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Heuristic Evaluation of the Smartphone Applications in Supporting Elderly

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Recent Trends in Data Science and Soft Computing (IRICT 2018)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 843))

Abstract

Elderly people often experience deterioration in cognitive and physical traits, which impacts their ability to use smartphone applications. Because of this age-related deterioration, designers should pay special attention when it comes to designing user interfaces (UIs) for elderly users. Nevertheless, the typical modern UI apparently is not optimised for this group of users. Our primary objective is to answer the research question: what are the usability problems that could be potentially experienced by elderly as they interact with the user interfaces of smartphones? A further objective is to recommend improvements in the design of UIs that can particularly benefit elderly users. Five individual experts applied a heuristic evaluation method within a controlled environment to determine the anticipated usability problems in the two case study applications i.e., alarm and camera. Analysing the identified usability problems revealed that they were attributed to three issues that the UI failed to adhere to; promote recognition over recall, improve user’s efficiency of use, and achieve an intuitive and consistent interface. Experts have suggested solutions that would help tackle these issues and provide insights regarding potential improvements for designing elder-friendly UIs.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) from the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia under Grant FRGS/1/2017/ICT04/UTP/02/2. The work of H. M. Salman was supported by Universiti Teknologi Petronas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer and Information Sciences Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

    Hasanin Mohammed Salman, Wan Fatimah Wan Ahmad & Suziah Sulaiman

Authors
  1. Hasanin Mohammed Salman
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  2. Wan Fatimah Wan Ahmad
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  3. Suziah Sulaiman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wan Fatimah Wan Ahmad .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computer Science and Engineering, Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia

    Faisal Saeed

  2. Information Systems Department, Faculty of Computing, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia

    Nadhmi Gazem

  3. Information Technology Department, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Taiz University, Taiz, Yemen

    Fathey Mohammed

  4. Information Systems Department, Faculty of Computing, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia

    Abdelsalam Busalim

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Salman, H.M., Wan Ahmad, W.F., Sulaiman, S. (2019). Heuristic Evaluation of the Smartphone Applications in Supporting Elderly. In: Saeed, F., Gazem, N., Mohammed, F., Busalim, A. (eds) Recent Trends in Data Science and Soft Computing. IRICT 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 843. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99007-1_72

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