Ethical Considerations

From an ethical viewpoint, this research has been reviewed by the Faculty of Technology Research Ethics Committee and a favourable opinion was awarded and can be viewed in Appendix A.2. All participants will be provided with information before taking part in the task performance and followed by the post-task interviews. Participants are provided with the opportunity to withdraw from the study at any time during the online shopping task and interviews. The researcher does not foresee any significant ethical issues in conducting this study. However, there are potential areas that need addressing which include:

▪ The participants have the right to receive information about the study, the purpose of the study, their involvement in the study, the right to withdraw from the study at any time (Jokinen et al., 2002), during the online grocery task and the interview. In this study the researcher will need to introduce themselves to the participants individually, then the participants will be provided with sufficient information about the study including the aim and objectives of the study.

▪ Those older people who suffer from conditions such as High blood pressure, Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia will potentially be excluded because of the stress or anxiety that may be caused by carrying out the grocery shopping task. The Manager will be able to give guidance on which participants to involve because the day center keeps a record of the medical history of all the older people who attend the day center including the conditions they suffer from and all the issues.

▪ There are no direct benefits to participants, but an enormous contribution is made to the research which will influence the future development of websites so that the lives of older people can be transformed.

4.5.4.2 Instructions

The participants are asked to shop online for the selected items from two online supermarkets. The participates are not being tested, but only the website will be tested. They are allowed to ask any questions only if they were a stack. They are allowed to just shop as far as they reach the stage for payment then they would stop. No final purchase of

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any food item is done under this task. After completing the task, the participants are interviewed by the researcher on the overall accessibility and usability of each website.

4.5.4.3 Recruitment Strategy

The researcher will carry out the study at Poole Day Centre (Poole Day Centre, 12A Commercial Rd, Poole BH14 0JW). Firstly, the participants are handed the Participant Invitation Form with the information inviting the participant to take part in the study. Secondly, the Participant Information Sheet will be handed out which discusses why and how the study is going to be carried out. Then the participant will be given a Consent form to sign. On this form, the participant is asked about their medical fitness to take part in the online shopping task. Otherwise, if they suffer from any medical problem which would impact their participation, the researcher would instruct them that they could not take part. The Ethics Issues and Survey Questionnaire form which can be viewed in Appendix A.3, will follow, which discusses how the study will be done voluntarily and that all information should be confidentially treated. The questions to be asked are listed in the Post Task Interview questions form shown in Appendix A.3. The researcher will use the Observation Data Collection Form, see Appendix A, to write down and note all observations for analysis later. The task involves shopping online for the selected items from two online supermarkets, Asda and Tesco.

4.5.4.4 Participants

The participants have the right to withdraw from the study at any time during the completion of the task and interview. They will be provided with sufficient information of the study using the Participant Information Sheet which is shown in Appendix A. Participants who do not complete the interview will be eliminated from the study during the data analysis stage. Those participants with fully completed interviews have up to 2 months from the date of interview to withdraw from the study then the data will be removed from the study. The Inclusion criteria included participants who are aged 55 and older, can speak English, can use the internet but never shopped online for food groceries and have no health issues that might cause an impact on them performing. The exclusion criteria included the participants who can not speak English, have done online grocery shopping before and those who suffer from conditions that would increase the stress levels such as high blood pressure, anxiety and depression.

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Usability studies can be carried out with a relatively small sample, for example, eight participants took part in Mellor et al. (2008)’s study. Another study by Munusamy and Ismail (2009) was completed with a sample of five participants, and also 12 participants took part in Trocchia and Janda (2000)’s study. It was also noted that testing with 5 participants lets you find almost as many usability problems as you did find when using many more test participants (Nielsen, 2000; Nielsen, 2013). Therefore, 5-10 participants will be an appropriate sample for this study.

4.5.4.5 Organisational Consent

Firstly, the researcher will contact Poole Day Centre and talk to the manager over the phone to introduce themselves, and then discusses part two of the research. The researcher then asks for permission to approach the clients who attend the day center for assistance in the research. After the initial communication the researcher then visits the day centre to see the manager in person and discuss further about Study Two, so that the manager could get a better understanding. Since this is a follow-up study from Study One, the researcher asks the manager’s assistance on the clients who indicated in Study One, that they would like to participant in Study Two. Then the participants will be contacted individually through their emails or any other contact details they had given. Apart from that the manager would have a record of which residents visit the day center, on which days and the times.

4.5.4.6 Participant Consent

To gain consent, each participant is approached separately by the researcher. The researcher will then introduce themselves and ask for their permission to talk to them. Israel and Hay (2006) pointed out that informed consent can be made if sufficient information, understanding of the risks and benefit associated with participating in the research are provided. The participants should be given adequate information before they can decide to take part because informed consent process provides respect for them (Walsh, 2009). Therefore, in this study the researcher will discuss the research and ask for the participant’s permission to take part in the online shopping task and interview. The Participant Consent Form can be viewed in Appendix A.3. If they agree the researcher will arrange to come back on the agreed date and time to carry out the study.

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Participants have the right to withdraw from the study at any time during the completion of the task and interview. They will be provided with sufficient details of the study using the information sheet, and participants who do not complete the interview will be eliminated from the study during the data analysis stage. The participants who fully complete the task and the interviews will have up to 3 months from the date of interview to withdraw from the study then the data will be removed from the study.