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Tap or touch?: pen-based selection accuracy for the young and old
Conference proceeding

Tap or touch?: pen-based selection accuracy for the young and old

Juan Hourcade and Theresa Berkel
CHI '06 Extended Abstracts on human factors in computing systems, pp.881-886
CHI EA '06
04/21/2006
DOI: 10.1145/1125451.1125623

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Abstract

The effect of the decline in cognitive, perceptive, and motor abilities on older adults' performance with input devices has been well documented in several experiments. None of these experiments, however, have provided information on the challenges faced by older adults when using pens to interact with handheld computers. To address this need, we conducted a study to learn about the performance of older adults in simple pen-based tasks with handheld computers. The study compared the performance of twenty 18-22 year olds, twenty 50-64 year olds, and twenty 65-84 year olds. We found that for the most part, older adults were able to complete tasks accurately. An exception occurred with the low accuracy rates achieved by 65-84 year old participants when tapping on targets of the same size as the standard radio buttons, checkboxes, and icons on the PocketPC. An alternative selection technique we refer to as "touch" enabled 65-84 year olds to select targets more accurately. This technique did not negatively affect the performance of the other participants. If tapping to select, making standard-sized targets 50 percent larger provided 65-84 year olds with similar advantages to switching to "touch" interactions. The results suggest that "touch" interactions need to be further explored to understand whether they will work in more realistic situations.
 accuracy handheld PDA pen PocketPC stylus tap touch

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