Determining the Legibility of Fonts Displayed in Augmented Reality Apps for Senior Citizens

Over the years, continuous innovations in computer vision, as well as human-machine interaction, have renewed interest in augmented reality (AR) technologies as a promising and prominent means of interaction and visualization. Elders, as a social group, can benefit from this technology, especially in their reading skills. For our study, we sought to evaluate, compare, and determine the typeface and font size that had greater legibility for older adults, using augmented reality technology for this purpose. Physical reading tests were applied to elderly users, using various fonts and sizes, to determine their needs and experiences based on the results. There was the participation of 12 volunteers and the fonts Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia and Verdana were used, which were presented in sizes 8, 10, 12 and 14 respectively. The results showed that typography does not have a significant effect related to reading time using augmented reality (p-value = 0.456), but the font size (p-value = 0.001) and the gender of the participant (p-value = 0.037) do, because the smaller size generated more delay. The qualitative analysis indicated that Verdana and size 14 were the preferred typeface and font size for the sample.