A study of a B2C supporting interface design system for the elderly

  • Authors:

  • Hui-Ming Kuo;Cheng-Wu Chen;Chih-Hung Hsu

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Logistics Management, Shu-Te University, Yen Chau, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan 82445;Institute of Maritime Information and Technology, National Kaohsiung Marine University, Kaohsiung 80543, Taiwan and Global Earth Observation and Data Analysis Center, National Cheng Kung Universit ...;Institute of Lean Production Management, Hsiuping Institute of Technology, 11, Gungye Road, Dali, Taichung County 412, Taiwan

  • Venue:
  • Human Factors in Ergonomics & Manufacturing
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

People are now living longer because of advances in medical science, resulting in the percentage of the elderly in the population increasing year by year. These older individuals cannot move about like youngsters do. Internet shopping could become one of the most important shopping channels for them. According to related domestic and foreign survey results, this is confirmed by the increased percentage of elderly Internet shoppers. A lot of consumers, however, are still not satisfied with their Internet shopping experiences. Many have had the experience of giving up before completing the purchasing procedure. The key factors included in such procedures are rather complex, and user interfaces are not necessarily well-designed. Nowadays, most websites are still designed for the convenience of the seller instead of the consumers. Often consumers find that their interfaces are complex and hard to use and that they require a high mental workload. Based on the behavioral model of older Internet consumers and difficulties they have encountered, and after exploring the information provided by shopping websites and evaluating the status of their current interface design, this study proposes an example of a supporting interface design system (SIDS) for the elderly. The effects of the SIDS are verified experimentally. A total of 12 subjects participated in the experiment. The results showed that the SIDS could successfully reduce the time spent by the elderly subjects on inputting data during the shopping process and the number of repetitions and the time spent on searching for, examining, and comparing products. Furthermore, it was also helpful to reduce the mental workload caused by Internet shopping. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.