Improving mobile phone instruction manuals for seniors

This is a preliminary report of an interview study with 20 senior mobile phone users, focusing on how senior users of a mobile phone use and evaluate instruction manuals. Often senior users have less experience with multifunctional electronic devices. Therefore, an important issue is how they learn to handle mobile phones. The results show that nearly all participants read manuals carefully, but often do not understand the instructions. After reporting the criticisms by participants, their demands from manuals are presented. Finally, ideas for improving the process of familiarization with new multifunctional devices are introduced.