Meij, H., van der, & Gellevij, M. R. M. (2002). Effects of pictures, age and experience on learning to use a computer program. Technical Communication, 49(3), 330-339.

Meij, H., van der; Gellevij, M.

2002

Meij, H., van der, & Gellevij, M. R. M. (2002). Effects of pictures, age and experience on learning to use a computer program. Technical Communication, 49(3), 330-339.

This study examines the effects of pictures (screen captures and input devices), on documentation for (older) novices. Participants were 115 adults. They were given one of four types of manuals (with or without screen captures, and with or without input device depicted). There was no main effect of pictures, but there were statistically significant interactions between type of picture and the factors age and computer experience. As predicted, the most optimized designs -the ones presenting screen captures- moderated the negative effects of age. We argue that screen captures help reduce two problems in the cognitive area that are especially troublesome for older users, namely memory load and visual scanning. The screen captures also were helpful for the more experienced novices who remained ahead of the less experienced novices. The paper concludes with a discussion of the need to consider cognitive and physical factors to optimize designs for older novices

We found no support for the prediction that the presence of pictures would make some manuals more effective than others. Neither the screen captures nor pictures of input devices reduced training time or yielded higher learning outcomes after training. Our study shows that screen captures do provide a small and worthwhile improvement in performance. That is, all findings indicate that the negative impact of agerelated factors in the cognitive area are reduced by the presence of screen captures. In addition, the findings on the test scores indicate that experienced users too benefit from such pictures.

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