Computer Anxiety: Supporting the Transition from Desktop to Mobile

Computer Anxiety is a phenomenon studied in multiple contexts and, in the actual COVID-19 scenario, it is gaining more and more importance as it impacts technology adoption and autonomy. People with Computer Anxiety (PwCA) might feel intimidated, afraid of feeling embarrassed or scared of damaging computers, even before the actual interaction. Thus, supporting the detection of Computer Anxiety at scale has the potential to support the technology industry to cope with this challenge. This position paper presents a user study involving 39 elderly participants in an investigation on the feasibility of using interaction events common to desktop and smartphones to predict different levels of Computer Anxiety. Moreover, it also proposes research directions about the role of smartphones in the context of Computer Anxiety for elderly people as a mean of supporting good first user experiences with technology, meaningful daily use, privacy, and feeling safe even when doing mistakes. We expect this position paper motivates practitioners, designers, and developers to consider Computer Anxiety as one of the existing barriers when creating mobile applications for elderly people.