Abstract Mobile apps are often difficult for older adults to use and frequently fail to meet their needs—an issue that has been well documented in usability studies involving this population. However, there is limited information and few guidelines on how to effectively involve older adults in the mobile app development process to promote the design of user-friendly and accessible interfaces. To address this gap, we conducted a scoping review using Web of Science, Scopus, and the ACM Digital Library, selecting 56 articles that reported user research practices involving older adults to evaluate the usability and user experience of mobile apps. Using quantitative and qualitative analyses, we examined how older users are portrayed as end users, the types of mobile apps that include older adults in their development process, and the research methods applied. Our findings indicate that the literature often reinforces deficit-based narratives, framing older adults primarily in terms of cognitive and physical decline. Accordingly, most studies focused on mHealth apps. We identified four main approaches to user research with older adults: usability testing (22), participatory design (13), follow-up studies (12), and app exploration (9). Based on these results, we advocate for adopting a Universal Design perspective that includes older adults as end users not only for mHealth services but for all types of mobile applications. Recognizing the diversity of senior users is equally important for gathering meaningful insights. We conclude by providing recommendations to improve usability and user experience research practices with mobile apps that involve this population.
Juliá-Nehme et al. (Wed,) studied this question.