Color image effect of online community on age: Focusing on self-expression

Abstract

Online social network service prevents older adults from isolating. It can be the tool of self-expression in the social context as well as the mean of sharing information. Affiliated community itself can be a self-expressive symbol of the member sometimes. How the member feel the community can affect sense of belonging. This study investigated age difference on perceived self-expression depending on color image of online community webpage. The results indicated that two different age groups showed different perceived patterns to 'soft-hard' and 'warm-cool' image dimensions. This suggests that interface designers consider that color image of interfaces can provide different expression among different age groups. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.