Developing icons for older adults: The roles of icon design categories, text labels, and learning strategies

When using electronic devices, older adults usually face challenges associated with difficulties in understanding icons. This study investigated age-related differences in icon identification using various design principles (Experiment 1), as well as the impacts of adding text labels (Experiment 2) and learning strategies (Experiment 3) on improving the performance of older adults. Participants, including older adults (aged 60 or older) and younger individuals, were asked to identify icons matching previous descriptions. The results revealed that the identification performance between older and younger adults varied across icon categories. The addition of text labels resolved differences in icon comprehension related to age of participant and design principles. Learning strategies had diverse effects on the identification performance of older and younger participants, depending on the icon category. These findings provide guidance for designers to apply effective principles and identify optimal strategies to support older adults in the identification and understanding of icons. •Icons designed according to certain principles were less clear for older adults.•Text labels and learning mitigated age-related differences in icon comprehension.•Text labels resolved differences in icon comprehension related to design principles.•For symbolic and example icons, concept learning only benefited older adults.•To improve the understanding of arbitrary icons, direct learning was preferred.