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Updated: May 25, 2026

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
Design recommendations for the creation of icons for the elderly
Alexander Mertens1, Christopher Brandl, Philipp Przybysz
1Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics of RWTH Aachen University, Bergdriesch 27, 52062 Aachen, Germany. a.mertens@iaw.rwth-aachen.de
Abstract:
During employment of icons in order to represent system functions, specific user requirements from elderly people have not been scientifically gathered and thus will merely be considered during the process of system design. The survey, with explicit consideration of technology acceptance and experience of 120 elderly probands, looked into the comprehension of four different classes of non-animated graphical representations. It was shown that among elderly, the use of photos compared to pictograms or clip art leads to a significantly higher recognition rate. The mapping of actions rather than objects leads to a further reduction of the error probability and is thus, especially in the context of telemedicine, preferable for the target group.
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