Comparison of standard link color visibility between young adults and elderly adults

The rapid dissemination of the World Wide Web raises the issue of Web accessibility, and one important aspect is the combination of foreground and background colors. In our previous study, the visibility of Web‐safe colors on a white background was examined, and the blue used for unvisited standard link colors was found to have high visibility for a wide range of ages. Since the use of blue and underlining are recommended for links, in this study we examine high‐visibility background colors for the unvisited standard link color, that is, blue. One hundred and twenty‐three background colors for blue were examined using the pair comparison method, and the relationship between visibility and color difference was discussed in the uniform CIELAB color space (L*a*b* color space). Effective background colors for the standard link color were determined in the CIELAB space, namely, L* larger than 68, a* smaller than 50, and b* larger than −50 provided high visibility for a wide range of ages. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 91(7): 41–47, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10126