Synapse

Abstract

As smartphones are widely adopted, mobile applications (apps) are emerging to provide critical services such as food delivery and telemedicine. While bring convenience to everyday life, this trend may create barriers for older adults who tend to be less tech-savvy than young people. In-person or screen sharing support is helpful but limited by the help-givers' availability. Video tutorials can be useful but require users to switch contexts between watching the tutorial and performing the corresponding actions in the app, which is cumbersome to do on a mobile phone. Although interactive tutorials have been shown to be promising, none was designed for older adults. Furthermore, the trial-and-error approach has been shown to be beneficial for older adults, but they often lack support to use the approach. Inspired by both interactive tutorials and trial-and-error approach, we designed an app-independent mobile service, Synapse, for help-givers to create a multimodal interactive tutorial on a smartphone and for help-receivers (e.g., older adults) to receive interactive guidance with trial-and-error support when they work on the same task. We conducted a user study with 18 older adults who were 60 and over. Our quantitative and qualitative results show that Synapse provided better support than the traditional video approach and enabled participants to feel more confident and motivated. Lastly, we present further design considerations to better support older adults with trial-and-error on smartphones.

Exploring the Opportunity of Augmented Reality (AR) in Supporting Older Adults to Explore and Learn Smartphone Applications

“…AR offers an innovative approach to alleviate the challenges older adults face with smartphone interaction due to declining fine motor and visual skills. These individuals frequently miss small touch targets, leading to more errors, which has been substantiated by various studies [29,44,56,84]. Though research has suggested usability improvements like adjusted icon sizes [53,60], our participants found that enlarging content often compromised screen layout and reduced available preview information, a sentiment mirrored in earlier studies [103].…”

“…Though research has suggested usability improvements like adjusted icon sizes [53,60], our participants found that enlarging content often compromised screen layout and reduced available preview information, a sentiment mirrored in earlier studies [103]. In response, researchers have delved into automatic adjustments to enhance user experience [44,85]. AR, with its capability to project expansive displays, offers a compelling remedy.…”

“…Vision impairments, common in the elderly, can make recognizing text on small screens challenging [27,43]. Furthermore, the broader click range seen in older adults can lead to operational errors, especially on crowded screens [44,56]. As a remedy, many show a preference for larger screens [72,73].…”

“…A progression in this direction is the work of Jin et al, where Synapse was introduced. This platform not only facilitates demonstrations by experienced users but also fosters a safeguarded space for novices to explore, learn, and rectify errors, accentuating the essence of exploration in the learning process [44].…”

“…Older adults are found to be diverse and prefer more flexible support [43,73]. In addition to the traditional support of training materials (e.g., instructions, videos) and video calls, researchers have explored different technologies such as e-learning platforms [49], social support applications [59] and personalized interactive guidance with trial-and-error support [44].…”