Design Experiment:
Gender and Help Seeking By Older Adults When Learning New Technologies

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In the spring of 2019, I assisted University of Washington PhD student Rachel Franz with a research project exploring how older adults learn new technologies and whether associations with gender factored into perceptions of how they approach technology. The research contributed to a final paper which will be presented at the ASSETS conference in October 2019.

My role: Assistant Researcher

Research Questions

Design Experiment

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• Do older men learn new technologies differently than older women?
• Who is more likely to ask for help?
• Who will accept help when it is offered?

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Thirty six senior citizens, 18 men and 18 women, participated in the design experiment. This consisted of the following elements:

• Surveys on technology self-efficacy, smart phone usage, and perceptions about gender
• Using a smart tablet to complete specific tasks using two applications that had never been used by the participant before
• Completion of an interview exploring thoughts and behaviors related to technology and gender

Data Collection

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• Duration to complete each task
• Number of times participant asked for help
• Number of times participant accepted help when offered
• Participant demographics
• Survey responses
• Interview responses

My Role

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• Interviewed and conducted experiment with twelve of the participants
• Coded data from the task-based portion of the experiment
• Affinity mapping of the interview responses
• Coordinated with participants to arrange meeting times and locations

Participant Musings on Gender and Technology

[Women] got left behind so long...and they picked [smartphones] up and I don't think men did. She didn't want to be left behind, where he didn't care.

I find women more curious and adventurous than I experience men to be.

My wife and her friends use Facebook. For our generation, maybe the women are a bit more involved. They like to stay in touch more than guys do, we are shallow and superficial.

Findings

The research findings will be presented at the ASSETS conference in October 2019. A summary will be posted once the paper has been published.