Design guidelines and checklists are suggested as a useful tool in the development and evaluation of interface design of mobile phones for older adults. Given the intense evolution of mobile phone ...design, understanding how the design guidelines and checklists have taken into account the advances in mobile phone usability for older adults is important for their correct application and future development. Thus, this study explores the usability dimensions of mobile phone design for older adults and the related changes in terms of time and the type of device (feature phones vs. smartphones) based on an expert coding of the eight mobile phone design guidelines and checklists for older adults published between 2006 and 2014. The results of the expert coding show that design guidelines and checklists most frequently deal with visual and haptic issues (e.g., high contrast, button type, and button size), whilst they hardly ever address various elements of textual interface (e.g., ease of text entry, a button's feedback, and font type). Over time, the design guidelines and checklists have become more complex in terms of the average number of included usability categories and dimensions. For smartphones, the guidelines, on average, put more emphasis on the screen, touchscreen, text, and exterior related issues, whereas the design guidelines for feature phones stress the usability of the keypad and menus. Besides revealing potential usability dimensions that could be further expanded in the guidelines, this study also highlights the need for research that would empirically validate the design guidelines and checklists in the future.
•Review of survey scales for information privacy concerns in social network sites.•In 120 eligible articles, 53 information privacy concerns scales were identified.•Twelve scales are multidimensional ...while 41 are unidimensional.•The most common dimensions are access, collection, and control.•Researchers pay too little attention to ensuring measurement quality of the scales.
Privacy in social network sites (SNSs) is an important issue, and many researchers have focused on understanding the effects of information privacy concerns (IPCs) on user behavior. However, to develop research capable of addressing the complexity and multilayered nature of IPCs on SNSs, valid and reliable IPC survey scales are necessary. To this end, a systematic review of IPC scales utilized in SNS research was conducted to describe the survey inventories used, identify critical issues, and suggest directions for future research. Articles measuring SNS users’ IPCs published before 2023 were reviewed systematically using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) methodology. Altogether, 4,581 screened abstracts yielded 120 eligible articles, in which 53 different survey scales for the measurement of SNS users’ IPCs were used. These scales predominantly measure IPCs arising from organizational practices (i.e., vertical IPCs) rather than SNS user practices (i.e., horizontal IPCs). The results also indicated that scarce attention has been paid to ensuring the scales’ validity, particularly structural validity, criterion validity, and measurement invariance.
In the research of online communities and web survey methodology little is known about how elements in email invitations to list-based web surveys can be used to obtain higher response rates. In the ...present work, we investigated whether making authority, plea for help, and sense of community salient in email invitations determines the response of survey participants. Drawing from both survey methodology and recent research on online communities, this study also tested a hypothesis on the relationship between activity in an online community and survey response. Using a full-factorial experiment based on a simple random sample of 2500 members from the largest online health community in Slovenia, the results support only the hypothesis that plea for help is an effective response-inducing element in email invitations. Furthermore, the results support the hypotheses that online community activity, related to the frequency of visits and number of posts to an online community, are positively associated with response in list-based web survey. Since this study also shows that combining more than one element in email invitations does not necessary improve response rates, web survey research and practice may benefit from future research on this topic.
•We experiment with content of email invitations to web survey in online community.•Authority, plea for help, and sense of community are tested as soliciting elements.•Plea for help in an email invitation increases the response rate.•Using more than one element does not necessary improve the response rate.•Visits and posts to online community are positively related to the response rate.
An important contribution of digital inequalities research has been the discussion of nuances in ways that people (dis)engage with information and communication technologies (ICTs). One such practice ...is proxy Internet use (PIU): indirect Internet access by asking others to do things online for them or on their behalf. Whereas there is a good amount of research on those who are on the receiving end of PIU, users-by-proxy, little is known about “proxy users” who provide PIU. Analyses of nationally representative survey data from Slovenia (N = 1047) collected in 2018 show that 51% of Internet users reported to have acted as proxy users in the past 12 months. Multivariate analyses unveil that those Internet users who report a wider array of personal, economic, social Internet uses as well as those with higher levels of operational Internet skills are more likely to act as proxy users.
Proxy internet use has been identified as a viable strategy for achieving tangible internet outcomes and overcoming digital exclusion. In this study, we distinguish between proxy users who perform ...online activities for others and users-by-proxy, for whom activities are performed. We present a conceptual extension of the model of compound and sequential digital exclusion. We propose 18 hypotheses to understand how proxy use and use-by-proxy mediate the effects of internet skills on internet uses and outcomes. The model was tested using a path analysis based on data from a nationally representative sample of 535 internet users in Slovenia (males: 48.6%; age range: 18–84 years; M = 42.0 years). The results showed positive pathways between operational and creative skills, proxy use, internet uses, and outcomes. Internet users with high operational and creative skills, who were proxy users, expanded their online engagement and increased their tangible outcomes. Conversely, creative skills were negatively associated with use-by-proxy, which had no significant effects on internet uses and outcomes. Overall, our findings reveal a multidimensional aspect of indirect internet use and its importance in achieving digital equality, highlighting the importance of framing proxy internet use within established models of digital exclusion.
•Proxy use and use-by-proxy were studied in a sequential model of digital inclusion.•Operational and creative skills were positive predictors of proxy use.•Proxy use had a positive effect on use-by-proxy, internet uses and outcomes.•Creative skills were negatively associated with use-by-proxy among internet users.•Use-by-proxy had a limited potential for fostering inclusive digital engagement.
•Intrapersonal and interactional psychological empowerment can develop in HROSCs.•Participation is not a necessary condition for intrapersonal empowerment in HROSCs.•Posters and lurkers have a ...similar degree of intrapersonal empowerment in HROSCs.•Posters experience higher degree of interactional empowerment than lurkers in HROSCs.•Intensity of posting is associated only with interactional dimension of empowerment.
Participation in health-related online support communities plays an important role in the psychological empowerment of people who are faced with health problems. Research has suggested that important differences exist in terms of psychological empowerment depending on the form and intensity of participation in such domains by showing that users who contribute to health-related online support communities by posting messages (posters) generally experience greater benefits in terms of intrapersonal empowerment, compared to participants who only read messages (lurkers). However, as yet, very little is known about how the often-neglected interactional aspect of psychological empowerment is associated with participation in these online domains. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore how different forms and intensity of participation in health-related online support communities are associated with both dimensions of psychological empowerment. Drawing on a nonprobability sample of 616 participants in two health-related online support communities, the analysis of the data, obtained with an online questionnaire, revealed that posters scored significantly higher in degree of interactional empowerment than lurkers, whereas no difference was observed in terms of intrapersonal empowerment. In addition, high posting frequency was significantly associated with a high level of interactional empowerment but not intrapersonal empowerment. The study suggests that to better understand the empowering potential of participation for users of health-related online support communities, it is important to distinguish not only between various forms of participation but also between different aspects of psychological empowerment.
•We propose a model of e-commerce participation based on the APCO model.•The model is extended by examining the role of online shopping self-efficacy.•Privacy concerns and online shopping ...self-efficacy predict e-commerce participation.•Online shopping self-efficacy mediates the effect of demographic characteristics.•Internet users with different personalities cope with privacy concerns differently.
Privacy concerns are an important factor in internet users’ decisions to participate in e-commerce, defined here as the use of the internet by individuals to purchase goods or services. While various studies have examined how privacy concerns and e-commerce participation are influenced by online shopping self-efficacy, personality traits, or demographic characteristics, these aspects have rarely been examined together in one single explanatory model. Therefore, this paper proposes an integrated model of e-commerce participation based on the APCO model (Antecedents, Privacy Concerns, Outcomes; Smith et al., 2011) in which internet users’ personality traits and demographic characteristics influence their privacy concerns and online shopping self-efficacy, which in turn affect e-commerce participation. The model was tested on a sample of internet users (n = 3,736) in Slovenia, a prototypical EU country in terms of internet use and online shopping. The results from path analysis showed that individuals with greater privacy concerns were less likely to participate in e-commerce, while those with higher online shopping self-efficacy were more likely to do so. Online shopping self-efficacy also reduced privacy concerns and mediated the effect of demographic characteristics on privacy concerns and e-commerce participation. Therefore, a viable strategy to increase e-commerce participation is to increase internet users’ self-efficacy. Moreover, users with different personalities seem to have different coping strategies related to privacy concerns and online shopping self-efficacy. Overall, this study highlights the importance of online shopping self-efficacy for comprehensively analyzing the antecedents and outcomes of privacy concerns in e-commerce.
Internet privacy has been proposed as a new dimension of the digital divide. Although Internet privacy relates to all segments of the population, older Internet users are particularly vulnerable ...because they generally have lower Internet skills. Coupled with their high level of privacy concerns, this can dissuade them from fully engaging in a variety of Internet uses. As older adults overcome their limited Internet skills by asking others to perform online activities on their behalf, a practice known as use-by-proxy, it is likely that this is also a strategy for dealing with Internet privacy concerns. Therefore, we examine how Internet skills, along with Internet privacy concerns and perceived privacy control, influence their Internet uses and use-by-proxy. To this end, we develop an integrative conceptual model and test it with structural equation modelling using data collected in November 2021 from a nationwide sample of 460 Internet users aged 65+ in Slovenia.
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