“I Do Not Dare to Try and Ask” Comprehensive Framing of Chinese Older Adults’ Difficulties and Corresponding Mental Barriers in Completing Smartphone Interaction Tasks

Psychological factors such as low self-efficacy are found to challenge older adults’ smartphone usage. However, there is a lack of studies trying to frame how older adults’ mental barriers relate to interaction problems, response behaviors, and challenges of dealing with them in the context of smartphone interaction tasks. We conducted a two-phase qualitative user study to explore such questions. We summarize 4 common interaction problems, 4 types of help-seeking challenges, and 4 typical response behaviors to them. We also present 5 common mental barriers of older adults that could stem from and result in their interaction problems and help-seeking challenges, and affect their response behaviors. Our work contributes a conceptual model of how older adults’ interaction problems, response behaviors, and help-seeking challenges relate to their mental barriers. We highlight the importance of supporting older adults to overcome their mental barriers in helping them tackle smartphone interaction problems.