Design Guidelines for Health-related Websites for the Elderly

Abstract

Due to the physical and cognitive limitations of elderly users, the use of websites by senior users are different from younger web users. This research studied design guidelines for health-related website construction appropriate for elderly users. Researchers designed two different website layouts and asked thirty senior users to use them to complete several activities, i.e., web registration, selecting content to read, page turning, change of font size, information searching, returning to the home page, choosing to see a sitemap, and filling in a contact form. After the elderly finished trying out the websites, the elderly users rated the level of difficulty when performing each activity. Results showed that the senior users did not know the meaning of icons which represented the website functions. Therefore, a text label should be provided for each image or icon. In addition, position of the menu did not seem to affect the elderly’s ability to use the websites. However, a short description for each menu should be implemented in order to lessen user confusion.