Why My Grandfather Finds Difficulty in using Ehealth: Differences in Usability Evaluations between Older Age Groups

Marijke Broekhuis, Lex van Velsen, Silke ter Stal, Jordi Weldink, Monique Tabak

2019

Abstract

Many studies emphasize the need for more in-depth analysis of how age-related barriers influence the user acceptance of eHealth. In this study, we elaborate on existing work in this field by identifying how age differences affect usability evaluations in eHealth. We examined how older adults between 55-64 years (n=10) evaluated the usability of a game-based eHealth application in comparison to adults of 65 years and older (n=19). A concurrent think aloud protocol and the System Usability Scale (SUS) were administered to 29 participants. Usability issues were elicited from the think aloud transcripts and benchmark scores were obtained from the SUS. We conducted both: (1) a statistical analysis on the amount of usability issues and SUS score; and (2) a thematic analysis of the usability issues. Our study found that the 55-64 age group encountered significantly fewer usability issues compared to the 65+ age group. Furthermore, the thematic analysis revealed that while both groups had similar problems regarding the ‘Navigation & Structure’ category of the game-based eHealth application, there was much variation in the other usability categories of ‘Content & Information’, ‘Design & Presentation’ and ‘Other’. Our results can improve the development of eHealth that support healthy ageing.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Broekhuis M., van Velsen L., ter Stal S., Weldink J. and Tabak M. (2019). Why My Grandfather Finds Difficulty in using Ehealth: Differences in Usability Evaluations between Older Age Groups.In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE, ISBN 978-989-758-368-1, pages 48-57. DOI: 10.5220/0007680800480057

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ict4awe19,
author={Marijke Broekhuis and Lex van Velsen and Silke ter Stal and Jordi Weldink and Monique Tabak},
title={Why My Grandfather Finds Difficulty in using Ehealth: Differences in Usability Evaluations between Older Age Groups},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE,},
year={2019},
pages={48-57},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0007680800480057},
isbn={978-989-758-368-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE,
TI - Why My Grandfather Finds Difficulty in using Ehealth: Differences in Usability Evaluations between Older Age Groups
SN - 978-989-758-368-1
AU - Broekhuis M.
AU - van Velsen L.
AU - ter Stal S.
AU - Weldink J.
AU - Tabak M.
PY - 2019
SP - 48
EP - 57
DO - 10.5220/0007680800480057