On the Digital Visualizer Magnifier Interface Evaluation for the Elderly

The emergence of electronic magnifier is used to replace the traditional magnifying glass, however many interface operational problems remained to be further developed and improved. In particular, for the senior people with degeneration problems would be difficult to operate the interface with complicated interfaces or too small size of font, and buttons, thus operating errors and frustration resulted. In this study, the current existing products were collected and researched, and analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of interface design studied. A 2 X 2 X 2 X 3 mixed research design was planned, namely gender ( male and female ), topology structure ( linear and hierarchical interface ), mode ( horizontal and vertical operation ), task difficulty (easy, medium , hard). A total of 50 elderly (25male and 25 female), aged between 65~70, all passed the standard visual test and had previous 3C product experience. As the study result indicated: (1) Men are superior to women on interface task performance. (2) Hierarchical topology is superior to the linear. (3) A significant level was found on the task difficulty effect. (4) The level of mode effect was tested and proved to be not significant. (5) Both male and female favor the hierarchical topology than the linear topology interface. The present study provides a research example of digital magnifier for the senior group that including the gender, interface topology, mode, and task difficulty. The study outcome shall benefit the design practice of digital magnifier and related product evaluation.