The Use of Mobile Phones by Elderly: A Study in Malaysia Perspectives

Abstract

Mobile phone has become essential part of personal and business life crosses all age and gender boundaries. The of mobile phone usage can potentially play a significant role in assisting older people in many ways especially in terms of maintaining social relationship, providing sense of safety and accessibility. However, older people seem to be the neglected user group in the design of mobile phone devices and services. Hence, this paper attempts to report the issues which are related to the design of mobile devices and services for the elderly aged 56 years old and above specifically in Malaysias context. The findings can be served as a reference to the mobile manufacturer and service provider to put into account during designing mobile devices and services for older people. This research used a survey instrument to gather data from older people across all states in Malaysia with the total of 176 of them responded. The questionnaires were mainly distributed to older person who directly use mobile phones in their daily routines.