P.L.P. Rau (Ed.): Internationalization, Design, HCII 2011, LNCS 6775, pp. 265–272, 2011.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
Menu Design of Digital Photo Frame for Older Users
Hsiu-Ping Yueh
1
, Weijane Lin
2
, Tzu-Yi Lu
1
, and Yen-Lian Chou
1
1
Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development, National Taiwan
University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
2
Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University,
Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
{yueh,vjlin}@ntu.edu.tw
Abstract. The advancement of image technology has escalated the
development of digital camera devices and shifted the way people view and
store photos. Touch screen digital photo frame, as a marginal product with the
digitalization, also becomes commonly and widely accepted. With the senior
citizens on the rapid increase that structurally changed with the aging society,
unignorable attentions should be paid to methods for more friendly and user-
centered design of digital devices for improving elder users’ experience. This
study set out to examine elders’ performance and preferences for menu design
of digital photo frame. Research data was collected from 24 subjects using the
paper prototyping method. Results of this study show the preference toward
exhaustive but not burden display, habitually perceivable message structure,
and slightly magnified size for both the display and icons. This study concludes
with the suggestions to future research and design practices of digital photo
frame.
Keywords: Menu design, Icon design, Digital photo frame, Paper prototype,
Gerontology.
1 Introduction
Information and communication technology is of crucial importance for daily life in
the modern era. It affects living convenience and contentment, and contributes to
one’s perception on their living quality. For the elderly population in specific, ICT has
been considered as powerful to facilitate and improve their feelings of connectedness
with their families and the society as well (Davies & Nolan, 2006). Taking
photowork (Kirk, Sellen, Rother, & Wood, 2006) as an example, the flow of
photograph capture, storage and display has been significantly engaged with digital
devices (Choi, Lee, & Koo, 2010). However, while a large number of related works
focused on innovations of image technology (Apted, Kay, & Quigley, 2006; De
Voegt, et al., 2010; Frohlich, Kuchinsky, Pering, Don, & Ariss, 2002), research on the
needs and experiences of the users is not exhaustive.
On the other hand, in response to the current structure change in global population,
the world in general and developed countries in specific have been predicted to suffer
rapid aging problems in the near future. Additionally, value of families and family
bond has shaped a relatively unique social connectedness between senior citizens and
their offspring in asian countries. The needs to enrich and enhance the quality of life