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Smartphone and computer technology have been shown to improve the lives of the elderly in numerous ways. The technology allows the elderly to interact and maintain networks with family and friends, making them feel less isolated, more secure, and independent (Salman et al., 2018). The technology also promotes autonomous living, active aging, and healthy lifestyle in elderly (Mohadisdusia & Ali, 2014; Petrovčič et al., 2018). Despite the benefits, many older adults do not use technology. In fact, they would like to use technology but find they are unable to do so (Moffatt, 2013). According to McGaughey et al. (2013), changes in physical and cognitive conditions, physical size of the devices, complexity, lack of confidence and training, as well as the cost of the devices and services are obstacles to the adoption of technology in elderly. A great deal of studies has been investigating smartphone usage behavior, as well as factors influencing smartphone technology acceptance in elderly. Aside from that, a significant amount of research has been conducted to investigate the effects of physical and cognitive changes on computer and smartphone task performance. This is mostly due to an increase in the number of senior consumers throughout the world, which creates a new market segmentation (Petrovčič et al., 2018). Furthermore, it is essential for researchers to understand limits and capabilities in order to create technology that is accessible by the elderly (Nicolle & Abascal, 2001).
Our previous research (Punchoojit, 2019) examined the effects of age difference and smartphone visual search tasks. Its primary objective was to look into the main effects and interactions between age and menu and icon design. The findings were consistent with those of earlier studies that revealed the effects of age on task performance. During the analysis of the results, however, we noticed several unexpected results. Apart from differences in performance, we observed substantial differences in demographic factors and smartphone usage behavior between the elderly and other age groups. After reviewing literature, we found that there has not been any research on how other demographic characteristics or usage behaviors may be related to smartphone task performance. The objectives of this present study are to examine how demographic characteristics correlated to smartphone task performance, and to compare younger and senior users. The rest of this paper is structured as followed: background, research questions, methodology, results, and conclusions and discussion.