Google targets elderly?

3 points by evilslut82 16 years ago | 6 comments

Google increased font size on search box? Why?

est 16 years ago |

See http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/now-s-u-p-e-r-sized.h...

A little (maybe) inside story here

Believe it or not, I guess Google globally adjusted it's box height after Google China added 6px to its search box height.

On 13th April this year there's a post on a extremely popular & influential IT commentary news site in China

http://www.cnbeta.com/articles/81765.htm

saying that Google.cn failed to match Baidu.com because their search box is so small that people need exta time to move the mouse to focus the correct text box

6 days later Google.cn improved one of their page(specifically http://www.google.cn/hp?sp=china) accordingly

http://www.cnbeta.com/articles/82222.htm

Next on 6th October Google.cn switched to bigger search box on all of their pages, including the google.cn home page

http://google.org.cn/posts/google-china-bigger-search-box.ht...

Finally on 10th September Google globally adopted this design change

http://cnbeta.com/articles/93034.htm

Coincidences?

DanielStraight 16 years ago |

They should increase it even more. It's not just elderly people who have poor eyesight or don't like straining to read things on a computer screen. Even if they made it 18pt, how much of your screen would it really occupy? Not much, and the usability benefits are huge. I seriously will leave websites for using small fonts. If I click a HN link and the font size seems below 10pt, I'll probably just leave. I've seen websites linked on here with fonts around 6 or 7pt. That's insane. No one can read that as comfortably as they could at 12pt.

evilslut82 16 years ago |

hmm interesting links guys, thanks! reading up now.

zeynel1 16 years ago |

For elderly users increasing the font size is not much help. The problem is with focus. The lens hardens with age and nearby objects appear out of focus. So 12pt and 24pt type will both be out focus:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-does-ey...

"When the lens loses its pliability it also loses its ability to focus over a wide range of distances. A hardened lens becomes more fixed on distant objects and cannot focus as well on nearby objects or vice versa."

ggchappell 16 years ago | |

You are correct about the hardened lens. But consider: if you can't read things up close, then you read things at a distance, and small fonts are difficult to read at a distance.

So, yes, larger fonts will help.

By the way, I'm speaking from experience here. I'm 43, which I don't think is quite "elderly", but presbyopia has hit me pretty hard in the past year. My eyes are still better than 20/20, but I now need reading glasses for up-close work. Without my glasses, small fonts can be a problem.

zeynel1 16 years ago | | |

Yes, you are right. I wish there was a chart showing how this effect works. Also the eye may get used to a design. I used to think that HN font was too small and line spacing too thight but now it looks normal to me.