Quantitative models for older adults’ hierarchical structure browsing

Abstract

Hierarchical structures are one of the most commonly used methods of presenting electronic information. Older users, however, may experience problems accessing it because of ageing-related decline. This paper demonstrates two quantitative models of the time older adults took to browse expandable and sequential structures to reach the target information. The first model utilises GOMS to break down browsing activities into various components, such as mouse movements, reading and eye movements. The second model presents a parametric model of browsing time. Our research demonstrates that these two models managed to model the experimental data quite well, suggesting that it is possible to model older adults browsing activity quantitatively.