Bringing the target to the cursor: proxy targets for older adults

Hwang, F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3243-3869, Batson, H. and Williams, N. (2008) Bringing the target to the cursor: proxy targets for older adults. In: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Florence, Italy. doi: 10.1145/1358628.1358760

Abstract/Summary

Studies in the literature have proposed techniques to facilitate pointing in graphical user interfaces through the use of proxy targets. Proxy targets effectively bring the target to the cursor, thereby reducing the distance that the cursor must travel. This paper describes a study which aims to provide an initial understanding of how older adults respond to proxy targets, and compares older with younger users. We found that users in both age groups adjusted to the proxy targets without difficulty, and there was no indication in the cursor trajectories that users were confused about which target, i.e. the original versus the proxy, was to be selected. In terms of times, preliminary results show that for younger users, proxies did not provide any benefits over direct selection, while for older users, times were increased with proxy targets. A full analysis of the movement times, error rates, throughput and subjective feedback is currently underway.