Designing Effective Educational Websites for Older Adults: Recommendations Based on Experimental Research

摘要

There is a dearth of experimental research conducted to date on designing websites for older adults and factors that influence their usability. What little research there is appears to be extrapolated from theories based on cognitive aging research and computer design and exists in the form of guidelines. The purpose of this research was to test the validity of some of these basic recommendations. Volunteer participants for this study are twenty adults between 60-90 years of age, enrolled in a computer course for beginners. They are asked to rate the usability of a simulated website using a five-point Likert-type rating scale related to three levels for each of the following attributes: background color, text color, font size, typeface, and spacing. Based on the results obtained, recommendations will be made regarding educational web design for older adults.