Why my grandfather finds difficulty in using ehealth: Differences in usability evaluations between older age groups

Many studies emphasize the need for more in-depth analysis of how age-related barriers influence the user acceptance of eHealth. In this study, we elaborate on existing work in this field by identifying how age differences affect usability evaluations in eHealth. We examined how older adults between 55-64 years (n=10) evaluated the usability of a game-based eHealth application in comparison to adults of 65 years and older (n=19). A concurrent think aloud protocol and the System Usability Scale (SUS) were administered to 29 participants. Usability issues were elicited from the think aloud transcripts and benchmark scores were obtained from the SUS. We conducted both: (1) a statistical analysis on the amount of usability issues and SUS score; and (2) a thematic analysis of the usability issues. Our study found that the 55-64 age group encountered significantly fewer usability issues compared to the 65+ age group. Furthermore, the thematic analysis revealed that while both groups had similar problems regarding the ‘Navigation & Structure’ category of the game-based eHealth application, there was much variation in the other usability categories of ‘Content & Information’, ‘Design & Presentation’ and ‘Other’. Our results can improve the development of eHealth that support healthy ageing.