Abstract
This study examined why older adults accepted or rejected new functions and how they made their decision. 44 older adults were asked to use eight functions on two smart phones and two tablets. Then, they were interviewed about their acceptance of functions. They had the lowest acceptance of the mircroblog function. Finally, older adults reported reasons of accepting or rejecting functions. The result was a model to represent older adults’ decision process, which was influenced by eight factors. This decision process generated four major findings. First, substitutes seemed to be a big obstacle to older adults’ acceptance of new functions on smart phones and tablets. Second, openness influenced whether older adults stressed the usefulness of a new function. Third, contexts and lifestyles influenced older adults’ judgment of usefulness. Fourth, older adults seemed to tolerate some complexity, but it should not be more than they could handle after learning.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Davis, F.D.: A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems: Theory and results (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA (1986)
Arning, K., Ziefle, M.: Understanding age differences in PDA acceptance and performance. Computers in Human Behavior 23, 2904–2927 (2007)
Melenhorst, A.-S., Rogers, W.A.: Older adults’ motivated choice for technological innovation: Evidence for benefit-driven selectivity. Psychology and Aging 21, 190–195 (2006)
Fisk, A.D., Rogers, W.A., Charness, N., Czaja, S.J., Sharit, J.: Designing accommodations for aging-in-place. Designing for older adults: Principles and creative human factors approaches, 2nd edn. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2009)
Kurniawan, S.: Older people and mobile phones: A multi-method investigation. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 66(12), 889–901 (2008)
Sterns, A.A.: Curriculum design and program to train older adults to use personal digital assistants. Gerontologist 45(6), 828–834 (2005)
Mayhorn, C.B., Lanzolla, V.R., Wogalter, M.S., Watson, A.M.: Personal digital assistants (PDAs) as medication reminding tools: Exploring age differences in usability. Gerontechnology 4, 128–140 (2005)
Goodman, J., Brewster, S., Gray, P.: How can we best use landmarks to support older people in navigation? Behaviour & Information Technology 24, 3–20 (2005)
Sayago, S.: Some aspects of ICT accessibility, usability and design methods with the young elderly (2006), http://www.nttdocomo.com/press/publications/mobility/archives.html (retrieved)
Wright, P., Bartram, C., Rogers, N., Emslie, H., Evans, J., Wilson, B., Belt, S.: Text entry on handheld computers by older users. Ergonomics 43, 702–716 (2000)
Lee, C.-F., Kuo, C.-C.: Difficulties on small-touch-screens for various ages. Paper Presented at Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction, Coping with Diversity, Beijing, China, July 22-27, pp. 968–974 (200)
Sterns, A.A., Collins, S.C.: Transforming the personal digital assistant into a health-enhancing technology. Generations-Journal of the American Society on Aging 28(4), 54–56 (2004)
Zhou, J., Rau, P.L.P., Salvendy, G.: Use and design of handheld computers for older adults: A review and appraisal. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 28(12), 799–826 (2012)
Wang, L., Rau, P.-L.P., Salvendy, G.: Older adults’ acceptance of information technology. Educational Gerontology 37(12), 1081–1099 (2011)
Zhou, J., Rau, P.L.P., Salvendy, G.: Older Adults’ use of smart phones: An investigation of the factors influencing the acceptance of new functions. Behaviour & Information Technology (in press)
Xie, B., Watkins, I., Golbeck, J., Huang, M.: Understanding and changing older adults’ perceptions and learning of social media. Educational Gerontology 38(4), 282–296 (2012)
van Biljon, J., Renaud, K.: A qualitative study of the applicability of technology acceptance models to senior mobile phone users. In: Song, I.-Y., Piattini, M., Chen, Y.-P.P., Hartmann, S., Grandi, F., Trujillo, J., Opdahl, A.L., Ferri, F., Grifoni, P., Caschera, M.C., Rolland, C., Woo, C., Salinesi, C., Zimányi, E., Claramunt, C., Frasincar, F., Houben, G.-J., Thiran, P. (eds.) ER Workshops 2008. LNCS, vol. 5232, pp. 228–237. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Korzaan, M.L., Boswell, K.T.: The influence of personality traits and information privacy concerns on behavioral intentions. Journal of Computer Information Systems 48(4), 15–24 (2008)
Bruder, C., Wandke, H., Blessing, L.: Improving mobile phone instruction manuals for seniors. Gerontechnology 5, 51–55 (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Zhou, J., Rau, PL.P., Salvendy, G. (2013). A Qualitative Study of Older Adults’ Acceptance of New Functions on Smart Phones and Tablets. In: Rau, P.L.P. (eds) Cross-Cultural Design. Methods, Practice, and Case Studies. CCD 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8023. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39143-9_59
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39143-9_59
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39142-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39143-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)