The effects of presentation format and presentation dynamics on the comprehension of personal health information among young and middle-older aged adults

Abstract

While personal health information has increasingly been accessed by users in digital presentation, how the information should be presented to facilitate user comprehension is yet to be determined. This study aimed to examine the effects of presentation format and presentation dynamics on the comprehension of personal health information among young and middle-older aged adults. A three-way mixed design was employed, where 25 young and 25 middle-older aged adults were asked to complete comprehension tasks regarding hypothetical personal health information, which was randomly presented by two formats (i.e., bar graph and text format) and in either static or dynamic status. Data on task performance, perception measures and eye movements were collected. The results showed that bar graph yielded higher accuracy rate, was perceived easier and more useful in information comprehension than text format. While dynamic presentation had slower information identification, it resulted in shorter first fixation time and longer total fixation duration than static presentation. There were age differences in accuracy rate for information comprehension tasks. Age was also significantly interacted with presentation dynamics on task efficiency, and with presentation format on perception and eye movement measures.

Relevance to industry

Graphical and dynamic presentations show potential in directing users’ visual attention to important information to facilitate comprehension of personal health information. Findings from this study have important implications in the design and application of appropriate presentation of personal health information for users, especially for middle-older aged adults.