How web sites work for older users

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How web sites work for older users

• A study of 50 sites

Sally Balch Hurme, JD AARP Consumer
Protection NLIEC 2006 Conference
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Goals of the AARP study

• Review 50 web sites from the point of view of
  people age 50
• Find out how well sites support older adults
• Provide guidance for designers and developers
• Show examples of web pages that work well and
  that dont

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Rationale

• Percentage of older people going online is large
  and growing in 2005
• 75 of people age 56-65
• 41 of people age 66 and up
• 60 million Boomers online
• Use the web for information about health and
  prescription drugs, travel, finances and
  investments, news, and hobbies
• http//www.aarp.org/olderwiserwired/oww-resources/
  doing_the_math_older_adults_online.html

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Whats in the literature

• Older adults are diverse much more than is
  usually thought about in creating web sites
• Age chronological and experiential
• Ability physical and cognitive limitations
  Aptitude expertise with computers and web
• Attitude positive and risk-taking or negative
  and risk-averse need or seek support from
  others

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Method How Reviewed 50 Web sites

• Used two of AARPs eight personas
• Defined high-level tasks
• Selected web sites
• Performed tasks
• Recorded observations

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Persona 1 Matthew
Age 54 Attorney, working Married Uses email at work makes vacation plans and reads news online When something doesnt work, moves on No time, little patience Wears contact lenses probably needs reading glasses
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Persona 2 Edith
Age 73 Retired restaurateur Married Gets pictures by email from children and grandchildren but doesnt know how they do that Has used the Internet little, ready to experiment with travel research Untrained but persistent Wears a hearing aid, wears bifocals, has some arthritis in her hands
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Defining high-level tasks

• Start the day
• Research health options
• Plan a trip
• Do household bookkeeping
• Leisure activities, shopping

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Selecting web sites
Health info Cancer.org, Drkoop.com, WebMD.com
Health ins Rx drugs Aetna.com, Drugs.com, Purplepill.com
Travel AAA.com, Expedia, Travelocity, Mapquest
Financial Americanfunds.com Citibank.com
Shopping Amazon, eBay, Landsend, Fisher-Price
Portals search AOL, Yahoo, Google
News NY Times, BBC, ESPN
Hobbies interests Genealogy.com, Audubon.org, Pogo.com
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Performing tasks and recording observations
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Practice
My doctor has prescribed Zocor for my high
cholesterol, but I wonder how effective it really
is. I saw this new site in the AARP Bulletin
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Findings from the review Much good, but too
much bad

• Some sites are doing good things
• Still too many opportunities for serious problems
  and task failures
• Many sites scored both positively and negatively,
  e.g.
• Financial services Explanations on some pages
  were simple but on other pages, writers assumed
  more knowledge about the subject than the persona
  has

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Findings from the review Opportunities for task
failure

• The web is very difficult for the least expert
  among older adults
• The web is still frustrating for users with more
  expertise

Edith Edith Matthew Matthew
Task failures Serious problems Task failures Serious problems
113 243 20 171
Average per site 3.5 7.6 0.7 5.7
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Examples

• Purplepill.com Nexium
• Aetna.com
• AAA.com
• BBCNews.com

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Suggestions How to make it easy

• Interaction design designing the way users work
  with the site
• Information architecture organizing the content
• Visual design designing the pages
• Information design writing and formatting the
  content

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Suggestions How to make it easy

• Interaction design
• Make it obvious what is clickable and what is
  not.
• Make clickable items easy to hit.
• Minimize vertical scrolling eliminate horizontal
  scrolling.
• Ensure that the Back button behaves predictably.
• Let the user stay in control.

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Suggestions How to make it easy

• Information architecture
• Make the structure of the web site as visible as
  possible.
• Clearly label content categories.
• Implement the shallowest possible information
  hierarchy.
• Include a site map and link to it from every
  page.

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Suggestions How to make it easy

• Visual design
• Make pages easy to skim or scan.
• Make elements on the page easy to read.
• Visually group related topics.
• Make sure text and background colors contrast.
• Use adequate white space.

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Suggestions How to make it easy

• Information design
• Make it easy to find things on the page quickly.
• Focus the writing on audience and purpose.
• Use the users language--minimize jargon and
  technical terms

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Links to the reports and other resources

• Two reports
• Designing Web Sites for Older AdultsA review of
  recent, relevant research
• Designing Web Sites for Older AdultsExpert
  review of usability for older adults
• www.aarp.org/olderwiserwired