Older User Experience

This article reports a user-experience study in which a group of 18 older adults used a location-based mobile multimedia service in the setting of a rural nature reserve. The prototype system offered a variety of means of obtaining rich multimedia content from oak waymarker posts using a mobile phone. Free text questionnaires and focus groups were employed to investigate participants´ experiences with the system and their attitudes to the use of mobile and pervasive systems in general. The users´ experiences with the system were positive with respect to the design of the system in the context of the surrounding natural environment. However, the authors found some significant barriers to their adoption of mobile and pervasive systems as replacements for traditional information sources.