Influence of age group differences on website cultural usability

Abstract

Research on culture and web usability has highlighted influences of culture on web usability. However, the issue of age group differences has been neglected, as participants were mostly university students which represent only one age group. People of different age groups are different, not only in their physical attributes, but also in their cognitive and socioemotional attributes. This paper investigated the influence of age group differences on usability of culturally accommodated websites. Research participants were tested with three different web prototypes. Two of them represented two different cultures, while another one was designed to be neutral to the other two cultures. The results were evaluated both subjectively and objectively. The results indicate that there were interaction effects between age group and culture, as represented in each prototype, on web usability was significantly different. In conclusion, interpretations of interaction effects are discussed.