G400 Computer Science : Gerontology and Geriatrics Research

Literature Review

The basic aim behind the said literature review is to find out the various problems which the elderly users of the web face while using the websites via the internet.  It also illustrates the guidelines that the developer of these websites should follow in order to make sure that the elderly people can easily navigate and browse through the sites effortlessly and competently. Identification of the right set of rules to make the websites user friendly for all types of users whether young or old is the main objective of this review paper.  Further it also discusses about if any kind of changes have occurred within the web pages developed over the years and whether the requirement of all age groups are being fulfilled specially the old age ones.  Lastly, the report also focuses upon identification of the various technical problems and how the same should be resolved so as to be of advantage to the elderly is also explored.

Various studies have been conducted over the past years with regards the usage of web by older people in the form of surveys, researches and observations as well.  Some of them have viewed old age people as a group whereas some others focus on certain problem that they face while using the Web.  Studies have also discovered that impairment of sensory organs is also one of the main reason behind such an issue they face (Wagner et.al. 2010).  Many old age persons have now become a regular user of internet and there number has been increasing year on year basis.  American seniors although had been late adopters to technology but once into the same, their inquisitiveness to explore the digital life deepened.  For them importance of web and usage of internet is basically for purpose of accumulation of data about health, news across the globe, travel plans, shopping as well as conduct a variety of social activities (Dunn, 2006).  

Becoming old is a part of the life cycle and every one will age with time, hence due to this god made life cycle, the web developers should design basis the older people also.  Age impacts sight, agility and the remembering power of a person.  Due to a weakening eye sight a person may not be able to perceived a particular image or symbol as expected to be, agility slows down as one’s ability to response to situations quickly gets hampered with increasing age and lastly the power to remember the various information browsed also deteriorates with time and age (Barnard et.al. 2013).  Therefore it is a necessity to ensure all these factors are factored in while a web design as it cannot be limited to a particular age group.  

A research study was conducted where the participants were not only the aged Americans ranging between 65 years or more and the rest of the population but also within the senior population itself.  The aged Americans were bifurcated into two varying groups, one comprising of those seniors who were technologically well equipped and are positive towards the benefits that the internet offers them and the second consists of such elderly people who are less comfortable mainly due to health issues such dexterity or memory loss due to which they are unable to bond with the digital world both physically and psychologically (Olson et.al. 2011).  

In the year 2012, Pew Research Centre discovered that aged people falling under the category of 65 and above were main users of the internet.  Of the total number of individuals falling under this age group, a little above 50 percent say that they use the internet frequently.  Whereas 47 percent of them admit that they access to a high speed broadband connection which also eases in getting connected online.  Further to our surprise, 77 percent of the aged people possess a mobile phone with an internet connection.  The said chart below shows the total percent of users of cell phones, internet and broadband versus the above 65 category uses.  This depiction has made it clear that continuous efforts will ensure that the same number increases every year.

Unfortunately, these gains even though is appreciable yet there rate of adoption of technology are still far behind the young Americans.  Apart from the above figures, 41 percent of the seniors do not use the internet, 53 percent lack in possessing a high speed broadband service and around 20 percent still do not use a mobile phone (Smith, 2014).  Simple reason behind the same is that nowadays seniors who are well educated and more acquainted with technology easily adapt the internet in fact for them it is an indispensable part of their life as against those seniors who are not well educated and even lack the income levels.  The graph below depicts that out of a total of 86 percent adults who visit the websites and go online as per 2013 statistics, 59 percent are seniors of the age above 65.  However this percent was as low as 14 percent only thirteen years ago.

From a business point of view, if a company’s website is again designed so as to suit to the older web users and providing them with a quality of the website that the younger users would also use, enable better results of the business.  Due to the pace at which internet enables fulfilment of various tasks, reduces errors and is more entertaining to work upon, the number of users may also increase.  Further to this the older generation has now become much better in using the websites, due to the designs which have been specifically designed to cater to the needs of the older age users and secondly the skill set of the seniors have also improvised off lately (Larsson et.al. 2013).   Today’s generations older age group are also different from the old age individuals which existed a decade ago.  Today these seniors take a step ahead to learn how to use internet in continuation of their job in comparison to the earlier old age group people who made an effort to become internet savvy post retirement (Gell et,al, 2013).

It was discovered that elderly people were suffering from twin issues i.e. the issue with regards the designing of the website and secondly the issues regarding their approach towards learning something new.  The first issue emphasised upon the user interface of these websites wherein the lick ability was not as good as it should be.  The font size or the colour of the text was not being used as per the requirements of the users i.e. the older user group for whom a smaller font sixe or a white colour or such other light colour text was difficult to read due to sight problem.  Thus these design issues should be catered to by these developers.  Another very striking feature of a web page is the hypertext links which if not bold out, becomes very difficult for the user to read and click (Shapira et.al. 2007).  Taking in consideration the limitations of the older audience with regards usage of the websites via the internet, special care should also be taken while designing complex drop down menus and should instead concentrate upon using the interface widgets and designs that does not command for pointing accuracy.  

Apart from the design issues which should be well addressed as stated above, certain behavioural issues also act as a hindrance since they find uncomfortable in using the new versions.  They lack the patience to retry if they fail in the first instance.  Research has proved that elderly participants fail to scroll down a page and hence miss out on valuable data, thus making their effort futile and frustrating as well.  Generally they are seen to blame themselves for not being able to work smoothly with certain websites rather than blaming the designing of the same (van Deursen, & van Dijk, 2009).  Due to all these behavioural issues also, the number of users are stagnated to maximum of a 60 percent of the total elderly population.  

In spite of these challenges that the older generation people have to face when it comes to usage of technology, once they become well acquainted with the internet, they are seen spending most of their time on the internet.  Of the total number who go online, more than seventy percent are seen visiting the websites on a daily basis.  The older age group people have finally understood the advantages of internet and strongly say that life without internet is worthless.  They feel information accessibility has been made easy with the help of internet, something they did not have during their time.  

On studying the various design related as well as behavioural pattern related issues, it is highly recommended that the designers should be more alert and attentive with regards who the possible users of their websites be while designing the same.  They should try to form such a design wherein the user will be indicated automatically that the page is ot over and their is more information down the page.  Designers should also avoid the usage of too much of technical terms which would sound Greek to these old age users who have never used internet during their era.  The html links should change colours once clicked and maximum web pages should provide html links only since it does not demand downloading of any specific software by the user for accessing the particular data (Slegers et.al. 2012)  Lack of ambiguity and short and simple version should be written which makes it easy for the users to comprehend data.  

Further to this, the general phrase ‘change is good’ is not true wit this regards in the eyes of the elderly users, since many of them are seen to keep a record of the various steps they have to follow while visiting a website.  Much changes make the website unusable by the elderly people since they find their recorded steps worthless and have to again undergo the entire process of understating as to how to visit the website which they hate to (Gonzalez et,al, 2015).  Therefore the best way out would be to conduct an intensive research with regards the usability success of a new website design before the same is made public.

The lack of proper education and the growing age barriers are a major contributors to the limited number of use of internet by them.  It is thus evident that the population of the elderly people will increase each day in comparison to the number of young users.  The study clearly connotes that simplicity can be inculcated into the designing of the websites which would make its usability more profound amongst the elderly public.  The behavioural and design related problems are the basic cause of hindrances towards s successful elderly user of the internet.  What is even more surprising is the fact that researches have shown that developed countries like America also suffer from the problem related to elderly crowd and the ease in suing the websites via the internet.  Awareness regarding the benefits of making the most of the social websites and the news websites are still not understood in depth by this audience group and hence along with counting the statistical figures of the same, an awareness program should also be conducted frequently so as to increase the usability as well as the interest of the elderly people in using the websites via the internet.

References:

Barnard, Y., Bradley, M., Hodgson, F., & Lloyd, A. (2013). Learning to use new technologies by older adults: Perceived difficulties, experimentation behaviour, and usability. In Computers in Human Behavior, pp. 1715-1724.

Dunn,T., (2006), Usability for older web users , Available at https://www.webcredible.com/blog/usability-older-web-users/ (Accessed 30^th March 2017)

Gell,N.M., Rosenberg, D.E., Demiris,G., LaCroix,A.Z., & Patel, K.V., (2013). Patterns of Technology Use Among Older Adults With and Without Disabilities. Gerontologist, vol. 55, no.3, pp. 412-421

Gonzalez,A., Ramirez,M.P., & Viadel,V., (2015), ICT Learning by Older Adults and Their Attitudes toward Computer Use, Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research,

Kamiel,A., (2016), A Hot Trend: The Internet, Social media and the Elderly, The Huffington Post, Available at https://www.huffingtonpost.com/anita-kamiel-rn-mps/older-people-social-media_b_9191178.html (Accessed 30th March 2017)

Larsson, E., Larsson-Lund, M., & Nilsson, I. (2013). Internet based activities (IBAs): Seniors’ experiences of the conditions required for the performance of and the influence of these conditions on their own participation in society. Education Gerontology, vol. 39, no.3, pp. 155-167.

Olson,K.E., O’Brien,M.a., Rogers, W.A., & Charness, N., (2011), Diffusion of Technology : Frequency of Use for Younger and Older Adults, Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3370300/ (Accessed 30^th March 2017)

Shapira, N., Barak, A., & Gal, I. (2007). Promoting older adult’s well-being through internet training and use. Aging & Mental Health, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 477-484.

Smith,A., (2014), Older Adults and Technology use, Available at https://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/03/older-adults-and-technology-use/ (Accessed 30^th March 2017)

Slegers,K., van Boxtel,M.P.J., & Jolles,J., (2012), Computer use in older adults : Determinants and the relationship with cognitive change over a 6 year episode, Computers in Human Behaviour, vol. 28, no.1, pp. 1-10, available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563211001580 (Accessed 30th March 2017)

van Deursen, A.J.A.M., & van Dijk, J.A.G.M, (2009),  Using the Internet: Skill related problems in users’ online behavior. Available at https://www.utwente.nl/nl/bms/cw/bestanden/Using%20the%20Internet-%20Skill%20related%20problems.pdf (Accessed 30^th March 2017),

Wagner,N., Hassanein,K., & Head,M., (2010), Computer use by older adults : A multi-disciplinary review, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 870-882, available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563210000695 (Accessed 30th March 2017)