An Evaluation of Finger-Gesture Interaction on Mobile Devices for Elderly Users

摘要

Recent years have seen the dissemination of gesture-based interaction elements to an increasing number of mass consumer products, most notably finger-gesture interaction on small touchscreen devices. In the present study we investigate whether this new way of interacting with technical devices could be a means of facilitating human technology interaction, particularly for older users. This user group is known to frequently face problems when trying to use technical devices, many of them being associated with interfaces which are not tailored to their needs and abilities. In order to find out whether finger-gesture interaction could be a suitable input method also for senior-friendly devices, we compared a group of older and younger users on a set of thirty single-finger gestures on a mobile device regarding speed and accuracy measurements. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of different device postures. Results show that older users take more time to perform the gestures, but are in general as accurate as the younger ones. The single-handed operation mode proved to be the most difficult, irrespective of age group.