a more direct way of giving information, no deep hierarchy, larger buttons with immediate feedback when pressed, a clear notification that the screens had changed and the screens which used bright colours were more effective.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Organization, W.H., The World Health Report 1998 - Life in the 21st Century: A Vision for All, pp. 2–8. World Health Organization, France (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  2. World Health Organization. Are you ready? What you need to know about ageing (2012), http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2012/toolkit/background/en/ (cited March 20, 2014)

  3. Commission, E. Population Groups: Elderly (2014), http://ec.europa.eu/health/population_groups/elderly/index_en.htm (cited March 23, 2014)

  4. Phiriyapokanon, T., Is a big button interface enough for elderly users?, p. 34. Mälardalen University, Sweden (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  5. de Jager, C.A.: Memory in the Elderly. In: Stone, J.H., Blouin, M. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Rehabilitation (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Medicinfo. Veel voorkomende aandoeningen bij ouderen (March 13, 2014), http://www.medicinfo.nl/%7Be826e405-d7b5-4b4b-8f3f-24cac12bc6b1%7D (cited March 15, 2014)

  7. Hanson, V.L.: Web access for elderly citizens. In: Workshop on Universal Accessibility of Ubiquitous Computing 2001. ACM, Alcácer do Sal (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Caprani, N., O’Conner, N., Gurrin, C.: Touch Screens for the Older User. In: Cheein, F.A.A. (ed.) Assistive Technologies, pp. 96–118. Intech (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Arditi, A.: Effective Color Contrast: Designing for People with Partial Sight and Color Deficiencies (1999, 2013), http://www.lighthouse.org/accessibility/design/accessible-print-design/effective-color-contrast (cited March 6, 2013 )

  10. Debevc, M., Kosec, P., Holzinger, A.: Improving multimodal web accessibility for deaf people: sign language interpreter module. Multimedia Tools and Applications 54, 181–199 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Holzinger, A., Searle, G., Nischelwitzer, A.: On some aspects of improving mobile applications for the elderly. Universal Acces in HCI 1(2), 923–932 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Irwin, C.B., Sesto, M.E.: Timing and Accuracy of Individuals With and Without Motor Control Disabilities Completing a Touch Screen Task. In: Stephanidis, C. (ed.) UAHCI 2009, Part II. LNCS, vol. 5615, pp. 535–536. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Jin, Z.X., Plocher, T., Kiff, L.: Touch Screen User Interfaces for Older Adults: Button Size And Spacing. In: Stephanidis, C. (ed.) HCI 2007. LNCS, vol. 4554, pp. 933–941. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Guerreiro, T., et al.: Towards Accessible Touch Interfaces. In: ASSETS 2010, Orlando, Florida, pp. 19–26 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ruholl, L.: Tips for teaching the elderly (May 1, 2003), http://www.modernmedicine.com/news/tips-teaching-elderly (cited March 4, 2013)

  16. Estgate, A., Groome, D.: An introduction to applied cognitive psychology. Psychology Press, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Wilkowska, W., Ziefle, M.: Which factors form older adults’ acceptance of mobile information and communication technologies. In: Holzinger, A., Miesenberger, K. (eds.) USAB 2009. LNCS, vol. 5889, pp. 81–101. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Castilla, D., et al.: Process of design and usability evaluation of a telepsychology web and virtual reality system for the elderly: Butler. Human-Computer Studies 71(3), 350–362 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Bonner, M.N., Brudvik, J.T., Abowd, G.D., Edwards, W.K.: No-Look Notes: Accessible Eyes-Free Multi-Touch Text Entry. In: Floréen, P., Krüger, A., Spasojevic, M. (eds.) Pervasive 2010. LNCS, vol. 6030, pp. 409–426. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  20. Ferrell, B.A., Ferrell, B.R., Rivera, L.: Pain in cognitively impaired nursing home patients. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 10(8), 591–598 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Muskens, L., van Lent, R., Vijfvinkel, A., van Cann, P., Shahid, S. (2014). Never too Old to Use a Tablet: Designing Tablet Applications for the Cognitively and Physically Impaired Elderly. In: Miesenberger, K., Fels, D., Archambault, D., Peňáz, P., Zagler, W. (eds) Computers Helping People with Special Needs. ICCHP 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8547. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08596-8_60

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08596-8_60

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08595-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08596-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics