The influence of age and gender in the interaction with touch screens

Abstract

Touch screens are nowadays one of the major interfaces in the interaction between humans and technology, mostly due to the significant growth in the use of smartphones and tablets in the last years. This broad use, that reaches people from all strata of society, makes touch screens a relevant tool to study the mechanisms that influence the way we interact with electronic devices. In this paper we collect data regarding the interaction patterns of different users with mobile devices. We present a way to formalize these interaction patterns and analyze how aspects such as age and gender influence them. The results of this research may be relevant for developing mobile applications that identify and adapt to the users or their characteristics, including impairments in fine motor skills or in cognitive function.