Electronic government offers unprecedented opportunities for citizens to access online resources. Indeed, e-government resources enter our homes, libraries, community centers, and offices via the Internet providing information on healthcare, taxation, registration, housing, education, social services, veterans’ benefits, aging, and much more. These virtual government resources offer a bridge to those homebound, alone, or living in remote areas who may otherwise have little or no access to these types of resources.
Though many are benefiting from the ubiquity of e-government, there are still citizens falling through the cracks. Adults 60 years or more, however, are encountering usability barriers on e-government sites that may be difficult to overcome. This is important given that older adults are coming online by an estimated growth rate of 15% per year [2]. In addition, the older adult population in the U.S. is growing at an extraordinary rate as baby boomers age and life expectancy increases (see table).
Web barriers can be attributed to vision, cognition, and physical impairments associated with the normal aging process. Vision changes include a decline in visual acuity impacting the ability to see objects clearly, decreased capacity to focus at close range, or increased sensitivity to glare from light reflecting or shining into the eye [1]. These physiological changes, and others, impact the ability to see Web objects and read online content.
Moreover, older adults will likely experience a decrease in motor coordination making it more difficult to move a mouse, scroll down a Web page [4], and click on standard-size links [3]. Performing spatial memory tasks declines with age [5], as does the ability to discern details in the presence of distracting information. As a result, complex navigation schemes, poorly designed search capabilities, and cluttered Web pages affect the older adult’s online experience.
As the population of non-English speaking older adults will increase 219% by 2030 [6], the study of e-government usability must include the translation of English content into native languages. E-government sites are virtually inaccessible to those with no or little English language proficiency. However, translated versions may also be inaccessible when English content in the form of nontranslated links, buttons, graphics, message boxes, and information sneak into the Web design.
Finding the Cracks
We assessed 50 state and 50 federal e-government home pages in terms of potential usability barriers for older adults. Federal home pages were selected from the firstgov.gov portal site based on whether older adults were targeted users. Nielsen and Tahir’s home page guidelines [9], the National Institute on Aging guidelines for making a Web site senior-friendly [8], and Holt and Morrell’s resources on older adult Web users [5], were the basis for this study. The home page was the focus, as it is the gateway to accessing all content on the site. Translation barriers were assessed for sites offering Spanish versions. Simulated download times were also assessed using network access speeds representing Internet home use.
Advertisements, or images that look like ads, can negatively impact the usability of a site when they add clutter to a page. They often navigate to an external site, which may be confusing to the user. Their clutter may result in a page that is less intuitive in terms of navigation and information content. As a result, they may be ignored or go unnoticed by targeted users (the common term for this is “banner blindness”). Though ads appeared on only a few federal sites, they were more prevalent on state sites with 30% having ads on their home pages.
Links. Visual cues make it easier for older adults to differentiate between visited and unvisited links. Yet, 62% of federal and 76% of state home pages had visited links that did not change color. Meaningful link descriptions promote an intuitive navigational schema; whereas, cryptic links (abbreviations, acronyms, or jargon) impact reading comprehension. Some 60% of federal and 24% of state home pages had nondescript links navigating to an unknown destination.
Redundant links add clutter to a Web page, reducing readability and navigational intuitiveness. About 60% of all government home pages display redundant links, such as “home,” “text-only,” and “search.” Half of the federal and two-thirds of the state home pages had an active “home” link, adding to navigational confusion by refreshing the page currently displayed.
Search. A well-known design standard is the search box appearing at the top of the page with a button labeled “Go” or “Search.” The use of this standard minimizes the potential confusion associated with other search designs. Over 60% of federal and 34% of state home pages used a search link or button instead of a box, and some were located in the middle or bottom of the home page.
Mouseovers technology requires precise movement of the mouse in order to highlight and select a Web object. As such, it may pose as a barrier to those older adults with unsteady hands. Over one-third of the sites assessed used mouseover technology to display menu items on the home page.
Font size. The use of a small font size impacts the readability of Web content due to aging vision. Too often, Web pages have reduced font sizes for links in the peripheral area of the page. Bottom links, such as “help,” “privacy policy,” and “contact us” are often displayed using 8- to 10-point font rendering them virtually inaccessible to those with poor vision. Of the home pages included in this study, 84% displayed one or more Web objects in smaller than 12-point font.
Screen length. A lengthy home page impacts memory recall of the contents at the top and increases the amount of vertical scrolling required to get to the bottom of the page. It also makes it more difficult for older adults to recover from navigation errors [7]. Almost one-fourth of federal and 10% of state sites had home pages that were three or more vertical screen pages in length. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (www.atf.gov) weighed in with over nine screen pages when viewed on a 15-inch monitor.
Patterned background images can negatively impact the readability of a site by older adult users, especially when overlaying text is in a small font size, insufficient in color contrast, or italicized. (Older adults have difficulty seeing pastels and shades of the same color when used as foreground and background colors.) For example, the patterned background image at the top of the White House home page (www.whitehouse.gov) makes it difficult to read the overlaying italicized text when taking into account aging vision. Fortunately, there were only a few state and federal sites that made use of patterned background images.
Performance. Because many older adults access the Web using slower modem speeds, download time becomes a factor in the usability of a Web site. Download times for the government sites were obtained using Microsoft FrontPage to simulate 56.6K network access speed. Eighty-four government home pages were included in this assessment, as not all site access speeds could be simulated. The 10-second download time recommended in [9] was used as a baseline in this study. The median download time was approximately 20 seconds for all government home pages. Only 9% of federal and 3% of state home pages downloaded in less than 10 seconds, and approximately 25% took 30 seconds or more to download. The Administration on Aging site (www.aoa.gov) was the slowest to download at 71 seconds.
Translation barriers. Because of the number of older adults with little to no English proficiency, translated versions of e-government sites were assessed for English content (10% of state and 33% of federal sites provided Spanish versions.) English content barriers appeared on many of these sites in terms of nontranslated text, links, buttons, messages, and error pages. Some 40% had a Spanish “home” link that navigated to an English home page; 60% of federal and 40% of state sites had English content within the body of the page, and 60% had English links at the bottom of the page. One state site offered a Spanish version that was not readily accessible on the home page. The user had to click on a “Citizen” folder to navigate to a secondary page thus accessing the translated version.
Filling the Cracks
For many older adults, the Web may be the only viable option of accessing e-government resources. Older adults are increasingly using government resources for self-diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. They are also going online to file taxes, vote, obtain social services, and voice their opinions. Whatever the reason, older adults should have ready access to resources regardless of normal aging impairments, education, or native language considerations.
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