Touch panel usability of elderly and children

The purpose of this study is to test the usability for the elderly, young adult and children using four different-sized touch panels and to provide suggestions for the elderly and children when using a touch panel. We set the subjects the tasks of dragging, rotating and scaling as quickly and as accurately as possible using different-sized touch panels. In addition to compare the operating performance values for different tasks for the three age groups, this study also recorded the subjects' hand movements. The results showed that the age and touch screen size had a significant effect on operating performance using the 4.3-in., 10.1-in., 23-in., and 42-in. touch panels. In addition, the average performance value on the touch panels using two hands was higher than the performance using one hand. Some useful and ergonomic interface design guidelines for the elderly and children were also proposed in this study.