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The use of smartphones has become pervasive and widespread across most western societies. This trend is also apparent among older adults, whose smartphone ownership nearly doubled from 2012-13 (Nielsen, 2013). In 2011, the fastest growing smartphone market group was people aged 55-64, which is the next generation of older adults. Also, according to a 2017’s Pew Research report, technology adoption and smartphone ownership among older adults continues to soar (Anderson & Perrin, 2017). Given the proliferation of mobile phone applications targeted at older adults (Center for Technology and Aging, 2011; Liu, Zhu, Holroyd, & Seng, 2011; Plaza, Martín, Martin, & Medrano, 2011) it is pertinent to further investigate touchscreen interaction performance for older adult users.
Moreover, population is aging (United Nations, 2001). By 2040, 21.7% of the population of the United States (US), and 28.2% of the population of the European Union (EU) is expected to be 65+ (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). It is therefore urgent to design to accommodate for older adults’ needs and characteristics. Still, several authors have noted the lack of consideration for older adults' specific needs and expectations (Czaja & Sharit, 1998; Kurniawan, 2008; Ziefle, 2010), with authors (Bau & Mackay, 2008; Bragdon et al., 2010; Norman, 2013; D. A. Norman, 2010) raising concerns regarding the usability of gestural interfaces for any type of user and highlighting interaction issues related to the discoverability and affordances of touchscreen gestures.
Although some aspects related smartphone interaction for older adults, such as target sizes and spacing, have been investigated to some extent (for a review of studies published between 2000 and 2013 see Motti, Vigouroux, & Gorce, 2013), the specific aspect of activity zones has received less attention. This subject has been researched with regard to young adult users (Henze, Rukzio, & Boll, 2011; Parhi, Karlson, & Bederson, 2006; Perry & Hourcade, 2008), but to our knowledge, little investigation has been done in this area with older adults. The same situation exists with respect to gesture orientation. As a result, the optimal locations for tap and swipe gestures, in particular for swipe gestures, and gesture orientation are not yet known. Research addressing these subjects is crucial, as such issues greatly impact the older adult population, preventing their full access to the information society and increasing the digital divide.
This research contributes to further the understanding of older adults’ gestural interaction on smartphones, adding empirical evidence to prior research findings, and providing new insights into activity zones and the effect of touch targets location on the performance of tap and swipe gestures by novice older adults. This article is part of a larger research effort, where the authors investigated touch interaction on smartphones by novice older adults aged 60+ and covered aspects such as gesture discoverability, tap and swipe target sizes and spacing, design patterns, and activity zones. This article in particular is an extended version of a conference paper (Silva, Leitão, & Kerwin, 2017) where the related work sections are expanded, new and improved visuals are introduced, and findings are further debated and discussed.