Smartphone Operating Gesture and Touch-Screen Rough Texture Design for The Elderly

• Main Authors: Yu-ChiChang, 張育萁
• Other Authors: Hsin-Hsi Lai
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/wjs8z6

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 工業設計學系 === 102 === Along with improvements in medical technology and in the standard of living, people are living longer, and increases in childcare cost have caused a reduction in the birth rate. The problems and needs brought out by an increasingly aging society are an important target of scientific study. The smartphone penetration rate in Taiwan quickly increased in the last three years, and many studies have indicated that smartphones can effectively help the elderly. For example, the Global Positioning System (GPS) can increase the willingness of the elderly to participate in outdoor activities. Nowadays, smartphone are necessary for the elderly. However, many studies have shown that it is a big challenge for elderly people to use smartphones, especially touch-screens. Because of factors related to aging in the areas of visual acuity, tactile perception, cognitive ability and motor ability, the use smartphones may not be conductive for the elderly. Current studies focusing on the use of smartphones by the elderly have placed an emphasis on visual components and screen size, phone keypad operation, and the effort required to learn, all of which are related to visual and cognitive aspects of smartphone use. Few studies have been focused on aging as it relates to motor ability and tactile perception. Given this, this study develops an innovative smartphone operating model including both smartphone operating gesture design and smartphone touch-screen rough texture design for the elderly aged 55 up. Motion analysis, usability evaluation, and a Borg-Scale evaluation are used to evaluate gesture design. Satisfaction evaluation and efficiency evaluation are used to evaluate the screen rough texture design. The result of this study indicated single-finger operating gestures to be better than two-handed and multi-finger operating gestures in regard to both satisfaction and degree of comfort for the elderly. In regard to efficiency and satisfaction, changing the screen texture have no significant difference for the elderly. These results also contribute to further study intended to develop an elderly touch-screen user interface.