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Older Adults’ Number Entry Using Touchscreen and Keyboard-Mouse Computers

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNIP,volume 11870))

Abstract

Touchscreen computers are a rapidly growing sector of the personal computer market and seem to be particularly suitable for older users. However, research has highlighted usability problems with the interaction techniques deployed on these devices for older users. A study was conducted with 12 older users of number entry tasks on a tablet and a PC, comparing three interaction techniques: keypad, plus/minus buttons and number selector (picker on the tablet, pull down menu on the PC). There were no differences in time to enter numbers between the devices, but buttons were fastest and number selectors slowest. Mental workload was also significantly higher with number selectors compared to either buttons or keypad. Older users had a complex pattern of preferences, but overall favoured the keypad for number entry and disliked the picker.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.techsmith.com/morae.html.

  2. 2.

    https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/screenflow-6/id1107828211?mt=12.

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Acknowledgements

This study was part of the first author’s PhD research programme. We would like to thank all our participants for their time and effort to take part in the study. The first author would like to acknowledge funding support from Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA). A special thank you to Universiti Malaysia Sabah, the first author’s current workplace, for providing the funding to attend the 6th International Visual Informatics Conference.

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Correspondence to Zaidatol Haslinda Abdullah Sani .

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Abdullah Sani, Z.H., Petrie, H. (2019). Older Adults’ Number Entry Using Touchscreen and Keyboard-Mouse Computers. In: Badioze Zaman, H., et al. Advances in Visual Informatics. IVIC 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11870. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34032-2_32

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34032-2_32

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-34031-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-34032-2

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