05966049

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05966049 Turner, Mark Cortes, Roxane Phone use and aging: do spatial interface metaphors help? Marcus, Aaron (ed.), Design, user experience, and usability. Theory, methods, tools and practice. First international conference, DUXU 2011, held as Part of HCI international 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, July 9--14, 2011. Proceedings, Part I. Berlin: Springer (ISBN 978-3-642-21674-9/pbk). Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6769, 678-686 (2011). 2011 Berlin: Springer EN aging interface design automated telephones spatial metaphor

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-21675-6_77

Summary: This study compared the usability of two different speech activated automated telephone services with a group of older adults, aged between 50 and 87. All participants completed a series of information search tasks with a standard numbered menu system, and with a specially developed menu system designed around a spatial metaphor. Automated menu systems presented a significant barrier for older adults with only 59\% of participants able to complete all search tasks. Task completion improved when using the spatial metaphor-based version of the service. The spatial ability of participants was related to successful task completion with both services. Time taken to complete search tasks correlated with working memory capacity only in the case of the standard service and not the metaphor-based service. The incorporation of spatial metaphor within automated telephone systems may therefore provide an important aid to navigation when developing future services with older adults in mind.