Survey of the Smartphones Usability Score and the Level of Satisfaction among Elderly Users

Abstract

Smartphones are one of the latest technologies which have a profound impact on users’ daily life. This technology was adapted to meet the expectations of users in different age’s groups, but elderly users may encounter some difficulty while using these devices. The current study was aimed to evaluate the usability of smartphones for elderly users, and assess their level of satisfaction with these devices. The number of 30 elderly subjects with previous experience of using a smartphone were invited to take part in the study. Participants were asked to unlock the phone, enter their contact list and call a specific person, add a new number to their contact list and save it, compose a text message and send it, set an alarm, and locate the nearest bank with the help of a smartphone map application. Demographic questionnaires and System Usability Scale (SUS) were filled out by the subjects and a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used to assess user’s satisfaction. The average time spent on completing different tasks, namely unlocking, finding a specific contact, adding a new number, texting, setting an alarm, and using a map were: 45.6, 79.4, 119.5, 113.5, 54, and 48 seconds ,respectively. The mean score for SUS and satisfaction were 59.13 and 62.5, respectively, which were acceptable for these two factors. Age is an important factor in the usability of this technology, with older people stating lower levels of usability. Since the results of the study showed that smartphones need to become more usable for this group of users, it can be said that age of consumers is an important factor that should be taken into account when designing new technologies.