Repetitive indoor layouts frequently cause spatial disorientation. Current navigation systems typically intervene reactively with generic instructions, lacking insight into the environmental root causes or the user’s cognitive state. To address this problem, we conducted a VR experiment (N=40) systematically manipulating geometric symmetry and feature similarity while capturing multimodal behaviors. Results reveal a functional separation: geometric symmetry primarily drives exploratory body rotation, whereas feature similarity determines navigation outcomes. Critically, simultaneous cue failure triggers a performance collapse—increasing mean hesitation duration by 370%—and forces users to switch from active reorientation (scanning via body rotation) to locomotor compensation (e.g., wall-following) based on a dynamic cost-benefit trade-off. Leveraging these patterns, our CNN-BiLSTM model detects the behaviorally defined getting lost state with >90% agreement with heuristic labels. We contribute design principles for dual context-awareness systems. By integrating environment context (geometric or featural ambiguity) and user context (cognitive state), systems can deploy content-adaptive aid—specifically orienting or discriminating aids—to dynamically balance navigation efficiency with active spatial cognition.

Motivated by the rapid technological advancements achieved in the last five years and the pervasiveness of Artificial Intelligence (AI), this paper investigates the evolving role of HCI and revisits the seven grand challenges outlined in 2019: human-technology symbiosis, human-environment interactions, ethics, privacy and security, well-being, health and eudaimonia, accessibility and universal access, learning and creativity, and social organization and democracy. Through literature analysis, the paper reevaluates the status of each challenge and highlights emerging requirements. Key findings reveal the widespread impact of AI across all domains and emphasize the need for improved AI transparency, alignment with human values, and the development of explainable, personalized, and privacy-preserving technologies to enhance user trust and control. The analysis also highlights the interconnected nature of these challenges and firmly asserts the role of technology in actively supporting human activities and collaborating harmoniously with humans to help them live meaningfully and fulfill aspirations.

Handwriting is widely used by Chinese older adults for text input on touch screens, but their handwriting performance is relatively low in comparison to younger adults. Therefore, this study investigated how the size of the input box (15%, 30%, and 45% of the display), input method (fingers and stylus), display size (4.7 inches and 7.9 inches), and age (younger adults and older adults) influence Chinese handwriting performance and user experience. An experiment was conducted among 72 participants. A system was developed to automatically record the time of handwriting, the accuracy of handwriting, the number of protruding strokes, the number of rewritings. Besides, participants’ satisfaction, preferences, and mental workload were measured through questionnaires. The results revealed significant effects of the size of the input box, age, input method, and display size on the performance indexes and subjective ratings. Accordingly, 12 design implications for improving the Chinese handwriting system were identified.

In order to make AI tools for spam review detection to be more trustworthy, two types of explanation were designed, the Text-AI tool and the Behaviour-AI tool. The Text-AI tool establishes detection criteria based on the textual features of reviews, while the Behaviour-AI tool establishes detection criteria based on the behavioural features of reviewers. The trust of younger (20–26 years) and older (50–78 years) adults in AI tools and the changes in credibility judgments for reviews and overall attitude toward the product made by them based on AI tools’ detection results were measured. We mainly found that: (i) Almost all the older participants reported that they trust AI tools’ prediction, but 48.7% of them would abandon AI when AI’s prediction was different from their own judgment. (ii) Younger adults showed a higher trust in the Behaviour-AI tool than in the Text-AI tool, especially when the AI tool detected more spam reviews than themselves. (iii) Regardless of age and types of explanation, participants perceived AI tools as more competent and benevolent when AI tools outperformed participants by detecting unexpected spam reviews.

Smart technology may provide endless opportunities for older adults. While population is aging rapidly, smart technology is also evolving fast. Older adults need to keep up with new technologies, p...

Screen mirroring might be a way to improve older adults’ user experience of smart televisions (STVs) through smartphones. To examine this possibility, two experiments were conducted. Experiment I examined older adults’ difficulties of screen mirroring (mirroring smartphone screens to STVs) through five common touch gestures (“Drag,” “Slide,” “Zoom,” “Draw,” and “Handwrite”), in comparison to younger adults. The results indicated that a major problem for older adults is the frequent attention switching between the STV and smartphone screens. Therefore, experiment II explored how to reduce the need of attention switching through the touch gestures (“Tap,” “Slide + Tap,” and “Slide + Release”) and the button sizes (8, 14, and 20 mm) for different input postures. Thirty older adults participated in this experiment and their eye movements were tracked. Four major findings were derived. First, the “Zoom,” “Draw,” and “Handwrite” gestures in screen mirroring were difficult for older adults with a task completion rate lower than 68%. Second, the problem of frequent attention switching between the STV and smartphone was predominant for tapping tasks. Third, the “Slide + Tap” and “Slide + Release” touch gestures helped to reduce attention switching in tapping tasks more than the “Tap” for older adults, while the “Slide + Release” received the worst subjective feedback. Fourth, increasing the button size from 8 mm to 14 mm on smartphones can improve the task completion rate and the task efficiency in screen mirroring when older adults used the one-handed posture to tap.

The current interfaces of smart TVs (STVs) lack an effective customization that is consistent with the needs of older adults. Accordingly, this study investigates the usability problems encountered by older adults when using STVs, and it identifies solutions to the most frequent problem. In the pilot study, a usability test was conducted and the difficulty of focus manipulation was found to be the most frequent one. Then in the main study, an experiment was conducted to evaluate two solutions (i.e., maintaining consistent element size and adding arrow hints), which involved remote control (RC) and touchscreen interaction (TI) input methods. Fifty-three older adults were recruited to participate in the study and thus four findings were found. First, the task completion time for manipulating focus increases with age and it rapidly increases after 75 years of age. Second, using a simplified RC can significantly improve the task effectiveness and decrease the number of keystrokes and the completion time for manipulating focus when compared with TI. While when using TI, after adding arrow hints to the STV interface the task completion time and the number of keystrokes are reduced. Third, for both input methods, when the interface comprises elements with inconsistent sizes, adding arrow hints was observed to enhance the task effectiveness and shorten the task completion time. However, the arrow hints were counterproductive when the element sizes were consistent. Fourth, the majority of elderly participants preferred to use arrow hints in the STV interface.

Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This article aims to investigate the Grand Challenges which arise in the current and emerging landscape of rapid technological evolution towards more intelligent interactive technologies, coupled with increased and widened societal needs, as well as individual and collective expectations that HCI, as a discipline, is called upon to address. A perspective oriented to humane and social values is adopted, formulating the challenges in terms of the impact of emerging intelligent interactive technologies on human life both at the individual and societal levels. Seven Grand Challenges are identified and presented in this article: Human-Technology Symbiosis; Human-Environment Interactions; Ethics, Privacy and Security; Well-being, Health and Eudaimonia; Accessibility and Universal Access; Learning and Creativity; and Social Organization and Democracy. Although not exhaustive, they summarize the views and research priorities of an international interdisciplinary group of experts, reflecting different scientific perspectives, methodological approaches and application domains. Each identified Grand Challenge is analyzed in terms of: concept and problem definition; main research issues involved and state of the art; and associated emerging requirements. BACKGROUND This article presents the results of the collective effort of a group of 32 experts involved in the community of the Human Computer Interaction International (HCII) Conference series. The group’s collaboration started in early 2018 with the collection of opinions from all group members, each asked to independently list and describe five HCI grand challenges. During a one-day meeting held on the 20th July 2018 in the context of the HCI International 2018 Conference in Las Vegas, USA, the identified topics were debated and challenges were formulated in terms of the impact of emerging intelligent interactive technologies on human life both at the individual and societal levels. Further analysis and consolidation led to a set of seven Grand Challenges presented herein. This activity was organized and supported by the HCII Conference series.

The high mobility of smart watches can easily impair interaction performance, and many applications are squeezed into an extremely tiny screen, which causes disorientations. Therefore, this study examines the extent of performance impairment caused by user movements and proposes navigation aids to alleviate the impairment. An experiment was conducted among 28 college students to investigate the influence of user movements and navigation aids on users’ performance and subjective feedback. The results indicate that the performance of using smart watches in walking conditions is comparable to that in sitting conditions. However, the use of smart watches while running reduces the success rates of operating, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and flow experience, and it increases subjective cognitive workload. To improve user experience, the effectiveness of providing navigation aids for smart watches is confirmed. Using static navigation aids while sitting and walking and using animated navigation aids while moving can significantly improve users’ perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness and decrease cognitive workload. Based on these results, guidelines for tailoring the interface design of smart watches to user movements through navigation aids are proposed.

Metaphors could be used to help older adults build mental models of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications and services and thereby reduce the number of interaction problems, but currently, metaphors generally are not tailored to these older adults, and their construction remains vague. Inspired by concrete icons, this study proposes concrete metaphors to help novice older adults understand ICT applications and services and retains their knowledge over time. A new communication application based on concrete metaphors was designed, developed, and comparatively tested against another application based on abstract metaphors over a period of 9 days. The results indicated that the application with concrete metaphors contributed to fewer perception and cognition errors, higher usage intention, higher satisfaction, and higher preference compared to the application with abstract metaphors. In addition, the advantage of concrete metaphors was lasting, unlike concrete icons. These findings indicated that concrete metaphors could be an icebreaker or stepping stone to draw novice older adults into the information society. To further increase the impact of concrete metaphors, representing real-world operations is an essential challenge.

After adopting mobile phones, most older adults use them only for calling and SMS. The purpose of this study is to extend their usage of mobile phones to new functions. To understand older adults’ requirements of mobile phones, a questionnaire was constructed and 351 Chinese older adults were recruited to complete the questionnaires. Data collected through the questionnaires were analysed using explorative factor analysis. The results revealed that older adults’ requirements were composed of 10 factors: Find a Specific Function, Awareness and Attractiveness, Readability, Personal Concern, Soft Keys and Multi-tap, Hardware Capacity, Touch Screen, Concern of Learning, Connectivity, and Social Influence. Then, from the above 10 factors, the 6 most important factors were revealed using multiple linear regression analysis. The results imply that accepting new functions is different from accepting a product. Readability and Find a Specific Function, which are critical for older adults’ acceptance of feature phones, are not determinants of their acceptance of new functions in smart phones.

This study focuses on older adults’ finger-based text entry on smartphones and tablets. Thirty-two older adults entered Chinese characters with two input methods (typing and handwriting) on touch screens with four display sizes (3.5 in., 5 in., 7 in., 9.7 in.). Their performance, acceptance, preference, and errors were recorded and thus four findings were found. First, on small displays (3.5 in. and 5 in.), handwriting contributed to shorter task completion time, higher perceived ease of use, and higher usage intention than typing, but no difference was observed on large displays (7 in. and 9.7 in.). Second, there is a gap of task completion time and perceived ease of use between 5 in. and 7 in. for typing, whereas there is no gap for handwriting. Third, participants’ preference of 9.7 in. was almost the same as that of 7 in., and their preference of 7 in. was 1.5 times as strong as that of 5 in. Fourth, participants’ finger-based text entry was prone to 13 types of errors. Many of these errors were caused by the mismatch between older adults’ mental models and designers’ mental models.

This article presents a comprehensive literature review to investigate whether and why older adults accept handheld computers and how to design elderly-friendly handheld computers. Findings about acceptance, input devices, menu and functions, and output devices are summarized. First, older adults were under social pressure to use mobile phones, but they had low acceptance of advanced functions. Also, they had a different way to judge acceptance factors from younger adults. Second, older adults preferred the physical keyboard to the on-screen keyboard for text entry, whereas they preferred tapping the touch pad to the joystick and buttons for pointing tasks. Third, older adults had shallower mental representation of the mobile phone menus than younger adults. Navigation aids providing contextual information and large cognitive preview per screen could help them. Finally, recommended size and spacing for text and icons are presented.