A Three-Countries Case Study of Older People's Browsing
Prush Sa-nga-ngam, Sri Kurniawan · 2006 · Proceedings of the 8th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '06) · doi:10.1145/1168987.1169026
Summary
This short paper from the University of Manchester presents survey data on web browsing activities from 63 respondents aged 55 and over across three countries: 10 from Thailand, 40 from the UK, and 13 from the USA. The questionnaire, distributed during March-April 2006, explored frequently browsed topics, browser functions used, problems encountered with standard browsers, and desired features for more age-friendly browsing. Participants were required to have some computer experience and be at or above retirement age. All respondents had used computers for more than five years, and all US respondents had used the Internet for over five years, though weekly usage frequency varied considerably — Thai respondents mostly accessed the Internet less than five hours per week. The study aimed to understand whether older adults' browsing patterns and problems differ across countries and how this knowledge could inform age-friendly browser design.
Key findings
Country-related differences emerged in several areas: Thai respondents accessed the Internet more from work, while US and UK users browsed from home. US users were at a more advanced "online developmental curve," engaging in online purchases and personal finance, while Thai and UK users were still at earlier stages focused on keeping in touch with family and basic information seeking. However, no country-related difference was found in input device usage (58.7% used only a mouse, very few used keyboard only) or number of browser windows opened (roughly split between one and 2-3 windows). The most commonly reported browsing problems fell into six categories: unwanted content (ads, pop-ups, spam), connectivity issues, broken links, compatibility problems, poorly designed pages, and forced actions (mandatory registration). The most requested age-friendly browser feature was blocking unwanted content (pop-ups and ads). Notably, the most mentioned desired assistive feature was an automatic function to remove unwanted content — a cognitive aid — rather than visual aids like magnifiers or screen readers, suggesting these respondents were primarily coping with cognitive rather than visual decline.
Relevance
This paper provides an early cross-cultural perspective on how older adults use the web, revealing that browsing patterns and challenges are shaped by both age-related factors and cultural/economic context. The finding that older users' top priority was blocking unwanted content rather than visual accommodations challenges common assumptions about what "age-friendly" web design means — it suggests that cognitive load from cluttered, distracting web pages may be a more pressing barrier than sensory decline for many older users. For accessibility practitioners, this highlights the importance of clean, focused page design and the removal of cognitive clutter (intrusive ads, pop-ups, promotional content) as an accessibility concern alongside the more commonly discussed visual and motor accommodations. The cross-cultural differences in internet adoption stages also caution against applying a single set of age-friendly design guidelines globally without considering regional technology adoption patterns.
Tags: older adults · web browsing · age-friendly design · cross-cultural · digital divide · browser accessibility · usability