The effect of age on the preference of various graphical aspects of a website Aurel Lazar Spring Valley High School.

The effect of age on the preference of various graphical aspects of a

website Aurel Lazar

Spring Valley High School

General Information• Marketers are using websites on the

internet more to propagate products or inform possible customers about events.

• Attracting those searching for the site is an easy task, but gaining the attention of web surfers is not. (Rosen et al., 2004).

• A well planned site layout can attract a potential customer or viewer

Hue• Perceived color from color wheel

• Children are known to prefer warmer hues over cool hues (Child, 1968)

• No correlation perceived between age and cool-warm hue preference (Child, 1968)

Screenshots from http://rp2005.50webs.com

Saturation and Brightness• Saturation - Measure of intensity of

color

• Brightness - Measure of white in a color

Screenshots from http://rp2005.50webs.com

Contrast• Few websites have only one color

• Text-Background Contrast • Difference in colors between text and

container

• General Contrast• Difference among multiple colors

making up components of website • Too much variation among colors may

cause a “fruit salad” appearance (Ling et al., 2002)

Font Style• Four of the main kinds of font style:

• Serif • Sans Serif

• Children generally attracted to strange fonts whereas adults usually pay no special attention to the fonts

Page Entry & Interactivity• Page Entry

• How a user arrives at a certain page• Usually uses splash pages

• Interactivity• Measure of how much a system

responds to user generated stimuli• Higher interactivity usually involves

animation or changes to the layout

Past Research• Higher saturation and brightness

preferred by younger children (Child, 1968)

• Preference for cool colors observed at all ages (Child, 1968)

• Greater visual conspicuity increases preference (Ling et al., 2002)

• Children and adults attracted to sans serif fonts (Bernard et al., 2001)

Purpose

• To identify trends in the thinking processes of children and adults about graphical preferences.

• To aid marketers targeting a specific age group and help them make appropriate choices for pleasing web design.

HypothesesAs age increases, preference for the

following decreases:• Warm Hue• High Saturation• High Brightness• Non-Standard Fonts• Splash Pages• High Interactivity

High contrast will be preferred at all ages.

Materials• Computer

• Adobe Photoshop CS Trial

• Macromedia Flash MX

• Questionnaire Sheet

Image taken by Aurel Lazar

Experiment Design Diagram

DV: Preference for hue, saturation, brightness, general contrast, text contrast, font style, page entry and interactivity

Constants:Computer ResolutionInternet BrowserRelative age range of subjectsDifficulty of reading passagesText Size

IV: Age group

Children Adolescents Adults

6 Subjects 24 Subjects 16 Subjects

Methodology

Creation of layouts

Survey Sheet

Obtainment of subject consent

Collection of data

Data Analysis Screenshots from http://rp2005.50webs.com

Methodology

Image taken by Aurel Lazar

Statistical Analysis Summary Table  χ2 Critical Value P-value

Hue 4.186 5.991 0.123

Saturation 1 3.916 9.488 0.418

Saturation 2 15.037 15.507 0.058

Brightness 10.232 15.507 0.249

General Contrast 3.785 9.488 0.436

Text Contrast 1 1.224 9.488 0.874

Text Contrast 2 0.955 5.991 0.62

Font Preference 1 11.435 12.591 0.076

Font Ease of Reading 1 2.905 12.591 0.821

Font Preference 2 9.191 12.591 0.163

Font Ease of Reading 2 2.187 12.591 0.902

Results: Hue

0

0.10.2

0.30.4

0.5

0.60.7

0.8

Warm Colors Cool Colors

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Saturation

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Low Med High

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Saturation 2

00.050.1

0.150.2

0.250.3

0.35

VeryLow

Low Med High VeryHigh

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Brightness

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

VeryLow

Low Med High VeryHigh

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: General Contrast

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Low Medium High

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Text Contrast

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Low Med High

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Text Contrast 2

0

0.10.2

0.30.4

0.5

0.60.7

0.8

Low High

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Font Preference

00.10.20.30.4

Serif

Sans

Serif

Scrip

t

Decora

tive

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Font Preference 2

00.10.20.30.4

Serif

Sans

Serif

Scrip

t

Decora

tive

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Font Ease of Reading

00.10.20.30.4

Serif

Sans

Serif

Scrip

t

Decora

tive

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Font Ease of Reading 2

00.10.20.30.4

Serif

Sans

Serif

Scrip

t

Decora

tive

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Page Entry

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Splash No Splash

Kids

Teens

Adults

Results: Interactivity

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

Framed(Low)

Standard(Med)

Flash(High)

Kids

Teens

Adults

Discussion• Only 3 of the original 7 hypotheses

were supported:• Contrast (No statistical difference)• Page Entry (Descriptive Difference)• Interactivity (Descriptive Difference)

• Color was not found, in general, to have a specific impact on a certain age group.

• Standard fonts were found to be the most preferred by all age groups.

Sources of Uncertainty• Low Sample Size, especially for

children

• Misunderstanding of instructions• No interviewer for adults• Reversed score ordering

• Time constraints

• Collaboration among test-takers

Future Research• Interaction between various hues,

saturations and brightnesses

• Examination of relationships between multiple colors

• Navigational arrangement

• Style

• Gender

• Other ranges of age (Younger Children and Older Adults)

Literature Cited• Bernard, M. L., Liao, C. H., & Mills, M. M. (2001). The effects

of font type and size on the legibility and reading time of online text by older adults [Electronic Version]. Proceedings of CHI ’01, 175-176.

• Bernard, M. L., Mills, M. M., & Chaparro, B. S. (2001). A study of children’s reading preference for different online fonts [Electronic version]. Proceedings of the Usability Professional Association.

• Child, I. L., Hansen, J. A., & Hornbeck F. W. (1968). Age and sex differences in children's color preferences [Electronic Version]. Child Development, 39(1), 237-247.

• Ling, J., & Schaik, P. V. (2002). The effect of text and background colour on visual search of web pages [Electronic Version]. Displays, 23(5), 223-230.

• Rosen, D. E., & Purinton, E. (2004). Website design: Viewing the web as a cognitive landscape [Electronic Version]. Journal of Business Research, 57, 787-794.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank:• Kevin Shaw, Dale Soblo, and Ruth

Cole for allowing me to use their classes to collect data.

• The many teachers and students who participated in the study.

• Valentin Lazar for aiding me with layout creation and data collection.

• My parents and friends for encouraging and sustaining me throughout the study.

The effect of age on the preference of various graphical aspects of a

website Aurel Lazar

Spring Valley High School