An Eye Tracking Study on Visual Search and Browse Strategies of Elderly People on Web Pages

With a growing population of elderly people, more Web pages designed for the elderly appear. The design of Web pages not only is required to meet the physical characteristics of the elderly, but also needs to meet the characteristics of elderly visual behaviors. This study aims to investigate the strategy of elderly people in visual search and browse on Web pages using eye-tracking. The experimental results showed that, in visual search, the elderly people were under a higher mental load, and more likely to pay attention to the peripheral area; whereas in visual browse, their mental load is lower, and more likely to pay attention to central area. The results indicate that, the Web pages designed for the elderly should try to put the title with the hyperlink feature on the peripheral area, and put the main information content on the central area. Furthermore, it should take measures to reduce the mental stress of the elderly in visual search on Web pages.