Influences of age and experience on web-based problem solving strategies

Abstract

Older adults experience the World Wide Web differently than younger ones do. For example, they move more slowly from page to page, take more time to complete tasks, make more repeated visits to pages, and take more time to select link targets. Age-related cognitive and physical changes have been held responsible for these differences, engendering the view that older adults do the same sorts of things as younger ones but with less efficiency, speed and precision. This paper challenges that position. To accomplish their purposes, older adults may systematically undertake different activities and use different parts of websites than younger adults do. We examined the ways a group of adults aged 18 to 73 moved through an intricate website to solve a multipart problem. As they moved through the website, users followed different paths than younger ones. However, the number of years of their experience with computers and the web did not differentiate their paths. We discuss the results and reconsider our "tally sheet" definition of experience. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.