Iconography Design for Digital Applications Developed for the Elderly or Senior User

Abstract

Given the specific characteristics of seniors in terms of their digital literacy and the difficulties introduced by memory and learning skills’ deterioration, it is expected that seniors present greater difficulties than young people in the interpretation of the meaning of a visual icon. Therefore, this paper starts by presenting a brief literature review about icon design for elderly people, mainly focusing in the icons’ iconicity variable regarding the target audience. This is then followed by the description of the results of a circumscribed iconography study which main goal was to assess, with a sample of the senior public, the degree of iconicity of a set of icons designed for the interactive menus of an iTV (Interactive Television) application. To do so, 21 icons with different combinations of visual attributes such as figuration, abstraction and the use of cultural conventions, were individually shown to each participant of the study, which were later asked to describe a meaning for each shown icon. From the collected data, attribute combinations were identified that seem to facilitate the correct interpretation of an icon’s meaning for a senior. As a main result, this study found that the best strategy to adopt, in order to assure that icons are totally and globally accessible for seniors, is the combined use of the written meaning of the icon along with a pictorial and visual representation of the concept or object to which the icon relates to.