Exploring older adults' needs and preferences in learning to use mobile computer devices

Older adults have difficulty using and learning to use mobile phones, in part because the displays are too small for providing effective interactive help. We were interested in augmenting the small phone display with a larger display to support older adults' learning process, but it was not clear how to apply existing guidelines to design such an augmented display system. In this technical report, we present a comprehensive survey study of 131 respondents we conducted to better understand the learning needs and preferences that are unique to older adults. The results showed, among other things, that when learning, older adults want to learn to perform task steps and prefer using manuals.