Abstract
This study focused on the text-based scenario for the usability tests of products or systems involving elderly users. Some studies revealed that the usability tests with elderly users did not always succeed because they frequently forgot a part of the scenario or changed a part of the scenario when they carried out the task for the test. This study proposed that photographs be attached to the scenario for maintaining the scenario in their memories and avoiding changing the scenario. The effectiveness of the photographic attachment was examined through the experiment which was consisted of two usability tests of the rice cooker with elderly subjects. One used the text-based scenario and the other used the text-based scenario with several photographs. The results of the experiments revealed that the number of elderly subjects who could not carry out the test because they forgot a part of the scenario or changed a part of the scenario was decreased by the photographic attachment to the text-based scenario. These results suggested positive effects of photographic attachment to the scenario on elderly users in usability tests.
