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Exploring the Role of Time and Errors in Real-Life Usability for Older People and ICT

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Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 5105))

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Abstract

We explore herein the role of time and errors as usability measures in real-life usability for older people and ICT, drawing on observation and conversational data collected over a 3-year ethnographic study of the usability and accessibility of ICT for older people. The results show that time has little or no practical value in real-life usability, except for expected complains about slower PCs and Internet connections, unlike making the least number of errors. This finding is independent of educational levels and previous experience with ICT, and grounded in three factors: (i) desire of independency, (ii) extra efforts to overcome mistakes; (iii) using computers as a hobby.

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Klaus Miesenberger Joachim Klaus Wolfgang Zagler Arthur Karshmer

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Sayago, S., Blat, J. (2008). Exploring the Role of Time and Errors in Real-Life Usability for Older People and ICT. In: Miesenberger, K., Klaus, J., Zagler, W., Karshmer, A. (eds) Computers Helping People with Special Needs. ICCHP 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5105. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70540-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70540-6_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-70539-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70540-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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