| According to the 2001 UK census ( the UK now has | | | | aversion to downloading documents from the |
| more people aged over 60 than under 16. It also | | | | internet because they were "worried about bugs [i.e. |
| revealed that there are now 1.1 million people aged | | | | viruses] and things". None of the younger participants |
| over 85. | | | | expressed such views. |
| Webcredible recently analysed and compared the | | | | Higher incidence of 'search' usage |
| results of 16 usability testing sessions - 8 of these | | | | Of the younger participant group in our study, only 2 |
| sessions were conducted with elderly users (i.e. over | | | | individuals used the available search functionality, |
| the age of 65), and 8 with younger users (i.e. under | | | | whereas 6 of the elderly participant group chose to |
| the age of 40). | | | | make use of it. It is possible that this may have |
| The 40-minute 'talk-aloud' sessions involved asking | | | | developed as a means of compensating for their |
| participants to find information on a range of | | | | apparent difficulties/discomfort with traditional |
| government websites. | | | | browsing. |
| Assigning blame | | | | It should be noted that all users expected a site to |
| The main finding of our study was that elderly users | | | | have a single 'Search' function that searched all of the |
| were more likely to assign blame when using the | | | | site's content. |
| Internet. | | | | Slow task-completion and reading |
| Of the 8 elderly participants, 3 appeared to blame | | | | Our elderly participants required over double the |
| themselves for any difficulties which they | | | | average time of our younger participants to |
| encountered (sample quotes: "I don't really know | | | | complete a task. |
| what I'm doing"; "It's probably my fault"; "This always | | | | 3 of our elderly participants also displayed a tendency |
| happens to me"). 4 of the elderly users, however, | | | | to read all of the text on a page before being willing |
| seemed to blame the site(s) for any difficulties which | | | | to decide on their next course of action. None of our |
| they encountered (sample quotes: "I hate it when | | | | younger participants did this. |
| websites do this"; "Well, that's stupid"; "That doesn't | | | | Preference for 'big and simple' design |
| make any sense"). | | | | 7 of our elderly participants reported anything less |
| We found that the younger group of users were far | | | | than 12-point type as being too small to read |
| less likely to assign explicit blame for any difficulties | | | | comfortably - and even though all users agreed that |
| encountered - with only 1 user from this group | | | | being able to re-size the text on the screen would be |
| assigning blame (to themselves). | | | | a good idea, only one of them knew how to do so |
| Emotional reaction | | | | through the browser. |
| We also found that elderly users used far more | | | | It was also the case that all elderly participants |
| emotive words and phrases when referring to | | | | preferred 800x600 over 1024x768 resolution. |
| websites than younger users. | | | | Our recommendations |
| All of the elderly users employed strongly positive or | | | | Although more research into the internet behaviours |
| negative words in their remarks, such as "love", | | | | and preferences of elderly users is obviously required, |
| "hate", "stupid", "helpful" and "friendly". Indeed, one | | | | we would like to suggest the following: |
| participant even talked to the website as if it were a | | | | - Designers should investigate innovative ways to |
| pet ("That's a good boy")! | | | | communicate the fact that a page is not finished and |
| In contrast, only 2 of the younger participants | | | | requires scrolling |
| expressed themselves in comparably strong terms | | | | - Technical terms should be avoided if possible - and |
| (both when talking negatively about aspects of a | | | | where they have to be used, a clear explanation |
| site). | | | | must be easily accessible (including examples |
| Weaker mental models | | | | wherever appropriate) |
| A very interesting finding was that 6 of the elderly | | | | - Links should be identified in a consistent and obvious |
| participants regularly failed to scroll down a page (i.e. | | | | way (e.g. blue, bold, underline, red on mouse-over) |
| did not do so six or more times in a session). This | | | | - The attention-grabbing features on a page (e.g. |
| failure led these participants to often miss information | | | | headings, pictures, icons, instructions and bullets) |
| that was directly relevant to their task. | | | | should be links |
| In comparison, none of the younger participants failed | | | | - Visited links should change colour |
| to scroll down a page six or more times in a session. | | | | - Provide an HTML-version of as much content as |
| In our opinion, this is likely to be attributable to elderly | | | | possible and do not require users to install software |
| users not having fully internalised the concept of | | | | (even Adobe Acrobat) in order to be able to access |
| browser-windows often requiring scrolling - a concept | | | | information |
| novel to computer-technology. | | | | - Make content as concise and clear as possible - |
| Technical language | | | | consider providing two versions of the same content |
| We also found that elderly users were less likely to | | | | ('simple' and 'detailed') and allow users to decide which |
| understand technical language. For instance, a | | | | they want to access |
| moderator's request to "bring up the minimised | | | | - Sites should provide a 'Make the writing bigger' link |
| window" was not understood by 5 elderly users (in | | | | with accompanying illustrations/icons and always use |
| comparison to not being understood by only 2 of the | | | | high contrast to display text e.g. black text on an |
| younger users). | | | | off-white background (N.B. using an off-white |
| We found that elderly users were at least twice as | | | | background is preferable to white because it reduces |
| likely as younger users to not understand the | | | | the chances of eyestrain for people who are slow |
| following phrases: 'Homepage', 'URL' and 'Browser'. | | | | readers) |
| Link identification | | | | - Provide explicit instructions by using the imperative |
| Our sessions showed that elderly participants were - | | | | forms of verbs (e.g. 'Go to more details on...', 'Find a...', |
| as a group - more likely to click on elements of a | | | | etc.) |
| page which weren't links (an average of 14 times per | | | | Conclusions |
| session, in comparison to the younger participants' | | | | Elderly users are an audience group that will grow in |
| average of 5 times per session). | | | | size and importance over the next few years. Our |
| It was also the case that all elderly users reported | | | | studies indicate that there are lots of simple things |
| preferring websites that changed the colour of their | | | | we can do to support their use of the internet. |
| visited links, whereas only 5 of the younger | | | | We believe that these recommendations should be |
| participants considered the matter significant. | | | | taken into account by all sites, and efforts should be |
| Aversion to downloading | | | | made to further expand our knowledge of how to |
| Of the 8 elderly participants, 5 expressed a strong | | | | design for these users. |