Members of the Centre for the Social Informatics (CSI), Andraž Petrovčič, PhD and Vesna Dolničar, PhD, co-authored four original scientific articles, published in three reputable journals (Computers in human behavior, International journal of human-computer interaction and Telematics and informatics) in 2017 and 2018, and one chapter in a monograph published by Routledge in 2018. Among the co-authors of the contributions are also CSI members Darja Grošelj, PhD, and Sakari Taipale, PhD.
1. PETROVČIČ, Andraž, ROGELJ, Ajda, DOLNIČAR, Vesna. Smart but not adapted enough : heuristic evaluation of smartphone launchers with an adapted interface and assistive technologies for older adults. Computers in human behavior, ISSN 0747-5632. [Print ed.], 2018, vol. 79, pp. 123–126. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217305940, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.10.021.
Launchers have been suggested as a viable means of increasing the uptake of smartphones and assistive technologies (ATs) among older adults. Launchers can be designed to ease older adults' use of smartphones by addressing perceptual, cognitive, and motoric changes that might hinder their ability to operate smartphones. However, little research currently exists that analyses the characteristics and assesses the usability of launchers with an adapted user interface (UI) for older adults. Thus, we present a study in which we compared a set of commercialised smartphone launchers with an adapted UI and ATs for older adults by means of heuristic evaluation.
2. PETROVČIČ, Andraž, SLAVEC, Ana, DOLNIČAR, Vesna. The ten shades of silver : segmentation of older adults in the mobile phone market. International journal of human-computer interaction, ISSN 1044-7318, 2017, vol. , no. , 16 p. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2017.1399328, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2017.1399328.
With the closing of the age-related gap in mobile phone uptake and the aging of the population, older adults have increasingly become a desirable target group for mobile phone providers. Although there is abundant literature describing the use of mobile phones among older adults, segmentation studies on this group of consumers remain scant and inconclusive. Drawing on the benefit and behavioral segmentation, this study presents a segmentation model of older adults in the mobile phone market that incorporates a wide variety of consumer behavior, attitudinal, and acceptance variables relevant for the understanding of mobile phone (non-)usage patterns among users of feature phones and smartphones, as well as among mobile phone nonusers.
3. PETROVČIČ, Andraž, TAIPALE, Sakari, ROGELJ, Ajda, DOLNIČAR, Vesna. Design of mobile phones for older adults : an empirical analysis of design guidelines and checklists for feature phones and smartphones. International journal of human-computer interaction, ISSN 1044-7318, 2017, vol. , no. , 48 p., ilustr. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10447318.2017.1345142, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2017.1345142.
Design guidelines and checklists are suggested as a useful tool in the development and evaluation of interface design of mobile phones for older adults. Thus, this study explores the usability dimensions of mobile phone design for older adults and the related changes in terms of time and the type of device (feature phones vs. smartphones) based on an expert coding of the eight mobile phone design guidelines and checklists for older adults published between 2006 and 2014.
4. TAIPALE, Sakari, PETROVČIČ, Andraž, DOLNIČAR, Vesna. Intergenerational solidarity and ICT usage : empirical insights from Finnish and Slovenian families. V: TAIPALE, Sakari (ur.). Digital technologies and generational identity : ICT usage across the life course, (Routledge key themes in health and society). Abingdon; New York: Routledge. 2018, pp. 69-86.
Since the 1990s, it has been argued that social relations have individualised due to the increasing use of personal networking technologies (Rainie and Wellman, 2012). For instance, Kennedy and Wellman (2007) purport that individuals, rather than family solidarities, have become the principal unit of household connectivity as the daily agendas of family members diverge from one another. Supposedly, families are kept together ever more through ICT-mediated communication (Rainie and Wellman, 2012, p. 159). However, digital competencies and practices within families and between family generations may vary considerably, which makes it difficult to communicate similarly with all family members through ICTs.
5. DOLNIČAR, Vesna, GROŠELJ, Darja, FILIPOVIČ HRAST, Maša, VEHOVAR, Vasja, PETROVČIČ, Andraž. The role of social support networks in proxy internet use from the intergenerational solidarity perspective. Telematics and informatics : an international journal on telecommunications & information technology, ISSN 0736-5853, 2018, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 305-317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.12.005, doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2017.12.005.
Digital inequalities research has documented a set of practices related to people’s Internet use that questions the binary division between Internet users and non-users. In particular, among older adults, a considerably large group of individuals has been identified as not using the Internet by themselves; rather, they ask members of their personal networks to do things online for them—they “use” the Internet by proxy. Since previous research shows that children and grandchildren are important sources of help when it comes to Internet use, the current paper indicates that the notion of intergenerational solidarity is a sound conceptual basis for understanding the relationship between social support networks and proxy Internet use among Internet non-users.