How Younger and Older Adults Master the Usage of Hyperlinks in Small Screen Devices Martina Ziefle 1 , Ulrik Schroeder 2 , Judith Strenk 1 and Thomas Michel 2 RWTH Aachen, University, Germany 1 Department of Psychology RWTH Aachen University, Germany Jaegerstrasse 17-19; 52056 Aachen Martina.Ziefle@psych.rwth-aachen.de judithstrenk@gmx.net 2 Department of Computer Science RWTH Aachen University, Germany Ahornstrasse 55; 52074 Aachen schroeder@informatik.rwth-aachen.de Thomas.Michel@post.rwth-aachen ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION In this paper we describe an experiment, in which we examined older and younger adults when interacting with a simulated PDA (personal digital assistant). Independent variables were users’ age (young vs. older) and device interface (hyperlink vs. no hyperlink). Dependent variables were the effectiveness and efficiency of menu navigation. To understand how user characteristics influence performance, spatial ability, verbal memory, computer expertise and technical self-confidence were determined. Technology experienced young and older adults (benchmark testing) took part. They had to solve four tasks either with hyperlink interface or without hyperlinks in the interface. The method to collect, to automatically analyze and to structure the data according to interaction sequences and presumed user intentions is a novel approach supported by the open source software tool Clever [12]. The tool is briefly described; more details can be found in [23]. Results revealed that hyperlink interfaces showed overall higher effectiveness. However, the impact of hyperlinks for efficiency was age-related. Younger adults strongly benefit from having hyperlinks. The contrary was the case for older adults, who showed higher menu disorientation when using hyperlinks. Modern societies are characterized by two major trends, which are assumed to have considerable impact for the development and interface design of technical devices. The first trend refers to the profound demographic change with an increasingly aging population. In Germany, for example, the proportion of people older than 65 years will grow from 17% in 2004 to 30% in 2030. Thus, increasingly more and older adults will be confronted with very different technical devices and will be urged to understand, learn and use these devices. The second trend is the ongoing diffusion and penetration of technical devices in all parts of daily life. As opposed to the past, when mostly sophisticated and technology prone professionals were the typical end-users of technical products, now broader user groups have access to information technology [1, 2, 22]. Its easy and effective use has become an essential requirement in today’s working and private life. Parallel to the increasing diffusion, the technology itself has changed considerably. This is aggravating the situation especially for older adults, as the understanding of how technology works is to a large extent formed by upbringing and cultural factors. Twenty years ago, stationary computers entered the offices and changed the type and the process of work. The Internet and boundless information access characterized the 1990s, introducing the basic networking of computers worldwide. Today, mobile communication technologies are predominant and show continuously increasing growth rates each year [22]. While several years ago cell phones were mainly used for calling purposes, smart phones, communicators and electronic organizers are now replacing the classical cell phone, providing a much broader set of functionalities. Apart from business applications, mobile technologies are expected to specifically support older adults in their daily needs. Mobile devices are applicable for medical monitoring, as navigation and memory aids or for conventional personal data management. Author Keywords Hyperlinks, small screen devices, navigation performance, aging, cognitive user characteristics, qualitative user data analysis. ACM Classification Keywords H5. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI); H5.2, User interfaces; H5.4, Hypertext/Hypermedia. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. CHI 2007, April 28–May 3, 2007, San Jose, California, USA. Copyright 2007 ACM 978-1-59593-593-9/07/0004...$5.00. It is a central claim that mobile devices are designed to be in line with older users’ specificity and diversity. However, the intelligent interface design of mobile devices, which meets the demands and abilities of older users, is an extremely sophisticated task. Aging itself represents a highly complex process. Not all users age in the same way, and the onset of CHI 2007 Proceedings • Mobile Applications April 28-May 3, 2007 • San Jose, CA, USA 307