Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Design, Interaction and Technology Acceptance

This paper debates and describes how the use of participatory methodologies were useful and flexible to engage and access the digital attitudes and practices of different generations of participants - from young people to older people - involved in two research projects in Portugal: DiCi-Educa and SMaRT-EU. The paper also describes the methodological decisions and how these impacted in participants involvement as how they adjusted to different contexts, including disconnecting settings and COVID-19 and its digital challenges, in DiCi-Educa. Both projects used workshops as an active and participatory methodology to engage the different generations with transformations during COVID-19 pandemic context. Despite the unpredictable difficulties, the use of the online environment also promoted positive ways of better engaging with the participants, namely in the SMaRT-EU project. Both experiences were very enriching to prepare a third project we present in the final part of the paper: YouNDigital.

Research focusing on virtual reality (VR) has increased in recent years as multiple mobile systems have become available to the mass consumer market. In particular, there has been greater attention to how VR may serve as a tool to benefit, promote, and assess health-related and wellbeing aspects for older adults. However, there are potential risks that researchers need to be aware of when designing such a study. This manuscript provides an overview of select usability factors that merit consideration to ensure the safety of potential older adult participants. This includes cybersickness, balance and falls, vision, hearing, arthritis, and cognitive limitations. Although not all older adults are at risk for harm when using VR, researchers need to be aware of potential issues for screening purposes and ensure safety throughout the study. In addition, older adults need to be adequately informed about risk factors before agreeing to participate and what forms of support will be in place to ensure safety.

This research is mainly aimed at exploring the recognition and memory ability of basic geometric shapes in the elderly, in order to understand the status of recognition and memory ability of shapes of different complexity in the elderly. It is mainly carried out through the experimental method. The experimental method is carried out with 12 shape test samples, and the accuracy of shape recognition and different time differences are discussed. The subjects were divided into 10 elderly people in the experimental group and 10 college students over the age of 20 in the control group. The results show that there is a gap in the accuracy of shape recognition among the elderly. The more complex the shape, the lower the recognition ability. In addition, both groups of subjects made errors in recognizing the obliquely angled figures. The time difference between 5 s and 30 s between shape F (original hexagon) and shape I (hexagon with rounded corners) is significantly different, and shape I obtains the lowest recognition accuracy rate at a 5-s interval for the elderly. The experimental results also show that the front and back positions of the shape images in the sequence have an impact on the memory ability.

The context, this article aims to present the study on the behavior profile of the elderly in relation to digital technologies and to survey the opportunities for the introduction of new digital technological solutions for the elderly. The method used in this study, was the application of conceptual online tools, in the format of questionnaires, with structured questions for completion, for a data collection with the elderly, over 60 years old and with different educational profiles. A convenience sample was defined, with a total sample size of 50 elderly people, 25 females and 25 males. The present study was conducted in a community of elderly people in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. The results of this step assisted the researchers for new strategies, refinement, and configuration of e-focus groups for interactions with seniors, and new opportunities for both research and product development. Thus, this article highlights the results obtained, the method employed, the opportunities for the insertion of Human Centered Design that involve different dimensions and complexities of science, technology, innovation, but also address, the inclusion of people with different profiles, such as the elderly, so that they have access to social welfare in different contexts, including digital.

The Longitudinal Study on Older People’s Quality of Life during the Covid-19 pandemic (ILQA-19) is a qualitative study carried out during the 2020 lockdown on 40 older men and women living in the ten villages in northern Italy subject to the first lockdown in Europe. This study focuses on older people’s lives and the role of digital technologies during the pandemic, and it has been carried out fully remotely. Despite the need to research the social consequence of pandemics for older people, there is a shortage of studies that provide guidelines on how to successfully involve this population in online qualitative studies. This paper contributes to fill this gap by discussing the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in implementing the different stages of ILQA-19 research. The best practices of qualitative studies conducted through ICTs are discussed, along with the strategies we enacted to enhance participation in the study. Specifically, panel engagement, tailoring procedures and building positive and trustworthy interactions with study members are crucial when researching older people through online methods.

A global demographic turn is observed with senior citizens increasing in number, resulting on wellbeing concerns. That culminates into challenges and opportunities for creating tools, such as digital storytelling and gamification, to promote senior citizens’ interest and motivation to certain activities. While digital storytelling involves the narrative’s potential to facilitate the construction of meaning and sharing experiences with information and communication technologies’ languages, gamification elements can trigger senior citizens’ motivations. However, so far, little attention has been paid to the potential of digital storytelling in gamification. In this context, an iterative approach involving storytelling narratives and gamification should be designed to enhance cyclotourism experiences. The aim of this position paper is to discuss the senior citizens’ digital storytelling applied to gamified cyclotourism to foster participatory strategies and inclusion, exploring their life story while connecting them with others. In specific, it proposes the delivery of a storytelling sessions model to senior citizens integrated with gamification aspects in the cyclotourism context.

There has been an increasing interest in gerontechnology due to the growth of an ageing population and subsequent challenges in interface design development. Methods of user-centered design and gamification have demonstrated to be powerful, leading to an excellent user experience, and also motivating and changing senior citizens’ behaviors. Applying user-centered design and gamification is starting to gain its importance in the design field, but there is still a lack of studies regarding the use of these concepts with senior citizens and/or applied to the cyclotourism context. The goal of this paper is to provide a state-of-the-art review on user-centered design, user experience and gamification, to outline and propose an approach for senior cyclotourism. The approach is based on user-centered design to senior citizens, followed by gamification design guidelines to the development and testing of products or prototypes. It is recommended that the method should be iterative, unequivocal, and inclusive, performed by a multidisciplinary team and should followed phases of requirement gathering and analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation with subsequent design guidelines. This study may also deliver maneuverable and adaptable guides on how to conduct a method of user-centered design and user experience with gamification for senior citizens applied to other contexts.

Digital media technologies have been gradually integrated into teaching activities over the past few years, providing teachers with more possibilities for teaching. This study examines the teaching effects of an interactive AI based image-processing platform in assisting as a teaching aid for children painting education. In this study, we compared the learning interest, learning attitude, and continuous learning intention of 96 children aged 5 to 13 in the process of painting education. The subjects were divided into two groups: the experimental group used AI image processing for painting education, and the control group utilized traditional teaching methods for painting learning. Results showed that the use of AI image-processing tools in painting education reduces girls’ learning attitudes and continuous learning intention, while stimulating boys’ learning interest.

This study investigated how environmental boundaries and road regularity influence people navigating through Virtual Reality (VR) and constructing cognitive maps. Thirty-six younger adults participated in the VR experiment, where they navigated in two different roads (a regular road and an irregular road) on three types of environmental boundaries (no boundary, square boundary, and trapezoidal boundary) to learn virtual environments and locate a reward. The results of the experiment showed that environmental boundaries and participants’ spatial ability had significant influences on cognitive map construction. In regular road environments, participants constructed worse cognitive maps when navigating in the trapezoidal boundary than in the square boundary. In addition, the better spatial ability the participants had, the better cognitive map they constructed. These results give insights into researches on how older adults use spatial geometric cues including environmental boundaries and road regularity when navigating.

This study aims to understand the synesthesia phenomenon between color senses and different musical scales of the Chinese musical instrument “Guqin”, the research method is a quasi-experiment design method. Twenty-one observers were invited to join the assessment of the experiment in synesthesia between the color and musical scales of Guqin by using convenient sampling. Three tasks should be finished on each observer. These include increasing the lightness task, decreasing the lightness task, and selecting the target color when hearing the eight musical scales of Guqin.This study analyzes the difference between the observers who have music training backgrounds or do not, using the independent-sample T-test. It is also to understand the synesthesia between the musical scales of Guqin and the lightness/color. The study results show no significant difference between music and arts backgrounds observers in the lightness adjustment task. Result also shows a positive correlation between lightness and musical scales. The saturation of color is no significant correlation with musical scales, the pilot study figures out the robust results, which provide the next stage in experiment design.

With the spread of COVID-19, Saudi Arabia implemented a policy to keep people physically distanced. Mandatory pandemic-driven mobile technologies have been utilized in the country to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The current study aimed to explore and understand the experience of Arab elderly people with the pandemic-driven mobile app Eatmarna. We conducted a task-based usability test, followed by a satisfaction questionnaire and interview with Arab elderly between 65 and 85 years old. This study has provided an insight into the challenges that were faced by older adults when using pandemic-driven apps. Identification of these challenges contributes to a better understanding of the situation and can lead to appropriate solutions and plans to improve such apps.

The older adults, who were born and grew up in an analog era where digital technology was not part of their lives, look with some suspicion on currently existing digital artifacts, such as the smartphone. This damaged trust relationship not only refers to the technology itself, but also to the way these older adults users interact with it. Thus, in this scenario, the interface is highlighted as a gateway to interaction for being, in most cases, responsible for the presentation and translation of systemic elements into graphic results that will serve as a subsidy for the entire cognitive process of the user. Based on this context, through the case study carried out with three users from exploratory research and qualitative questionnaires. The present work identified that visual representation on the graphic interface of apps has a direct impact, being negative or positive, on the trust relationship of older adults users in the using of the smartphone depending on their characteristics of real-world representation and facility of use.

In 2021, the key indicators of the seventh national census released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed the deepening population aging. Nowadays, the Chinese government vigorously promotes a series of elderly care measures at home and encourages the development of smart wearable devices combined with Internet technology for monitoring elderly health. However, due to the complex functions and low aging suitability of smart devices, their acceptance by the elderly is very low. Therefore, this paper divides the elderly into three groups on the basis of age to study their basic health status. Based on the KANO model, the real needs of the elderly in different age groups for smart wearable devices are calculated, providing a reference for the development and design of smart wearable devices for the elderly. Moreover, it helps to settle the uneven distribution of resources caused by the wave of population aging.

For older adults Voice Controlled Devices (VCDs) could offer an easy way to access to digital services. This paper provides a systematic literature review (N = 60) of the state of research on learnability, usability, and use of VCDs and older adults. Furthermore, the paper highlight the predominant study methods used and identify positive and negative characteristics of VCDs. In addition, it presents reservations and barriers that prevent older adults from using VCDs. This work extends related work by conducting a literature review within the databases Goolge Scholar, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, and ProQuest. The structured literature review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) proposed scheme.The results show that as of 2018, the number of researches on VCDs and older adults is steadily increasing, and this population group is receiving increasing attention. Most of the studies (40%) used mixed methods for data collection and analysis. The literature review clearly shows that older adults have few problems learning and using VCDs. Older adults face problems caused by faulty speech recognition of commands or a non-existent display that visually shows input and output of commands. Obstacles are largely privacy and data protection concerns.

Supervised Learning is a Machine Learning technique where a predictor is trained using a set of labeled data where each data point has a label associated with it. The technique can be used for Affective Computing where a person's physiological signals are measured and used in conjunction with labels to create a predictor for affective states. However, creating this labeled dataset is labor-intensive and prone to human errors. To alleviate some of the costs of manual labeling, a data annotation tool is needed to create labels that can eventually be combined with physiological data to create a fully labeled dataset. The goal of the tool is to streamline the steps from data collection and data annotation to creating an effective computing agent. A use case and initial development of this tool stems from a socially assistive robotics system setting with older adults who have cognitive impairment and dementia. However, the tool was further developed to be adaptive to the needs of any data annotation. In this paper, we present a data annotation tool that can be adapted to any domain for streamlining the process of data annotation.

Our study focuses on myths about older people’s smartphone use. Self-reported data, from Eurostat for example, report access rather than actual usage and are of limited use. What respondents report does not necessarily correspond with their actual smartphone usage behaviour in everyday life. We therefore conducted a tracking study to gain insight into smartphone usage among older adults. Smartphone activity logs were collected from individuals aged 60–79 (N = 303) throughout a period of 28 days between February and May 2019 in Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The data thus obtained on actual smartphone use were critically examined in the light of seven myths related to the smart phone usage of older people in everyday life. We also analysed the data in the context of empirical studies in the field of older people’s digital behaviour. Finally, after drawing our conclusions, we present limitations and sketch implications for future research.

The worldwide population is aging, even though more and more elderly people are living independently and alone. Moreover, pandemics such as COVID-19 are putting enormous pressure in health care systems all around the world. To deal with the growing elderly population and health care challenges, there is an emerging focus on technology and IT products. Technology such as mobile devices with their ever-increasing computational power, and differing sensors show immense usefulness for elderly as well as people with disability. This study proposes the development of 3D QR codes for improved safety, security, and customization of user interfaces. This study proposes multiple QR codes aligned together to create a QR cube (or QR cuboid) to store an increasing amount of information about the user. Individual QR codes will be compatible with existing systems. On the other hand, nearly, all individual information is stored with the user, enabling better privacy. Even with the development of future technologies, QR cubes can be used to access digital information.

Today, digital and mobile forms of data collection are increasingly being used to capture information on the real lives of older adults. One method used is smartphone-based mobile data collection, which uses a standard smartphone to collect information related to people’s daily lives. Even though smartphones are useful in measuring the daily variance of behaviors and the situational context in which these behaviors take place, little is known about openness to participate in mobile data collection studies among the general population. By utilizing representative data from Switzerland, this paper presents data on adults’ openness to participate in those studies and their willingness to share self-recorded smartphone data with researchers. Analyses were based on a cross-sectional survey involving 1,394 participants aged 18 years and older (age range: 18–93 years; mean age: 48 years). The survey was conducted at the end of 2020. Both univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. The results indicate that 24.8% are very open to participate, while 31.1% are willing to share their self-recorded smartphone data with researchers in mobile data collection studies. Nevertheless, the bivariate analyses show that those in the younger age group (18–64 years) are more open to participate than those in the older age group (aged 65 years and older). Multivariate analyses indicate that aside from age, interest in science is a predictor of openness to participate. While the results reveal that only 25% are open to participate, this initial evaluation of openness to participate in mobile data collection studies among younger and older adults should nevertheless enrich discussions on the acceptance of wearables as data collection tools in future research.

With the development of “intelligent” society, smart terminals have been used in many occasions of daily life. Smart phones have become an extension of people, which is an indispensable medium that people connect with each other and the society. Currently, among the 274 million elderly mobile phone users in China, 134 million are elderly smartphone users. Nearly 140 million seniors are connected to the Internet through smartphones. Through an online questionnaire survey on smartphone use experience for young-old, this paper attempts to investigate the actual needs and difficulties of young-old in the use of smartphones, and the preference of this group for the age-appropriate design of mobile phones. Based on the 500 valid samples of the survey, we found that the young-old tend to actively learn the use of mobile phones, but the current smartphone APPs does not take into account the special need of the young-old, and the adaptability of the touch-screen experience. We suggest that it’s necessary to consider the need of the old users in terms of functions, interfaces, menu settings, so as to improve the willingness of the old to use mobile APPS and improve the effect of human-computer interaction.

This paper focuses on the feminist movement(s) today and the controversies that tend to permeate the notions of “waves” and “(inter)generations”. It falls within the scope of feminist media studies, in a line of approach that seeks to traverse feminist activisms and their communication strategies, including mainstream and alternative media and the digital and offline spaces of interaction.Throughout history, feminist movements have conducted several protests worldwide. Feminism has been asserting itself since the 19th century and its struggles have evolved, with current studies pointing to the existence of three “waves” of the feminist movement, each corresponding to different demands and conquests of rights for women. Some research, however, foretells the emergence of a fourth “wave” of the feminist movement, marked by the digital world, transnational demands, intersectionality, an intergenerational approach and the inclusion of new agendas and performance repertoires.In this paper, we will question the “wave” narrative to explain the inception and evolution process of the feminist movement and the challenges of intergenerational feminist movement(s) nowadays. This is a critical reflection, anchored in international scientific literature, that intersects feminist activism and the sphere of (online and offline) communication and the media. We will also include examples of feminist movements/initiatives/protests/projects how demonstrate nowadays it is crucial to talk and understand what the idea of “intergenerational feminisms” can mean, and what are its impacts in strategies of mobilization in diverse spaces and platforms.

In recent years, the addition of the elderly to live e-commerce broadcasting has become a phenomenon. In order to clarify the formation of consumption intention of the elderly in live e-commerce, this paper proposes a model based on digital affordance theory. It uses partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) to analyze 198 questionnaire data to evaluate the model. The results show that the ease of interaction, the anchor’s charm, and the attraction of live content significantly impact the elderly’s consumption intention formation. This study fills the gap in the consumption intention of the elderly in live e-commerce. It provides a reference for living e-commerce enterprises to understand elderly consumers better.

The rise of Internet and the pervasiveness of communication and information technologies have allowed many societies to successfully reduce inequalities in access to information. However, the spread of fake news endangers the value and trustworthiness of the information being accessed. Although the dominant approach to reduce the spread of fake news includes legal measures and technological innovations (e.g., automatic fact-checking applications), Media Literacy Training and Interventions are also ways to empower people to fight fake news. The present scoping literature review examines the Media Literacy Training and Intervention options available, offering an overview of the extent to which they include an explicit fake news component, whether they are evidence based and the social groups (including different generations) for which they were tailored. We found that students and educators were the main target groups, almost wholly to the exclusion of other groups; that they took place mainly in educational settings; and that, at least in the case of the training sessions, they were not evidence based, which meant that neither the long-term nor short-term efficacy could be tested. Such findings shed light on the relatively poor reliability of the available training and interventions, and on their limited effectiveness in the target groups.

News media has an agenda-setting function in society and has an important role for democracy. Earlier research has indicated that there is a male bias in the news. This paper suggest that there is also a global pattern of age bias in the news. Using data from the sixth Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) from 2020 that covers news from 116 countries, patterns on gendered invisibility and ageism is revealed, creating a symbolic annihilation of voices and perspectives.The data collected from newspapers over the world indicate a clear imbalance in terms of visibility. Men dominate all adult age groups in the news. Children are rarely seen in the news, with girls are slightly more visible than boys. Teenagers are slightly more visible and have a gendered balance. Men in the ages 50–64 years are most likely to be in the news. Men keep the media attention even after retirement ages, but when passing 80 years, men and women are more or less invisible, but still with a male dominance. The global trend over time in newspapers is that women above 50 years has become more invisible. This indicates that news media contributes to gendered ageism.

Population aging is a defining demographic reality of our era. Meanwhile, the global information technology industry has rapidly developed. People usually use online chat applications to communicate with each other. In this case, the interface design should not overlook the needs of the elderly. Nevertheless, the surveys show that the current Easy Mode for the elderly of chat applications does not adequately address the issue. In order to study these issues, firstly, this project constructs a flow chart through questionnaires and interviews based on Grounded theory, flow chart showing the usage process of chat applications by the elderly, and it could help us to find the most critical factors affecting the usage of the elderly. Secondly, improving the UI design of Easy Mode based on color cognition and user demand to solve the identified problems. Finally, we chose quantitative experiments to verify this method’s feasibility, and then users need to make subjective evaluations to assist in proving the conclusions.

This paper presents the preliminary results of two research projects conducted in Croatia and Europe that tackle the issues of digital literacy and the digital divide among older citizens. This methodology combines both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including a public opinion poll and a case study with intergenerational workshops on digital and media literacy. Both studies were conducted during the pandemic, after the second half of 2020 and in 2021, thus providing information about unexpected and imposition uses of digital technologies among older people and both revealed low levels of participation in the digital environment associated with the lack of digital skills and weak infrastructure. The innovative concept of the research was also highlighted through the involvement of journalism students, which contributed to the promotion an intergenerational guidance and support to older people. This support was provided mainly in terms of promoting online digital literacy.

In this paper, we convey the results of our digital fieldwork within the current mediascape (English) by examining online reactions to an important source of cultural influence: the news media's depiction of older adult's stress, the proposals offered to older adults to assist them in coping with the stress of living in the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally, the responses of online commentators to these proposals. A quasi-automated social network analysis of 3390 valid comments in seven major international news outlets (Jan-June 2020), revealed how older adults were generally resourceful and able to cope with COVID-19 stress. For many in this technology-using sample, information and communication technologies (ICTs) were important for staying informed, busy, and connected, but they were not the primary resources for coping. Although teleconferencing tools were praised for facilitating new forms of intergenerational connection during the lockdowns, they were considered temporary and inadequate substitutes for connection to family. Importantly, older adults objected to uncritical and patronizing assumptions about their ability to deal with stress, and to the promotion of ICTs as the most important coping strategy. Our findings underline the necessity of a critical and media-ecological approach to studying the affordances of new ICTs for older adults, which considers changing needs and contextual preferences of aging populations in adoption of de-stressing technologies.

Current available data suggest that already vulnerable populations are being disproportionately affected by the COVID 19 epidemic. The same is valid for older adults, who have been labeled at the beginning of the pandemic as a high-risk population and advised to be precautious in meeting others and take part in large gatherings. In the current study, we use data from 12 semi-structured interviews conducted between 15th and 30th of May 2020, in Romania, with old adults aged 65 and above, from urban and rural areas. The interviews approached topics such as use of technology during the pandemic, ways of obtaining information about the COVID-19 pandemic and overall challenges experienced during the pandemic. The findings reveal that digital technologies have been used more during the pandemic than before, especially in the urban areas. Family communication via digital technologies revolved around pandemic related topics, everyday life, and safety measures. Contrary to popular believes, Romanian seniors consumed information about the COVID-19 pandemic with caution, triangulating sources of information from several TV channels and social media. Lastly, seniors’ greatest challenge was the lack of physical contact with family members and physical movement, particularly related to their daily routines. They have used social media to cope with the loneliness of being apart from their children and grandchildren, and some even reconnected with older friends or distant family members.

2021 was an election year for the Bulgarians - they had to go to the polls for three national parliamentary votes (one regular and two early) and once again - for president. The pre-election campaigns for all these votes were held in the conditions of COVID-19 epidemic, hard political confrontation and some concomitant factors such as the European Football Championship, the summer vacations and the strong inflationary trends. Internet platforms and especially social networks became increasingly popular channels for politicians to communicate with voters. That is why the aim of the study focuses on the digital pre-election campaigns. The object is the dynamics of the internet connection between the voters (especially the older adults) and the MP candidates. The subject refers to the election messages of the leaders of the political forces, presented in their Facebook profiles. The methodology is comparative analysis and empirical study, conducted by academic research team from the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at The St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University. The scope of the study includes those political forces that have passed the 4% electoral threshold. The results are indicative for those interested in digital political communication during social pandemic isolation.

Technological ubiquity has brought countless paradigmatic changes – e.g. the rise of the network society; new forms of entertainment, socializing, and learning; and a digital divide that is still limiting the access and use for a large part of the population. Concurrently, an increasing ageing of the population has been witnessed, bringing additional challenges when developing digital platforms suitable for this audience. Considerable research has studied the impact that digital platforms, such as online communities and digital games, may have on promoting an active and healthy ageing. However, little is known regarding the combined interaction of these two media within the ageing citizen context. This research, in light of the paradigms of complexity and informationalism, epistemologically and antagonistically analyzes the relationship between the older adults, online communities, and digital games. As a result of this disruptive thinking, a new transdisciplinary term emerges – online gameable communities. In conclusion, it is believed that this new medium will allow a greater involvement of older adults with technology, while fostering socialization, technological learning, well-being, and an active and healthy ageing.

This paper discusses a Canadian tablet distribution and digital training program that involved two non-profit organizations. The program targeted older adults during the fall and winter of 2020/2021, an especially dire period of the pandemic in Canada. Drawing on data collected from surveys, interviews and observations, we report on our evaluation of the impact of the program on the older adults and the organizations, highlighting the key role and potential played by paid “tech mentors” who we consider as “warm experts” in the program’s success. As this study suggests, the term warm expert can be expanded beyond the circle of the family. The digital care work needed within society, provided by warm experts, needs recognition and consideration by policy makers.

With increasing concern about aging and its associated problems, China is taking measures to cope with its aging population. Improving geriatric health conditions is part of China’s effort to provide better lives for the elderly. The broad impact of social media can play a vital role in the control or reduction of the onset of potential diseases. The future time perspective (FTP) is a cardinal tenet of the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) that could explain older adults’ health information behavior. This study aims to identify the effects of FTP and the gratifications that contribute to older adults’ health-oriented stickiness on social media. Online survey data from 303 elderly Chinese users (above 55 years) were collected and analyzed using the structural equation modeling. This study indicates that both the open-ended time perspective and the limited time perspective have significant positive effects on hedonic, informational, emotional, and social gratification, and the open-ended time perspective has a more significant influence on gratification than the limited time perspective. The time perspectives affect different perceived gratifications, which in turn affect the health-oriented stickiness intention on social media. The results also prove the importance of informational, emotional, social gratification, and the irrelevance of hedonic gratification in examining older adults’ health-related stickiness intention.

This article presents the results of a qualitative-quantitative research on the relationship between work background and digital media use among the elderly. The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between gender, employment status and professional level, and the technological endowments, skills, use and appropriation processes of ICT by the elderly. A sample of 900 Italians between 65 and 74 years old was used for quantitative analysis, together with 20 in-depth interviews. The research was conducted between December 2013 and April 2014. From the results it emerges that gender, working condition and professional level differently influence technological endowment, frequency of use of Internet and PC and Social Networks, while gender, income and educational qualification determine IT competence. This evidence was further corroborated and enriched by the ethnographic investigation.

World Health Organization and local governments recommended that older adults self-isolate due to the elevated risk for adverse health outcomes faced when contracting COVD-19. Technology offers better access to virtual communications for social connections and healthcare. Yet, the barriers and facilitators of older adults’ use of technology during this world-changing event are, for the most part, unknown. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize using inductive thematic analysis the literature on broader health and social impacts on older adults from lockdown-related measures caused by the pandemic. The findings consisted of three dichotomous themes regarding older adults’ barriers and facilitators to technology. The first theme centers on personal belief and perception of oneself. The second theme explores the digital literacy continuum. The third theme focuses on older adults’ barriers and facilitators when adopting technology. The practical significance of these findings is to better inform the design and delivery of accessible technology to older adults.

We report on the literature review of best practices in virtual cardiac rehabilitation (VCR), with a focus on technology usability, acceptance, and adoption barriers. We reviewed recent papers published in scientific conferences and journals on the topics of virtual cardiac rehabilitation and remote cardiac monitoring, with a publication dates from 2019 to 2021. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of mortality in elderly populations worldwide, and older adults are at an increased risk of COVID-19. Before the pandemic, the uptake of VCR technologies was slow due to concerns about technology effectiveness and cost. Since early 2020, better acceptance and adoption of VCR into routine care have been observed in many countries, including Canada. Some VCR components, like patient education or consultations are digitized relatively easy with online education sessions and resource repositories available for patients. Other elements such as supervised exercise and safe physical activity are more difficult to implement and require use of home cardiac monitoring technology. A proper HCI design of VCR services can contribute to better technology adoption by both service provider s and patients, and lead to improved patient outcomes. Design recommendations to increase adoption and improve user engagement with VCR by older adults include using multimodal interfaces, providing structured training and support, tailoring content and mode of delivery to the user, enabling automatic data transfer and easy integration across various systems and devices, improving accuracy of home cardiac monitoring devices, and conducting systematic technology validation studies, including remote usability evaluations for VCR technologies as part of the technology adoption life cycle.

Since entering the 21st century, the problem of social aging has become increasingly prominent. At the same time, more and more elderly people begin to try to use intelligent technology with the rapid development of science and technology. Many studies have used different models to study the technology acceptance of the elderly. This study reviewed literature on the elderly’s acceptance of technologies from 2008 to 2021, and found that the variables in the model change with the development of time and technology. We divided the literature into three main periods and found that the variables in the model gradually changed from focusing on technology to focusing on the social factors, as well as the emotions and feelings of the elderly. The degree of attention to the elderly gradually increased in this process.

Mobile payment has become increasingly popular worldwide, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, older adults have more difficulties in adapting to mobile payments than others. To understand the reasons behind this phenomenon, we explore cognitive lock-in and its antecedents in adopting WeChat Pay based on the status quo bias theory. We use the PLS-SEM technique with survey data from Chinese older adults over the age of 50. The results show that the cognitive lock-in of older adults is significantly affected by technology anxiety, habit, regret avoidance, and uncertainty costs. Moreover, older adults’ intention to adopt WeChat Pay is positively associated with social influence and self-actualization, while cognitive lock-in is a significant negative determinant. This study can help us better understand the underlying mechanism behind older adults’ adoption of mobile payment from a cognitive lock-in perspective. Furthermore, this study steers the discussion about improving older adults’ digital literacy and optimizing age-appropriate services for mobile payments.

Owing to the global COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, many people have been forced to adopt a new lifestyle that makes extensive use of information and communication technology (ICT) under the slogan “Stay Home.” Because older adults have been reported to be more resistant to information technology, such rapid changes in their lifestyle would be more difficult for them to accept. However, some senior citizens have used ICT or have improved their ICT skills since the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing the current situation of older adults may allow for a detailed analysis of the acceptance process of information technology. In this article, we aim to clarify the mechanism of acceptance and use of information technology among older adults in terms of social conditions, support systems, and the usability and accessibility of interfaces. The results indicated that the transtheoretical model of behavior change in terms of interest and usage status of ICT/IoT services can be used to categorize technology acceptance situations.

The 2020 Census was the first U.S. census to use an online reporting option as the primary data collection vehicle. The online census questionnaire was available between March and October of 2020. User satisfaction with the online census experience was measured via an online follow-up survey called the 2020 Census User Experience (UX) Survey. A sample of 153,000 web respondents from the 2020 Census were invited to complete the UX survey, and notified with up to three text message invitations. We selected a representative nationwide sample of respondents likely to have had different experiences filling out the Census, such as those who answered the census in March and those who waited until October, or those who answered using a smartphone and those who used a PC. We did not take into consideration the demographics of the respondents when selecting the sample, however, post analysis showed some age-related differences in both satisfaction with the online census experience and in responding to the UX survey through a link sent via text message. Older adults who already answered their census online and who likely owned a cell phone were more likely to interact with the text message (either by replying STOP or answering the survey) than either younger users or middle-age users. Older adults were also more satisfied than younger adults. However, satisfaction did not differ between older and middle-aged adults. These findings add to the general research on older adults and technology.

The aim of the study is to examine the perceived barriers to health information among people at the age 60 years or older in Iceland. The following questions were asked: 1) What barriers do older adults experience in relation to information about healthy living? 2) How do the perceived barriers relate to their age group, sex, and education? The data was gathered by a telephone survey using a random sample of 300 people aged 60 years or older, the response rate was 42%. Information barriers were measured by a total of 10 questions. The participants were divided into two groups, people who are aged 60–67 years and those who are 68 years and older, and the interaction of age and education on the experience of barriers examined for each group. The results indicate that the participants experience of barriers were primarily related to beliefs about the availability of information, the ability to seek and find it, and the capability to interpret and understand information. Deciding what information can be trusted was not considered to be a hindrance. The experience of barriers varied by age and education, with people in the older age group being less likely to be confronted with hindrances than people in the younger group. In addition, in both age groups people with university education experienced higher barriers than people with secondary or primary education. The results and possible explanations are discussed in the article.

People over 60 years have found themselves caring for other dependent older adults in many countries. This situation is an especially relevant topic in Latin America, where the lack of care systems affects the lives of caregivers. Research has shown that the Internet is a helpful tool in providing information and methods to minimize the negative consequences of caregiving but also, age is negatively related to its use. Thus, using the national representative Chilean Sociodemographic Characterization Survey (2017), we performed weighted descriptive analysis and weighted logistic regressions of five types of Internet use related to information seeking, communication, and entertainment, in association with sociodemographic characteristics. We included sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, education level, marital status, and the number of people living within the household among a subsample of older caregivers. Education level was a significant and positive predictor of all types of Internet use among caregivers, while age decreased the probability of using the Internet. Gender was only associated with communication through social networks, where females were more likely to report this type of use. This information helps develop interventions to overcome the barriers of age and educational level, allowing the most vulnerable older caregivers to access the benefits of technology use.

This study aimed to examine the associations of sociodemographic factors and factors related to physical, mental, cognitive, and social functioning with the non-use of digital services among older adults during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally representative data from Finland were collected between October 2020 and January 2021. The present study included 1524 respondents (response rate 68.2%, 56.6% female) aged between 70 and 100. The analyses were conducted with multivariable logistic regression. Almost half of the respondents did not use digital services independently. Those who needed assistance due to functional limitations, had insufficient energy in everyday life, perceived that their memory or ability to learn was impaired, had three or more members in the household, and lived in rural region had greater odds of being non-users of digital services than their counterparts. Thus, challenges to cope independently in everyday life, cognitive impairment, and rural living seemed to expose older adults to risk for exclusion from digital services. Factors may be interconnected, further weakening the inclusion of older people in society. It seems that adapting to rapid digital development and face-to-face service delivery constraints during the pandemic may have been particularly challenging for these vulnerable individuals. To ensure wider use of digital services, the natural decline in functioning with age should be noted, and older adults should be included in the development of digital services. Accessible support and traditional face-to-face services must be secured.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic created an unequal need for limiting physical contacts and tracing possible exposures to a novel coronavirus. Smartphone-based contact tracing applications (CTAs) were presented as a vehicle for stopping virus transmission chains and supporting the work of contact tracing teams. In this study, older adults’ adoption of a CTA was studied using socioeconomic background factors, satisfaction with health, and the measure of digital activity as predictors. The data were drawn from a larger questionnaire survey targeted at older internet users. A subsample of older Finnish internet users (N = 723) was analyzed using a logistic regression model. Results showed that older internet users had widely adopted the Finnish CTA called Koronavilkku irrespective of demographic background factors, level of education, and self-assessed satisfaction with health. Besides high income and retirement status, digital activity measured through the breadth of mobile phone features used and the use of an online symptom checker increased the likelihood of having the CTA installed on a smartphone. The results of the study lend themselves to be used for future epidemics and other occasions that require a real-time and/or retrospective tracing of people and their physical encounters.

The mobility of bus space is strong and there are many facilities and functional areas in the bus, which makes interior design works difficult. Visual search can reflect the adaptability of passengers to a certain space to some extent. However, this ability of the elderly is significantly different from that of the young group. Therefore, an interior layout suitable for older passengers should make up for the lack of information in their process of visual search. This paper summarized 48 bus interior layouts and established the correlation model between the acceptability of the elderly and their eye movement characteristics including fixation, saccade and pupil diameter when observing these layouts. On this basis, the visual search law of the elderly was found and the important areas were located. By means of this method, the priority of the key functional areas to guide the vision of the elderly was figured out. The study found that for old people, the initial recognition degree of the rear seat area was higher, and there were more meaningful clues in the middle right part. The conclusions provided a reference for determining the position of visual symbols which were used to guide the line of sight and designing an elderly-oriented layout in buses.

This study aimed to explore age and gender differences in older adults’ mobile game acceptance. Factors affecting older adults’ game attitudes towards playing mobile games were examined using qualitative research methods. A structured questionnaire was utilised with 60 adults (30 females and 30 males) aged 50 and above. Five external factors influencing older adults’ acceptance of mobile games were examined using the technology acceptance model (TAM): challenge, quality of game interface, genre, self-satisfaction and social interaction. Challenge represents the perceived difficulty of older adults in mobile games. Quality of game interface refers to how well an interface is designed for older adults to interact with the game. Genre denotes gameplay contents and characteristics of mobile games. Self-satisfaction refers to the degree of satisfaction that older adults acquire from their achievements in mobile games. Lastly, social interaction is related to older adults’ interaction with others, such as friends or family members.Correlation analysis and multiple and hierarchical regressions were used to verify the relationships amongst the factors and TAM constructs. Results supported the proposition that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of mobile games positively affect older adults’ attitudes towards playing mobile games. This study also demonstrated that quality of game interface, self-satisfaction, social interaction, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and attitude towards playing mobile games are negatively moderated by age. Surprisingly, older males were more positively associated with challenge than older females, and older females were more positively associated with social interaction than older males. Findings are beneficial for understanding the factors that influence mobile game acceptance by older adults.

Smart health care technologies (SHCTs) can assist older adults to manage their health and acquire convenient medical and caring services, which can support older adults to live healthy and independent lives. Currently, there are various kinds of SHCTs, such as smart wearable devices, smart health monitors, health care applications, and nursing and assistive robots. Nevertheless, due to the decrease of physical and cognitive capabilities, older adults may encounter many difficulties and problems when applying different types of SHCTs, which could affect their willingness to adopt SHCTs. However, there is still unclear about Hong Kong older adults’ actual use and intention adoption of different types of SHCTs, as well as the possible factors relevant to adoption. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate Hong Kong older adults’ actual use and adoption intention of different kinds of SHCTs, and explore the possible factors of SHCTs adoption. We employed a structured interview to approach the actual use and adoption intention of four types of SHCTs and recruited eight Hong Kong older adults from a local community. The data analysis revealed the most popular and the least used types of SHCTs. The reasons for adopting SHCTs and possible factors of adoption intention toward each kind of SHCTs were discussed.