Mental Models of a Cellular Phone Menu. Comparing Older and Younger Novice Users

The interrelationship between mental models of a cellular phone menu and performance depending on users’ age was under study. The mental representation was assessed through card-sorting technique in 32 novice users (16 aged 20-32, 16 50-64 years). First, they had to process four common tasks on two simulated mobiles enabling online logging of users’ actions. None of the older participants had a correct mental representation of the route to be taken to solve a task, and some were not even aware of the hierarchical nature of the phone menu. Younger participants, in contrast, had a fairly correct mental model. Furthermore, it was shown that the better the mental map of the menu, the better the performance using the device. In conclusion, the awareness of the hierarchical structure of the menu is of central importance to use a cellular phone properly. Therefore, it should be made more transparent to the user.