Older people, mobile technology and culture: an investigation of appropriate methods and personas in Malaysia and the UK

This research is concerned with the use of mobile technology by older people and the main focus is the appropriate methods for collecting data. There are a number of problems with conventional techniques when using older people as participants. This is due to the fact that older people have an extremely wide range of characteristics and impairments compared to other groups. A main objective of this research was to find the best methods in this context, though it is recognized that there may not be one best method or technique for any given situation. In Study 1, two similar experiments were carried out, in Malaysia and the United Kingdom. The experiments focused on two methods: interviews and focus groups. In addition, the use of personas as a tool in elicitation has been explored. A questionnaire was also prepared for the participants in an attempt to achieve the same objectives from different perspectives. On the basis of the results, further analysis was carried out in Study 2 to ascertain whether this was a real effect that might be due to cultural differences. Consequently, card sorting was conducted in the second stage in order to generate categories from 167 problems identified in Study 1. Results produced in Study 2 prompted further research to clarify whether the differences are truly culturally-related. The conclusion was that there were four categories of problems which show a difference between the two countries. This research has been focused in two areas, and has made contributions to both of them: methods of requirements elicitation with older people and cultural differences in the use of mobile technology by that group. It has been established that there were small but significant cultural differences in the effectiveness of these methods in the two countries.