Preliminary Exploration of Interface Design for Senior Citizens: A Study of Smartphone Camera Usage for People Above 50

摘要

With the popularity of smart devices and the accelerating trend of population aging, more and more people aged above 50 begin to use smart-phones. The applications they use mainly range from social communication to entertainment. Few studies have been conducted on the usability of evolution of smartphone for them [1], especially investigation about smartphone camera usage. According to the pre-research about smartphone application usage among the age over 50 years old people, smartphone photography has become very important in their daily lives. Meanwhile, there also exists a lot of problems differ from young people. This study targeted these people to research on their experience using smartphone camera application. It presents two studies on user interface: first, online survey for general information of operation; second, user interview for target people's behavior. The results show that: 1) The user experience study of smartphone camera among the people aged above 50 is very meaningful; 2) Icon combined with text is easier to recognize and operate in the camera interface menu; 3) A simple and safe-operation interface is expected; 4) Gender and education level influence the recognition of icons and needs of functions; 5) Feedback and tips are needed on the interface; 6) Electronic album editor can help to record memory more comprehensive and arrange photos. This research is expected to provide a reference for researchers, designers and mobile phone service providers to think about future designs of smartphone camera interface for the people aged above 50 and explores how to enhance their user experience of taking pictures with smartphones.