Age Considerations & Training and Age

Age Considerations & Training and Age

by Dr. Bob Bailey

November, 1998

Age Considerations

Do older users have more difficulty using Web sites? Should we design differently for older users? This study provides some insights.

When searching a database, past research suggests that both younger and older novice users:

take more steps per search task (are less efficient),
are more likely to move up to higher levels in a hierarchy (return to the top) before starting a new search task, and
are more likely to get lost because they have more difficulty remembering recently followed paths.

This study compared the performance of two groups of novice users:
(a) a younger group with an age range from 19 to 36, and
(b) an older group with an age range from 64 to 81.
Unfortunately, the participants had somewhat different computer experience. The younger group used computers about once a week, while the older users used computers only about once a month.

Each participant was given 9 Web site search tasks to perform. The younger users completed 99% of the tasks, while the older users completed only 89%.

Older users differed significantly from younger users on the following:

they searched less efficiently (making 81% more moves),
they had the most problems with tasks that required 3 or more moves (clicks), and
they had more difficulty recalling previous moves and the location of previously viewed information.

Younger users tended to scan a line at a time, while older users were more likely to scroll a page at a time, and respond better to "small screen-fulls," rather than long, continuous pages.

Older users did not return more frequently to the home page to start new searches. Most of the difficulties encountered by older users appeared to be memory related, rather than using inefficient navigation strategies.

Training and Age

The problem with much of the current research comparing younger and older users is that the two groups differ significantly in so many different ways, including their experience with computers. This makes it difficult to determine whether performance effects are due to aging or to some other cause.

That said, Mead and Fisk (1997) reported that their group of young adults (average age of 20, with a range from 18 to 30) differed substantially from their group of older adults (average age of 70, with a range from 64 to 80).

Young adults reliably:

used ATMs and computers more often,
read faster,
had greater reading comprehension and working memory capacity,
had faster choice reaction times (there was no difference in simple reaction time),
had higher perceptual speed scores,
were less educated, and
had lower vocabulary scores.

Two tutorial methods were evaluated:

Action tutorial – described the correct action to take at each system state, but not "why" the action was taken. For example, "Move the pointer over the picture of the ATM card and click the left mouse button."
Concept tutorial – presented appropriate conceptual information at each system state, but not "how to do" a step. For example, "To begin a transaction, insert your ATM card."

Young and older participants were randomly assigned to learn using one of the two tutorial methods. All participants completed their tutorials, and then were tested.

For older adults, action training had the most beneficial effect. Concept training had a smaller, but reliable advantage on menu navigation tasks. Matching the tutorial types to specific tasks could allow older users to perform almost as well as younger users.

Although it is difficult to know exactly why older users are benefiting from the different tutorial methods, we should definitely allow for this when designing training programs.

References

Mead, S.E., Spaulding, R.A., Sit, B.M. and Walker, N., Effects of Age and Training on World Wide Web Navigation Strategies, Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 41st Annual Meeting, 152-156 (1997).

Wiedenbeck, S. and Zila, P.L., Hands-on Practice in Learning to Use Software: A Comparison of Exercise, Exploration, and Combined Formats, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 4(2), 169-196 (1997).