Some comments on the literature review.

Hi all,

 

First of all I have to say that this literature review is a great work,
covering most of the papers on web & ageing published in the last years.
However, I think the review would benefit from other sources not directly
related with the web, but with technology in general (the field called
Gerontechnology).

 

I think it will also be useful to pay attention to two topics that in my
opinion are not sufficiently addressed yet:

1) COGNITION: In particular, there is a good paper from Czaja &  Lee (2007)
that is included in the references but it is not yet discussed in the
review. Czaja & Lee focus on age-related changes in cognitive processes and
their implications for design. Two of the cognitive abilities that decline
during ageing are working memory and spatial abilities.

 

>From the point of view of the cognitive resources needed, search, navigation
and information comprehension on the web are not easy tasks even for young
users. Cognitive overload and disorientation (or “lostness”) are two usually
cited problems that may get worse during ageing, since they rely on working
memory and spatial abilities. Also distractibility and attention have to be
taken into account.

 

2) ATTITUDES TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY: The section 2.4. can be strengthened with
some review on the attitudes thought the adoption of technology for older
persons, including the technophobia phenomenon. Sometimes the accessibility
barriers appear before the computer is turned on!  See [1] as an example on
this topic.

 

The topic of attitudes also links with the social use of Internet (for
example, Facebook and other tools that implies to be producers not only
consumers of the web, as have been suggested by other colleagues of the
group). It could be differences between using the Web for information
seeking and using the web for social/communication purposes.

 

I also suggest to include papers [2],[3] and [4] in the literature review.

 

Best regards,

Nacho Madrid

Researcher INREDIS Project

Technosite – FUNDOSA (Fundación ONCE)

 

[1] Donat, E., Brandtweiner, R. and Kerschbaum, J. (2007).Attitudes as
predictors for Internet usage: A tripartite model of attitude measurement.
Available: http://csited.org/2007/18DonaCSITEd.pdf

 

[2] Carpenter, B. (2007). Computer use among older adults in a naturally
occurring retirement community. Computers in Human Behavior, 23 (6),
3012-3024.

 

[3] Curran, K. and Robinson, D. (2007). An investigation into Web Content
Accessibility Guideline Conformance for an Aging Population. International
Journal of e-Learning, 6 (3), 333-349.

 

[4] Curran, K., Walters, N. and Robinson, D. (2007). Investigating the
problems faced by older adults and people with disabilities in online
environments. Behavior & Information Technology, 26 (6), 447-453.