Usability Analysis of the Interface Design for Older Adults: A Case Study based on the Jingdong App

Abstract

Background Entering the digital era, the use of online shopping through Internet access by senior users in China has begun to increase. Accordingly, attempts are being formulated to release a “Elderly interface mode” that considers the use needs and usability of senior users. However, no research has been conducted considering the actual use of senior users. Considering this aspect, this study aims to propose ways and strategies to improve usability by studying the usability of senior users who use the “Elderly interface mode” for the Jingdong app, a Chinese shopping app. Methods Usability testing and evaluation were conducted. First, test items were selected based on the features of the ‘Elderly interface mode’ for participants using this feature. Second, the researcher conducted a usability test, observing the participants operation behavior and recording the success rate of the test completion items, and then conducted a post-test interview with the participants who participated in the usability test. Third, to measure the overall usability, satisfaction, and subjective attitudes toward the mode, the system usability scale (SUS) was used to evaluate the same test items and participants after reflecting on the results of the post-interview. Results As a result of the evaluation, in the case of the “Elderly interface mode” released by the Jingdong App, the score of the SUS evaluation was 76 points, indicating that the interface usability was good or excellent. However, during the test process, interface usability problems such as “Elderly interface mode is not easy to find,” “no visual signals and manipulation hints on text-assisted input methods,” “overload of information and unclear manipulation guidance on [product live room] pages,” and “no graphic hints due to page conversion,” were identified. Conclusions The study identified issues that need to be improved in the “Elderly interface mode”, such as “ease of searching for functions”, “providing operation guidance for text-assisted input functions”, “displaying graphical characters that consider the visual hierarchy of the [product live room] page and providing options for withdrawing operations”, and “cognitive load due to excessive information orders”. The results of this study will help develop an “Elderly interface mode” that considerstakes into account the usability of senior users in China. © 2024 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted educational and non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. All Rights Reserved.