Familiarity Breeds Confidence: Creating Effective Digital Literacy
Resources for Older Adults
Meredith Kellenberger, Sarah Leidich and Dharini Balasubramaniam
a
School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, U.K.
Keywords:
Digital Literacy, Digital Divide, Older Adults, Ageing.
Abstract:
As population ageing is observed globally, and technology continues to expand into most parts of our lives,
many older adults face challenges in adapting to a world that they feel unprepared to inhabit — one filled
with increasingly intertwined and fast-evolving technologies that have become necessary to fully participate
in society. The age-related digital divide, caused by the gaps in access, motivation and skills of many older
adults to use digital technologies compared to younger people, is now a significant problem for the wellbeing
and independence of older adults and requires urgent solutions. Increasing the digital literacy and confidence
of older adults may help reduce this gap. However, effective strategies for improving digital literacy in later
life must take into account the needs and preferences of older learners. This paper reports on two pilot studies
conducted to create and evaluate prototype digital literacy resources to discover effective forms and content.
This work draws from literature, related work, and feedback on our prototypes from older adults in local
communities. Our findings indicate that older adults often prefer device and task-specific digital literacy
resources in printed form as a familiar medium before progressing to digital learning, and value community
involvement in ongoing support for the learning process. Resources that use figure-of-speech based language
and informative diagrams can also be beneficial to older adults, particularly when learning novel digital tasks.
These preliminary insights also highlight the potential for conflicting requirements from a diverse demographic
and the need for further exploration of the topic.
1 INTRODUCTION
The interconnected and rapid expansion of technolo-
gies in most sectors has the potential to increase op-
portunities, open avenues for digital exploration and
education, lead to advances in many disciplines, al-
low for global connections and make our lives more
interactive, entertaining and convenient. Many peo-
ple around the world reap these benefits. However,
this digitalisation has also created a divide. Some
marginalised groups are unable to take advantage of,
or are even actively disadvantaged by, the rapidly ex-
panding and evolving digital landscape, which be-
comes frustrating and intimidating. This is particu-
larly true for many older adults, who are now facing
a significant challenge: learn to adapt to the digital
world or be left behind.
Older adults often face significant barriers to
achieving the digital literacy required to engage with
the digital world. Many have low confidence in their
ability to understand and use technology (Berkowsky
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5093-0906
et al., 2017), a fear of making mistakes they cannot
recover from (Sandhu et al., 2013; Atkinson et al.,
2016; K
¨
ottl et al., 2021), and internalised ageism that
colours their perception of their abilities (Zhao et al.,
2023; K
¨
ottl et al., 2021). As two of the participants in
our studies commented,
”There’s always a little confidence thing
somewhere...[asking myself] ’am I getting this
right?’. Because I don’t think I’m very good at
it...I was never taught. There’s that confidence
thing always. Something missing in what I’m
doing.”
”Maybe it’s my age but I find that being
walked through something once, I don’t retain
it as well now. Whether it has become more
complex, I think there’s two sides to it. One I
think the world has become more complex and
dependent on systems and technology and the
other is obviously the personal aging thing,
where maybe I’m not as quick as I used to be”
These and other barriers, such as socioeconomic
status (Hargittai et al., 2019), may reduce older
284
Kellenberger, M., Leidich, S. and Balasubramaniam, D.
Familiarity Breeds Confidence: Creating Effective Digital Literacy Resources for Older Adults.
DOI: 10.5220/0013299000003938
Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE 2025), pages 284-290
ISBN: 978-989-758-743-6; ISSN: 2184-4984
Proceedings Copyright © 2025 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda.

adults’ motivation for learning, and contribute to the
widening ‘digital divide’, a divide between those who
have access to and use of information and communi-
cation technologies and those who do not (Van Dijk,
2020). This knowledge and access gap means that
older adults often feel anxious and isolated as the
world digitalises around them.
An AgeUK briefing from June 2024 found that 1.7
million people in the UK aged 75 and over do not use
the internet (AgeUK, 2024). 49% of people over 75,
and 37% of people over 65 cannot complete all tasks
in the Essential Digital Skills framework
1
created by
the Department for Education, which categorises dig-
ital skills related to handling information, transact-
ing, communicating and operating online safely and
legally. 33% of those over 75 and 13% over 65 do
not have the digital skills needed to thrive in a digital
society.
These issues are not present in the United King-
dom alone, but represent a global phenomenon (UN-
HABITAT, 2021), with a larger gap between devel-
oped and developing regions of the world, and Africa
facing the largest gap. 27% percent of adults 65 and
over in the United States are still offline (Xie et al.,
2021). 94%-98% of younger adults aged 18-44 reg-
ularly use the internet in Australia, compared to just
51% of those 65 and older (Tyler et al., 2020). In
many developed countries, the demographic of people
aged 64 and over is the fastest growing group, and yet
their use of Information and Communication Tech-
nologies trails behind younger demographics (Neves
et al., 2013; Xie et al., 2021). It is projected that peo-
ple over age 60 will outnumber children under age 10
for the first time in history by 2030 (Tyler et al., 2020).
One critical way to decrease loneliness and isola-
tion in older adults related to the rapid digitalisation
of day-to-day tasks is through improving their digital
literacy. The aim of the studies reported in this pa-
per was to explore effective types and styles of digital
literacy resources to help bridge the digital divide and
help older adults become more confident in using dig-
ital technologies. As one participant noted,
”The people who need this the most are living
right now”.
Our objectives were to review the literature on
the concepts and related work on digital barriers for
older adults, develop customised prototype resources
to overcome the barriers, and evaluate their effective-
ness through user studies with older adults in the lo-
cal community. Two small scale user studies were
conducted and data from these studies were analysed.
1
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/essential-
digital-skills-framework/essential-digital-skills-framework
Findings from this evaluation suggest that accessible
and engaging digital literacy resources are helpful to
older adults. However, they also indicate that there is
much variation in learning styles and preferences of
older adults. Further research and larger studies are
required to address the challenge.
The remainder of this paper is organised as fol-
lows. Section 2 provides a brief review of related
work in the area. Section 3 outlines the methodology
adopted for the studies. Section 4 describes the proto-
type resources produced as part of the work. Section
5 explains the evaluation process and presents the re-
sults. Section 6 outlines the limitations of the work.
We offer conclusions and recommendations for future
work in Section 7.
2 RELATED WORK
The digital divide mentioned earlier can impact both
access to and effective use of technology (Riggins and
Dewan, 2005). The first level digital divide relates to
a lack of access to digital technologies due to factors
such as cost and unavailability, while the second level
divide relates to factors such as lack of motivation,
digital literacy and support, even when the first level
divide does not apply (Van Dijk, 2020).
In this paper, we adopt a broad definition of the
term digital literacy as literacy in the digital age
(Gilster, 1997) – an essential life skill that includes
the ability to understand and use digital technologies
appropriately, learn new skills, and deal with errors
without losing confidence. Digital literacy extends
beyond basic technology proficiency, encompassing
complex skills such as information literacy and real-
time thinking (Eshet-Alkalai, 2012).
Current digital literacy solutions for older adults
include one-to-one trainings (Boulton-Lewis et al.,
2007)) and peer-to-peer learning (Piercy, 2019).
However, obstacles such as anxiety, fear of online
dangers, and physical limitations (Steelman et al.,
2016; Czaja and Sharit, 2012) remain. Literature
shows that older adults prefer a combination of self-
regulated and guided learning (Schlomann et al.,
2022) and that lessons must be relevant to their
needs. Moreover, they prefer to learn in informal,
knowledge-sharing environments, which can be bene-
ficial for older adults as it can promote relaxation and
collaboration, and reduce feelings of being a burden
to family and friends who support them in learning
digital skills.
Many technology, public sector and charitable or-
ganisations produce digital guidance resources, some
of which are aimed at older adults. However, these
Familiarity Breeds Confidence: Creating Effective Digital Literacy Resources for Older Adults
285

resources are not typically customised to the specific
needs of older adults, and where in-person support is
offered, they do not scale well with demand.
While universal design principles offer guidance
on accessible resources (Centre for Excellence in Uni-
versal Design, nd), a gap remains in research on tai-
lored, community-integrated digital literacy resources
for older adults. This study aims to address this gap
by exploring, developing and evaluating prototype
customised resources.
Literature suggests that metaphors and figures-of-
speech can be beneficial in shaping our mental mod-
els when learning new material. Lakoff and Johnson
define metaphors as “understanding and experiencing
one kind of thing in terms of another” (Lajoff and
Johnson, 2003). Experts in educational theory, lin-
guistics and other related fields have suggested “mak-
ing and remaking reality with our minds” through
metaphor is one way people make sense of and learn
about their environments (Cook-Sather, 2003). The
novelty of our work is in exploring how digital tech-
nologies may be explained in terms of familiar con-
cepts and presented in familiar ways that help create
useful mental models.
3 METHODOLOGY
The work reported in this paper was conducted over a
period of around 3 months. Two sets of digital literacy
resources were created based on research on the sub-
ject content, the needs of older adults as ascertained
from literature and prior work, and general accessi-
bility guidelines. We aimed to create different kinds
of resources to illustrate a few possible options for di-
mensions such as the format of the resource and level
of detail.
Two small scale but in depth studies (A and B)
were conducted. Ethics permission for both was ob-
tained from the authors’ institution. In both cases,
participants were recruited through advertisements in
local community spaces and personal contacts. We
considered anyone 60 years or older as an older adult.
We are aware that there are differing thresholds in lit-
erature for being considered older. For the purposes
of these studies, the 60+ threshold allowed us to re-
cruit participants from a broad range. The surveys
and the activities were based on the Essential Digital
Skills framework mentioned earlier.
In Study A, a set of digital literacy resources were
designed with a focus on simplification, accessibil-
ity, device and application specificity, and universal
design principles (Centre for Excellence in Univer-
sal Design, nd). The resources included a glossary of
icons, terms and definitions, and guides for everyday
digital tasks. To evaluate the effectiveness of these re-
sources, user studies were conducted with four partic-
ipants from the local community. Their ages ranged
from early sixties to late seventies. There were three
women and one man.
The evaluation process involved pre-activity sur-
veys to ascertain initial digital literacy levels, fol-
lowed by participants reviewing the resources and
attempting a digital task. Post-activity surveys and
feedback sessions were then conducted to gauge per-
ception of improvements in digital literacy and gather
insights on the effectiveness of resources. This ap-
proach allowed for both quantitative and qualitative
assessment of the impact of the resources on older
adults’ digital literacy and confidence. However, with
the small sample, the quantitative measure is not
treated as significant.
Study B was a qualitative study comparing re-
source and language preferences of seven older adults
with ages ranging from early sixties to late eighties.
Five participants were from the local area, and two
from farther afield. There were three women and four
men.
Participants were given prototype resources in dif-
ferent formats, and asked to complete three digital
tasks on high-fidelity recreations of several websites
using the prototype resources. They were observed
as they undertook the tasks, and were then given ad-
ditional non-task related resources to review. Af-
terwards, a semi-structured interview was conducted
with each participant on their experiences in learning
to complete digital tasks, their preferences for digi-
tal literacy resources and use of figure-of-speech lan-
guage. They were also given the opportunity to pro-
vide feedback on the additional resources provided.
Thematic analyses of the two sets of responses
were conducted to identify patterns and themes in re-
sponses to arrive at findings and avenues for further
work.
4 DIGITAL LITERACY
RESOURCES
The resources developed in Study A consisted of a
glossary (a subset shown in Figure 1) and instruc-
tional guides (a high level version shown in Figure
2). The glossary provided clear definitions of digital
terms and concepts, while the guides offered step-by-
step instructions for specific tasks such as putting a
smartphone into Airplane mode and sending emails.
These were designed with large fonts and simple lay-
outs for accessibility, and were made available in both
ICT4AWE 2025 - 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health
286

printed and digital formats.
Figure 1: Explanation of action icons.
Figure 2: Illustrated instructions for specific software.
The resources developed for Study B comprised
one video-based and multiple printed resources with
and without figure-of-speech language, illustrations,
and demonstration. Three resources were related to
specific tasks and additional resources were created
for review unrelated to a task. The first resource was
a step-by-step resource with minimal text which in-
cluded no illustrations or figure-of speech language,
one resource used illustrations and figure-of-speech
explanations alongside step-by-step instruction (one
step shown in Figure 3), and one video resource
demonstrated the task while also instructing partic-
ipants on the task using figure-of-speech explana-
tions. The non-task related resources included a refer-
ence resource structured as a mind-map providing the
names of common platforms used for different inter-
net tasks such as streaming, social media, and search-
ing for information, a text-based “cheat sheet” chart
for online safety including information on viruses,
and website and email scams, and an internet structure
diagram (Figure 4) showing a task, namely sending a
photo attachment in an email, in the context of the
overall structure of the internet, illustrating the ‘jour-
ney’ of the email as it is sent and received.
Figure 3: Shopping analogy.
Figure 4: Mental model of email working over the internet.
Familiarity Breeds Confidence: Creating Effective Digital Literacy Resources for Older Adults
287

5 EVALUATION
All user studies were conducted in a one-to-one set-
ting.
The evaluation process for Study A involved pre-
activity surveys to assess initial digital literacy, fol-
lowed by participants reviewing the developed re-
sources and attempting a digital task. Post-activity
surveys and feedback sessions were then conducted.
The pre-activity survey gathered data on partici-
pants’ use of digital services, device ownership, con-
fidence in using digital technologies and challenges
faced when doing so. All participants owned smart-
phones, 3 owned tablets and desktops as well and 2
had laptops. All participants used their devices for
email and online shopping, while some had attempted
online banking and booking appointments. Partici-
pants were very interested in digital technologies, and
had engaged with them but also experienced chal-
lenges in using them and frustration regarding inad-
equate support and inaccessible language used.
The post-activity survey attempted to assess the
effectiveness of the resources in improving digital lit-
eracy, alignment of the resources with preferences and
learning styles of older adults and the aspects of the
resources that were most helpful and that needed im-
provements.
Results showed increased motivation among par-
ticipants to continue learning about digital tech-
nologies, with all participants rating the resources
as highly clear. Participants also provided valu-
able feedback, suggesting the need for more device-
specific guides and highlighting the importance of
community-based training sessions to complement
the resources. The importance of a support network
was a recurring theme.
The evaluation of resources in Study B were solely
qualitative. Participants were observed using and re-
viewing the resources, and all participants were inter-
viewed using a semi-structured format directly after
finishing the three tasks. The tasks involved making
a travel booking, online shopping and searching the
web using high-fidelity recreations of the real web-
sites using the resources provided. During the pro-
cess, it was noted that participants who were already
familiar with a task tended to ignore the resources un-
til confronted with a problem and that some partic-
ipants instinctively attempted to book travel to their
own destination or look for items they would nor-
mally purchase, rather than the values we specified
for the tasks. In contrast, one person watched the in-
structional video all the way through and immediately
applied the learning to the task of web search.
The interview questions addressed the challenges
participants faced when trying to learn new digital
skills, their views on potential solutions to these chal-
lenges, preferences among the types of resources pro-
vided, and suggestions for other helpful digital liter-
acy resources.
The challenges mentioned by participants in-
cluded unfamiliar terminology, the need to deal with
new devices or updates to existing software and de-
vices, lack of self confidence, memory issues and the
volume of information that had to be remembered.
Most participants stated they preferred printed,
task-orientated resources that used images and did not
have overwhelming amounts of text. Printed mate-
rials provided reassurance to participants when they
were unsure. As one participant pointed out,
”I found myself printing off the instructions
so I have them to keep. I’m maybe still of the
generation that finds some printed material is
reassuring...at any point I can refer to a page
and it’s just that page. I really don’t need the
whole thing again.”
The size of font, use of contrasting colours and vi-
sual representations, and pace and level of detail in
the instructions were factors that impacted the effec-
tiveness of resources. Participants on the younger end
of the age range preferred the video resource, but also
liked to use printed resources. Older participants ad-
ditionally preferred figure-of-speech based resources.
No participants found the internet structure diagram
resource helpful, although most mentioned it could be
useful if they were interested in learning more specif-
ically about the internet. All participants stated they
did not care to understand the mechanics of complet-
ing digital tasks as long as they could complete steps
to accomplish the task.
All participants thought the task-based resources
were helpful and clear, with younger participants be-
lieving them to be over-explained, and older partic-
ipants preferring more explanation to less. All par-
ticipants agreed that clearly and thoroughly explained
resources would be helpful regardless of age if they
were attempting a novel task.
6 LIMITATIONS
Both studies described in the paper were small scale
and mainly, but not solely, focused on one geographic
area. Most of our participants owned a smart device
and had some experience with digital technologies.
Although we attempted to recruit participants through
diverse channels, the results are not likely to be repre-
sentative of a large demographic that is increasing in
size and experiencing different levels and extents of
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288

the digital divide. However, even with this small sam-
ple, the results are interesting in the differences they
highlight.
To minimise any anxiety related to taking part
in studies related to digital technologies, participants
were asked to provide their own assessment of their
digital literacy levels through a survey prior to review-
ing our resources and their perception of changes af-
terwards. These data may not accurately reflect their
true digital literacy, confidence and improvements as
a result of using the resources.
7 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE
WORK
Our participants were generally very interested in
learning about digital technologies and acknowledged
the inevitable move towards a digital-by-default soci-
ety. One participant said,
”It’s omnipresent. You can’t get away from it.
It’s part of our daily lives and if you want to
participate, you need to manage that informa-
tion source”
At the same time, there was frustration regarding
the inaccessibility of everyday technologies and lack
of support. One person explained,
”For instance, I couldn’t figure out how to turn
the computer back on in my car. It was say-
ing something it never said before, so I had to
take out the book to read how to fix it, but I
couldn’t go from the book to the screen. I had
to take my iPad, look up what it was telling
me, and then try to do it on the car app. I
couldn’t remember, when I closed the screen,
what to do, so I also had to use my phone. It
was very confusing, and it took me two and a
half hours”
Our current and prior studies (Vaswani et al.,
2023; Farag et al., 2024) as well as the literature out-
lined in Section 2 highlight the need for research in
improving the digital literacy and digital inclusion of
older adults. An overarching theme of our work is the
importance of consistency and the resulting familiar-
ity in facilitating the use of digital technologies and
boosting confidence.
Findings from Study A suggest that engaging re-
sources can effectively improve digital literacy among
older adults, but customisation and community inte-
gration are crucial for success. Key recommenda-
tions include developing device-specific guides, im-
plementing community-led training sessions, and of-
fering regular, ongoing support. Future work should
focus on expanding the sample size to improve un-
derstanding of additional dimensions of accessibility,
conducting long-term impact studies to assess reten-
tion of digital skills, and collaborating with local or-
ganisations to integrate these resources into existing
community programs. Additionally, exploring the po-
tential for digital platforms to complement and follow
printed materials could enhance the accessibility and
reach of these resources, while addressing the evolv-
ing needs of older adults in an increasingly digital
world.
Study B indicates that most older adults could pre-
fer printed resources that are specific to their needs,
with thorough explanations and definitions. Feed-
back shows that, when creating printed digital lit-
eracy resources, the inclusion of diagrams and im-
ages, colour-coding, increasing font size and min-
imising large blocks of text are beneficial. Figure-
of-speech based language was found to be helpful,
particularly for the oldest participants, and for novel
tasks. Resources with structures such as mind maps
were thought to be helpful in some digital literacy
contexts, but these were limited as participants felt
they did not always give enough information. Addi-
tionally, care should be taken in creating resources so
they are not over-explained, which could make older
adults feel ignorant or insulted.
Findings suggest that a mechanism to generate
custom resources based on the digital task, resource
preferences and skill level of individuals would be
beneficial for older adults who struggle to find re-
sources that work well for their needs and fully ad-
dress their questions. As Study B did not collect
any quantitative data, future work is needed to deter-
mine the actual efficacy of older adults’ preferred re-
sources, and whether the use of figure-of-speech lan-
guage decreases error rates, completion times, and in-
creases older adults’ ability to recall and complete the
task again without a resource.
Even within these small groups of participants,
differences in attitudes, needs and preferences were
observed with respect to depth of explanation, for-
mat of resources, and means of support. Our find-
ings indicate that there is need and scope for exten-
sive future work, including co-creating instructions
and other reference resources with older adults, in-
vestigating the implications of language and linguistic
features in creating accessible resources, and explor-
ing in depth the potentially conflicting needs of indi-
viduals and ways of reconciling them. Scalability and
sustainability as applied to digital literacy resources
(given the preference for printed material), their dis-
semination, coordinating support from peers and or-
ganisations, and facilitating a transition from famil-
Familiarity Breeds Confidence: Creating Effective Digital Literacy Resources for Older Adults
289

iar printed material to online resources are particular
challenges for the future.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to acknowledge the invaluable contri-
butions of all the participants in our studies.
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