Investigating Perceived Usability and Choice Satisfaction of Alternative Search Engine’s Presentation for Older Adults

Abstract

Information search and retrieval is a feature used by various software applications, in particular web search engines. When conducting information search and retrieval, a user exhibits perceptual, motoric, and cognitive capabilities. However, these capabilities tend to deteriorate as adults age. As a result, older adults have shown a tendency to exhibit superficial behaviors that ultimately influence their decision-making during search and retrieval. It has been found that decision-making can be influenced by one’s emotional state. Meanwhile, unconscious exposure to certain elements such as visual stimuli can induce one’s emotional state. This article discusses a study that examined the employment of visual stimuli such as colors, shapes, and their combinations on user satisfaction and search performance with older adults while using search engine interface prototypes. Our findings show that the integration of certain stimuli within search engine interfaces potentially improves web search performance and experience for older adults.