Intelligently Adaptive Mobile Interfaces for Older People

Computer technology has been reported to pose significant usability problems for older users. Further usability problems have been encountered with small, mobile computing devices due to their size as well as age-related declines. This chapter focuses on the usability of mobile computing devices for older people by first employing target users in a study to establish the problems to be addressed when using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). The development of an intelligent mobile interface companion called MemoryLane to support older people by adapting its presentation and multimodal output of life-cached data to address individual user preferences and physical abilities is then presented, followed by the results of a detailed user-centred evaluation with further target users. Results show that the adaptability to individual requirements and preferences leads to statistically significant improvements both in the usability of the mobile interface and in the levels of user satisfaction experienced.