An exploratory study of a touch-based gestural interface for elderly

This paper presents the design ideas and a preliminary study of a touch-based gestural interface to support older adults in social networking. We had the hypothesis that the directness of gestures made them well suited to implement an interaction metaphor based on familiarity. Although preliminary, this hypothesis can be sustained. In particular, we found that most of the gestures (and in particular the iconic and the dynamic ones) have a hedonic quality that attracted and motivated our participants. We think that our results may contribute to the ongoing debate about gestural interfaces and help in understanding the value and the issue of this form of interaction.