Easier to hit targets could help older computer users
A 12-month Reading University study has revealed that expanding icons, links and other elements on a computer interface as a cursor moves towards them could benefit older people. In particular, the benefits are shown to be:
- a 50% drop in ‘point and click’ mistakes
- a 13% drop in the time required by older people to pick a target
More white space would help as well, I’d argue. Too many popular pages are cluttered with largely meaningless icons, links and widgets, in my opinion.
I’m trying making improvements in this area myself on this blog by scrapping the pointless ClustrMaps and Technorati tag cloud. They may look “cool”, but that isn’t good enough.
Matt Brady on September 15th 2008 in Technology
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