Help Kiosk

An Augmented Display System to Assist Older Adults to Learn How to Use Smart Phones

Lead: Joanna McGrenere

Collaborators: Sayan Sacar (University of Tsukuba), Rock Leung (Samsung), Karyn Moffatt (McGill), Peter Graf (UBC), Helen Yin, Zachary Wilson

hand holding smartphone in front of desktop computer — *Help Kiosk: Prototype*

Older adults have difficulty using and learning to use smart phones, in part because the displays are too small to provide effective interactive help. We have explored the use of a large display to temporarily augment the small phone display to support older adults during learning episodes. We designed and implemented a learning system called Help Kiosk which contains unique features to scaffold the smartphone learning process for older adults. We have shown that Help Kiosk gives users more confidence that they are doing tasks correctly relative to a printed manual, and helps minimize the need to switch their attention between the instructions and their phone.

Partners: AGE-WELL NCE, Samsung

Related Publications: Wilson, Zachary & Yin, Helen & Sarcar, Sayan & Leung, Rock & Mcgrenere, Joanna. (2018). Help Kiosk: An Augmented Display System to Assist Older Adults to Learn How to Use Smart Phones. 441-443. 10.1145/3234695.3241008.