ASSETS 2009 - Learning how older adults undertake computer tasks

Learning how older adults undertake computer tasks

Nic Hollinworth and Faustina Hwang

Eleventh International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility - Posters and Demos (ASSETS 2009)
Pittsburgh, PA, USA, October 26-28, 2009

Summary

This paper describes a study that was conducted to learn more about how older adults use the tools provided in a graphical user interface when undertaking tasks that are common to Windows applications. The objective of the study was to gain insight into why users often find many computing tasks difficult to execute, difficult to learn and remember, and easy to forget. Rather than consider performance issues, such as speed or number of errors, this study uses an analysis based upon semiotics to examine the signification of interface objects to the user.