Impact of physical health and exercise activity on online user experience: Elderly people and high risk for diabetes

Abstract

This article studies how an individual’s physical wellbeing contributes to one’s online user experience. The study subjects were elderly people at high risk for type 2 diabetes. The results suggest that the web usage experience of these pre-diabetic individuals is related to their physical health status and level of physical activity. Those with a better physical health status were more likely to feel ease of orientation in their web usage, and those with more frequent regular physical activity were more likely to perceive pleasure in navigating the web. In practice, variation in physical health and activity levels between individuals could, and should. be addressed in designing systems and services. In more general, studying user experience on par with biochemical measurements provides an exciting combination of research methods and paves the way for new design practices.