Making the scale for "timidity to use" new artifacts of older adults

Abstract

It is often observed that older adults showed timidity to use especially to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment. Then we tried to make a scale for the timidity to use new ICT equipment for older adults. Inventory survey were made and executed by the mailing method with 203 healthy older adults as informants, who registered as the voluntary research participants of CUAR (Center of usability and aging research at University of Tsukuba). Results showed that seven of nine items in the survey reflected the timidity to use the artifact. There was no differences between male and female, however, differences of age groups were significant; showing people aged 70’s up rated higher degree of timidity than people of age 60’s. Relations of the scale to other indexes and/ or behavior in the usability testing of ICT equipment will be investigated.