Assessing the Level of Adoption of a Social Network System for Older Adults

Existing research indicates that Social Network Systems (SNSs) are a potential way to overcome the social isolation of older adults (OAs). With this in mind, we developed a mobile-based social volunteering network system called GoldenJubilants, taking a user-centred approach. This system connects OAs with volunteer opportunities in the community. The objective of the study presented in this paper is to assess the perceived usability of this newly developed system, focusing particularly on different types of OAs. We employed a mixed method approach with a convenience sample of OAs aged over 55, living in Ireland. The System Usability Scale (SUS) survey was used to test the usability of our system, while semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify suggestions for future improvements. Early results indicate a high level of usability with a suggestion of long-term uptake of this system. Although these preliminary results are based on a small sample, there was a consensus across all participants with a small standard deviation across the results. Thus, our study has proved useful for understanding the level of usability of GoldenJubilants from the lens of OAs. It has also helped to highlight where improvements are required. These findings can guide the designers of SNSs for OAs to create systems that meets their needs, which will in turn have a higher likelihood of being used in practice.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Bilal Ahmad

Ita Richardson

Simon McLoughlin

Sarah Beecham

Conference

Publication date: July 2018

Publication date (Print): July 2018

Pages: 1-5

Affiliations

[0001]Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre, University of Limerick, Ireland

[0002]IBM Damastown Campus, Dublin, Ireland.

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.225

SO-VID: 92df3a99-6a35-40de-9720-928533a6225c

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 32

Conference location: Belfast, UK

Conference date: 4 - 6 July 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Human Computer Interaction Conference

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.225

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

Ageing Well Network 2012 The New Agenda on Ageing: to make Ireland the best country to grow old in. Dublin
B. AhmadI. RichardsonS. Beecham 2017 A Systematic Literature Review of Social Network Systems for Older Adults International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, Innsbruck, Austria 482 496 Springer, Cham
B. AhmadI. RichardsonS. McLoughlinS. Beecham 2018a Older Adults‟ Interaction with Mobile Devices in Ireland: A Survey The 20th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services September 3rd - 6th Barcelona, Spain. (in press)
B. AhmadI. RichardsonS. McLoughlinS. Beecham 2018b Rewire after you Retire: A customized social volunteering network support system for Older Adults The 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ASSETS, Galway, Ireland. (in press)
A. BangorP.T. KortumJ.T. Miller 2008 An empirical evaluation of the system usability scale International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction 24 6 574 594
A. BangorP. KortumJ. Miller 2009 Determining what individual SUS scores mean: Adding an adjective rating scale Journal of usability studies 4 3 114 123
J. Brooke 1996 SUS- A quick and dirty usability scale, Usability evaluation in industry 189 194 4 7
O.K. Burmeister 2012 What seniors value about online community The Journal of Community Informatics 8 1
R. CornejoD. HernandezJ. FavelaM. TentoriS. Ochoa 2012 Persuading older adults to socialize and exercise through ambient games 6th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare (PervasiveHealth) and Workshops 215 218
W.C. FangM.C. HsiehP.C. YangW.G. LiC.J. ChiuJ.H. Chiang 2015 IDianNao: An orange technology that recommends volunteer opportunities to older adults International Conference on Orange Technologies (ICOT)
L. GibsonW. MoncurP. ForbesJ. ArnottC. MartinA.S. Bhachu 2010 Designing social networking sites for older adults The 24th BCS Interaction Specialist Group Conference 186 194
Y. LeeM.C. HuangX. ZhangW. Xu 2015 Fridgenet: A nutrition and social activity promotion platform for aging populations IEEE Intelligent Systems 30 4 23 30
A.K. Leist 2013 Social media use of older adults: a mini-review Gerontology 59 4
J R LewisJ. Sauro 2009 The Factor Structure Of The System Usability Scale The Human Computer Interaction International Conference (HCII 2009) San Diego CA, USA
M. LüdersP.B. Brandtzæg 2017 „My children tell me it‟s so simple‟: A mixed-methods approach to understand older non-users‟ perceptions of Social Networking Sites New media & society 19 2 181 198
T. TullisW. Albert 2008 Measuring the user experience: Collecting, analyzing, and presenting usability metrics Morgan Kaufmann
T. TullisJ. Stetson 2004 A comparison of questionnaires for assessing website usability In Usability Professionals Association (UPA) 2004 Conference 7 11
United Nations 2002 World population ageing: 1950-2050 New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs
B. XieI. WatkinsJ. GolbeckM. Huang(2012 Understanding and changing older adults’ perceptions and learning of social media Educational gerontology 38 4 282 296

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Ageing Well Network 2012 The New Agenda on Ageing: to make Ireland the best country to grow old in. Dublin

[2] B. AhmadI. RichardsonS. Beecham 2017 A Systematic Literature Review of Social Network Systems for Older Adults International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, Innsbruck, Austria 482 496 Springer, Cham

[3] B. AhmadI. RichardsonS. McLoughlinS. Beecham 2018a Older Adults‟ Interaction with Mobile Devices in Ireland: A Survey The 20th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services September 3rd - 6th Barcelona, Spain. (in press)

[4] B. AhmadI. RichardsonS. McLoughlinS. Beecham 2018b Rewire after you Retire: A customized social volunteering network support system for Older Adults The 20th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ASSETS, Galway, Ireland. (in press)

[5] A. BangorP.T. KortumJ.T. Miller 2008 An empirical evaluation of the system usability scale International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction 24 6 574 594

[6] A. BangorP. KortumJ. Miller 2009 Determining what individual SUS scores mean: Adding an adjective rating scale Journal of usability studies 4 3 114 123

[7] J. Brooke 1996 SUS- A quick and dirty usability scale, Usability evaluation in industry 189 194 4 7

[8] O.K. Burmeister 2012 What seniors value about online community The Journal of Community Informatics 8 1

[9] R. CornejoD. HernandezJ. FavelaM. TentoriS. Ochoa 2012 Persuading older adults to socialize and exercise through ambient games 6th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare (PervasiveHealth) and Workshops 215 218

[10] W.C. FangM.C. HsiehP.C. YangW.G. LiC.J. ChiuJ.H. Chiang 2015 IDianNao: An orange technology that recommends volunteer opportunities to older adults International Conference on Orange Technologies (ICOT)

[11] L. GibsonW. MoncurP. ForbesJ. ArnottC. MartinA.S. Bhachu 2010 Designing social networking sites for older adults The 24th BCS Interaction Specialist Group Conference 186 194

[12] Y. LeeM.C. HuangX. ZhangW. Xu 2015 Fridgenet: A nutrition and social activity promotion platform for aging populations IEEE Intelligent Systems 30 4 23 30

[13] A.K. Leist 2013 Social media use of older adults: a mini-review Gerontology 59 4

[14] J R LewisJ. Sauro 2009 The Factor Structure Of The System Usability Scale The Human Computer Interaction International Conference (HCII 2009) San Diego CA, USA

[15] M. LüdersP.B. Brandtzæg 2017 „My children tell me it‟s so simple‟: A mixed-methods approach to understand older non-users‟ perceptions of Social Networking Sites New media & society 19 2 181 198

[16] T. TullisW. Albert 2008 Measuring the user experience: Collecting, analyzing, and presenting usability metrics Morgan Kaufmann

[17] T. TullisJ. Stetson 2004 A comparison of questionnaires for assessing website usability In Usability Professionals Association (UPA) 2004 Conference 7 11

[18] United Nations 2002 World population ageing: 1950-2050 New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs

[19] B. XieI. WatkinsJ. GolbeckM. Huang(2012 Understanding and changing older adults’ perceptions and learning of social media Educational gerontology 38 4 282 296

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