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Older adults fail to see the periphery in a Web site task

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Abstract

Eye movement deficiencies are inherent with age and tend to increase in distracting visual fields, in the useful field of view (UFoV), and when information is located in the periphery. Despite well-known age-related differences in eye movement, there has been limited empirical study into how older adults look at Web sites. The study of eye movement during Web site interaction is advantageous to the study of UFoV theory because Web sites are typically complex, with important navigational elements located in the periphery. Using non-invasive eye tracking, eye movement patterns were investigated in young, middle, and older adults while they initially interacted with a typical Web site (i.e., standard top and left navigation). Older adults looked less frequently at peripheral parts of the screen compared to young adults, with the left and top navigation accounting for the greatest age-related differences. Age-related differences in eye movement emerged during the initial 10 s and were independent from Internet experience, suggesting differences in eye movement while interacting with Web sites are inherent with aging. Results show age-related differences in eye movement during a Web site task. These applied, experimental results directly support UFoV cognitive theory in a real-world setting.

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Notes

  1. To account for missing data, prior to analysis, the video recordings for 25 participants whose percentage of captured fixations (compared to the total screen capture time) was below 75 % were examined. Eight participants (one middle age and seven older adults) were omitted from all analyses due to lack of eye-tracking data.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Wendy Rogers and Yves Thibaudeau for valuable input on study design and Joanne Pascale, Rodney Terry, Kenny Herrell and Jon Krosnick for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fors Marsh Group, 1010 N Glebe Rd, Suite 510, Arlington, VA, 22203, USA

    Jennifer C. Romano Bergstrom

  2. Human Factors and Usability Research Group, Center for Survey Measurement, US Census Bureau, 4600 Silver Hill Rd., Washington, DC, 20233, USA

    Jennifer C. Romano Bergstrom & Erica L. Olmsted-Hawala

  3. Laboratory of Behavioral and Genomic Neuroscience, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH, 5625 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD, 20852, USA

    Hadley C. Bergstrom

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  1. Jennifer C. Romano Bergstrom
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  2. Erica L. Olmsted-Hawala
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Correspondence to Jennifer C. Romano Bergstrom.

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This report is released to inform interested parties of research and to encourage discussion. Any views expressed on the methodological issues are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the US Census Bureau, the Fors Marsh Group or of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. When this work was conducted, Jennifer was a post-doctoral researcher at the US Census Bureau; she is now the User Experience Research Leader at Fors Marsh Group.

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Romano Bergstrom, J.C., Olmsted-Hawala, E.L. & Bergstrom, H.C. Older adults fail to see the periphery in a Web site task. Univ Access Inf Soc 15, 261–270 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-014-0382-z

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