The Potential Benefits of Multi-modal Social Interaction on the Web for Senior Users

Abstract

As the population of senior adults is growing rapidly, there is a high demand for social resources to support them. The Internet has become a key factor in today’s society for improving lifestyle, from entertainment to obtaining necessities. Despite this, most seniors hesitate to use the Internet, and as a result there is a lower rate of growth in Internet usage among seniors compared to the younger population. In this research, we propose a web interface using an avatar to address the problems of existing interfaces. We did a comparative study between an avatar design and a traditional design for a web-based retail store. For the most part, the results support the avatar design over a traditional web design.