An instrument for assessing e-commerce web object designs against guidelines for older adults

Older adults are often reported to have difficulties with navigating websites. In a previous study, we found that one of the difficulties encountered by older adults while navigating an online grocery shopping site was an inability to recognise the ‘add to cart’ button. We propose to conduct a study to assess the existing button designs applied in e-commerce websites against principles and guidelines for designing for older adults. In this paper we focus on the development of the instrument to be used in the assessment. This instrument includes assessment criteria relating to button visibility, readability, understandability and navigability, which are drawn from existing principles and guidelines on web design for older adults