Lowering elderly Japanese users’ resistance towards computers by using touchscreen technology

The standard qwerty keyboard is considered to be a major source of reluctance towards computer technology use by Japanese elderly, due to their limited experience with typewriters and the high cognitive demand involved in inputting Japanese characters. The touchscreen enables users to enter Japanese characters more directly and is expected to moderate this resistance. An e-mail terminal with a touchscreen was developed and compared with the same terminal using a standard keyboard and mouse. Computer attitudes and subjective evaluations of 32 older adults were measured. The results showed that the anxiety factor of computer attitudes declined significantly in the touchscreen condition.

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