抄録
Touchscreens are common in personal devices as well as in public devices such as ATMs and vending machines, because they are customizable and require less mental and physical load. However, touchscreens are subject to human error and visual overload, because a touchscreen interface doesn’t have haptic clues. Furthermore, the elderly may tend to be more affected by these issues. We conducted the experiment by measuring finger movement and finger contact force while using a touchscreen, to ascertain suitable feedback from haptic clue for both the elderly(62-75 years old) and younger people(20-30years old) . The findings were as follows: The amount of finger movement and finger contact force of elderly participants were significantly more than that of the younger participants (p < 0.01). Increased finger movement was due to tremors and decreased dexterity caused by aging. Increased finger contact force was due to two reasons: first, a response to less haptic feedback than what elderly participants are accustomed to experience, such as in the operation of a mechanical button; second, an attempt to prevent an error in movement due to their tremor. In addition to the physiological measurements, interviews of the participants revealed that the reason for their differences in using ICT devices is not a lack of experience, but physiological issues, such as tremors, decreased sensation in aging. The study further confirmed that touchscreen designs should include larger buttons and text display and a haptic experience that is attuned to strong finger contact force to promote greater usability for elderly users.
