Designing for the wisdom of elders: Age related differences in online search strategies

Abstract

Information search is one of the main reasons that older adults go online, but older adults experience more difficulties than younger adults when interacting with search engines. In this study, 15 younger and 14 older participants completed a battery of cognitive tasks, and then searched for information via a realistic search simulator. Older participants searched using a more methodical strategy that entailed careful word selection and serial processing of search results, while younger participants used a more impulsive strategy whereby they scanned search results quickly and jumped between links more frequently. In keeping with past studies, older adults displayed lower cognitive flexibility, but these deficiencies were apparently offset by their search strategy, and young and old participants ultimately found information in similar amounts of time. We argue that, while age-related cognitive changes certainly exist, their effect on older adults' interactions with search engines may be due to mismatches between older adults' search strategies and the design of current versions of popular search interfaces. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.