Uniformity in the midst of diversity

Purpose – The purpose of this study was twofold: firstly to determine whether there were substantive differences between the experiences of elderly mobile phone users in two very different locations; and secondly, to determine whether student researchers gained new insights into the needs of diverse users. Universities train user interface designers who need to be made aware of the diversity of users and their differing needs. Students seldom have the opportunity to observe usability difficulties first hand. Design/methodology/approach – By contrasting these countries: one developed and one developing, it was felt that differences that exist would be accentuated. Cities in Scotland and South Africa were chosen to support this comparison. These cities were particularly apt because they are very different in terms of economic development, life expectancy and literacy, but they do share a common language, attitudes towards equality and liberty and both have excellent educational institutions. Thus, students ...

[1]  Helene Gelderblom,et al.  Mobile phone adoption: do existing models adequately capture the actual usage of older adults? , 2010, SAICSIT '10.

[2]  Peter Graf,et al.  Age-related differences in the initial usability of mobile device icons , 2011, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[3]  Young Seok Lee,et al.  Older adultsâ user experiences with mobile phones: identification of user clusters and user requirements , 2007 .

[4]  Paul Dourish,et al.  What we talk about when we talk about context , 2004, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[5]  Karen Renaud,et al.  Designing Mobile Phone Interfaces for Age Diversity in South Africa: "One-World" versus Diverse "Islands" , 2013, INTERACT.

[6]  Thomas A. Koelble,et al.  The Third Way diffusion of social democracy: Western Europe and South Africa compared , 2001 .

[7]  C. Wei,et al.  Studying mobile phone use in context: cultural, political, and economic dimensions of mobile phone use , 2005, IPCC 2005. Proceedings. International Professional Communication Conference, 2005..

[8]  M. Minkler.  Gold in gray: reflections on business' discovery of the elderly market. , 1989, The Gerontologist.

[9]  Priya Shetty,et al.  Grey matter: ageing in developing countries , 2012, The Lancet.

[10]  L. Cohen,et al.  Research Methods in Education , 1980 .

[11]  Leopoldina Fortunati,et al.  The Mobile Phone: An Identity on the Move , 2001, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[12]  Karen Renaud,et al.  Worth-centred mobile phone design for older users , 2010, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[13]  A. Giddens.  Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age , 1992, The New Social Theory Reader.

[14]  Suziah Sulaiman,et al.  An investigation to obtain a simple mobile phone interface for older adults , 2010, 2010 International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems.

[15]  Bárbara Barbosa Neves,et al.  Too Old For Technology? How The Elderly Of Lisbon Use And Perceive ICT , 2012, J. Community Informatics.

[16]  Valerie J. Caracelli,et al.  Toward a Conceptual Framework for Mixed-Method Evaluation Designs , 1989 .