Gesture Interaction Preference of Healthy APP for Elderly Users
Authors: Wenli Liang , Yongyan Guo 
Published: June 2022

Purpose: With the increase in the number of elderly people, the social problems of aging are becoming more and more prominent, and the consumption for the elderly is forming a larger market, and health issues are more important. Therefore, using smartphones to solve health issues will become an effective measure. At the same time, with the continuous development of information technology, the way of human-computer interaction has gradually changed from buttons and knobs to a way closer to normal communication. Gesture interaction has attracted much attention due to its natural, effective and friendly characteristics. According to the survey, there are currently many types of health apps, but they lack consideration of the needs of the elderly. Today, 28% of the elderly have mastered the use of mobile phones, but there is a big difference in usage habits and physical and psychological needs from young people. It is of great significance to study the gesture interaction preferences of the elderly in the field of health apps. Combining the physiological and psychological characteristics of elderly users, we are committed to developing an exclusive gesture interaction system for elderly users.Methods: Firstly, the theory and current situation of gesture interaction were summarized, and the concept and supporting technology of gesture interaction were clarified. The second part analyzes the characteristics of the elderly population from the aspects of physiology and psychology. The third part draws on the previous research results and summarizes the existing health app gesture operations. The specific interaction gestures are mainly divided into nine types, mainly including: 1. Return, 2. Confirm, 3. Cancel, 4. Move, 5. Delete, 6. Return to home page, 7. Call out multitasking, 8. Zoom in and out, 9. Rotate. Each operation corresponds to a variety of gestures, such as: return includes single-click, right-click, right-swipe on the screen, and so on. Then, through the quantitative method of questionnaire survey, the gesture interaction of the elderly is investigated, so as to obtain the gesture interaction preference of the elderly in the field of health app, and use this as a guide to improve the user experience of the elderly group.Results: For the "Back" task, the "click the 'Back' button" gesture action was the best action; for the "OK" and "Cancel" tasks, the "Click 'OK'" and "Click the 'Cancel' button" actions is the best operation; for the "move" task, the "one-finger press and drag" gesture is the best operation; for the "delete" task, the "long press the target point to delete" gesture operation is the best operation; for the return home page For multitasking and calling out, the best gesture actions are the third: "click the Home button" and "long press the Home button"; for "zoom" and "rotation" tasks, "two-finger pinch" and "two-finger pinch" The "Rotate" gesture operation is the best operation.Conclusion :Through the experiment, the preference of the elderly about the gesture interaction corresponding to 9 kinds of operations in the field of health app is obtained, which provides a better experience for the elderly users, has certain guiding significance, and provides theoretical guidance for designers.