Effects of Early Experiences with Interaction Style on Usability and Acceptance of New Technologies by Older Adults: A Generation-Oriented Approach

Most of the previous studies on older adults' usage and acceptance of new technologies were from an aging perspective and focused on older adults' age-related ability declines. However, recent studies have shown that older adults' lack of prerequisite knowledge and experience as an older generation could also influence their technology usage and acceptance.;This study took a technology generation perspective and focused on older adults' generation-specific knowledge and experience, more specifically, their early experiences with the interaction style of consumer products during their formative years (10--25 years old) and their consequent familiarity with and expectations of these products.;A previous study identified that today's older adults typically belong to the electromechanical generation (born 1930--1960) and were exposed to the electro-mechanical style during their formative years. The electro-mechanical style featured hardware-based input and output devices with concrete physical manipulation and tangible feedback, 1:1 mapping between control and function, and single-layered operation.;This study experimentally separated two components of the electro-mechanical style (interaction technique and interaction structure) to isolate the influences attributable to each, and investigated the effect of older adults' early experiences with each component of the electro-mechanical style on usability and acceptance of new technologies.;Four interface types with different interaction techniques were assessed in Experiment 1. Three interface types with different interaction structures were assessed in Experiment 2. Participants from two age groups (technology generations) were recruited in each experiment, a younger group (18--33 years) and an older group (65--80 years). The younger group served to establish benchmark comparisons.;Every participant performed tasks on all interface types. The primary measurements of the two experiments were usability and acceptance. Also measured were reaction time and cognitive abilities (processing speed and working memory), technology experience, preferences, and the older adults' perceived relative weights of the two factors attributable to their interaction difficulties (aging factor vs. generation factor).;Results showed that older adults' early experiences with the electro-mechanical style had given them some advantages with respect to task completion time, in that the age group difference was the least pronounced in the interaction technique and the interaction structure belonging to the electro-mechanical style. However, usability and preference for a more recent interaction technique was significantly higher.;Results showed that older adults had negative attitudes toward accepting new technologies employing the interaction technique of the electro-mechanical style, because it seemed old-fashioned. However, they had positive attitudes toward accepting new technologies employing the interaction structure of the electro-mechanical style.;In addition, results showed that older adults' early experiences with the interaction structure of the electro-mechanical style played a greater role in their performance with and acceptance of new technologies. It implied that the essence of the electro-mechanical style was expressed in the features of its interaction structure (1:1 mapping and single-layered operation), which had a great impact on the electro-mechanical generation's future interactions with new technologies in regard to usability, technology acceptance, and preferences.;Results also suggested that the aging factor (age-related ability changes) and the generation factor (generation-specific knowledge and experiences) both played significant roles in older adults' interactions with new technologies with different interaction styles.;Design recommendations on redesigning the electro-mechanical style and designing new interaction styles for today's older adults were provided. A framework of guiding user interface design for older adults was proposed. Finally, theoretical and practical contributions and limitations of this research were discussed, and areas of future work were recommended in this thesis.