Drag-and-drop for older adults using touchscreen devices: effects of screen sizes and interaction techniques on accuracy

Abstract

This study investigates the accuracy of drag-and-drop interaction for older adults by analyzing the number of supplementary attempts for positioning a target during the execution of tactile puzzle games on two different screen sizes, tablet and smartphone, with finger and pen interaction. 24 older subjects (aged 65 to 86) participated of the experiment. The results showed that there is a significant effect of the interaction techniques during interaction on smartphone. Subjects were more accurate during pen interaction on both screen sizes. Age effects were significant but subjects aged 80 years old or oldest sometimes performed better than subjects aged 70 to 79 years old, especially during pen interaction. This study shows that drag-and-drop is an efficient technique for moving targets even on small touchscreen devices and pen interaction may help older users to execute more accurate drag-and-drop interaction on touchscreen devices.