Contemporary Ergonomics and Human Factors 2013

AGE,TECHNOLOGY PRIOR EXPERIENCE AND

EASE OF USE:WHO’S DOING WHAT?

Mike Bradley

1

, Joy Goodman-Deane

1

, Sam Waller

1

, Raji Tenneti

2

,

Pat Langdon

1

& P. John Clarkson

1

1

Engineering Design Centre, University of Cambridge, UK

2

University of Western Australia, Australia

Designers often assume that their users will have some digital

technological prior experience. We examined these levels of prior

experience by surveying frequency and ease of technology use with

a range of technology products. 362 people participated as part of

a UK nationwide larger survey of people’s capabilities and char-

acteristics to inform product design. We found that frequency and

self-reported ease of use are indeed correlated for all of the products.

Furthermore, both frequency and ease of use declined significantly

with age for most of the products. In fact, 29% of the over 65s had

never or rarely used any of the products, except for digital TV. We

conclude that interfaces need to be designed carefully to avoid

implicit assumptions about users’ previous technology use.

Introduction

Venkatesh et al (2003) through their Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of

Technology (UTAUT), showed that technology use and acceptance is dependent

on other factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy (related to

perceptions of ease of use), social influence, facilitating conditions as well as age,

gender, experience and voluntariness of use. Of these factors, designers of digital

devices (and in particular interaction designers) often rely on users having some

prior experience with technology, and often they expect a significant amount of

such experience. For example, they may assume knowledge of common interface

controls, symbols or paradigms.

However, not all users have wide technology experience, particularly among older

age groups. For example, Morris et al (2007) found that computer and internet use

decline sharply with age among the over 50s, with corresponding decline in the

use of many other common technologies. Czaja et al (2006) also found that people

over 60 are less likely than younger people to use technology in general, although

O’Brien et al (2012) found that the lower usage was primarily limited to computer-

based technologies. Other studies have found that technology experience does have

an impact on product interaction. Blackler (2006) and Langdon et al (2008) found

that prior exposure to products with similar features helped participants to use

products more quickly and intuitively.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/b13826-77

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