Written by: Tuomas
Most of the time you are starting to design something new your first thought is to design it to a user group that is familiar with technology and knows how to use it. However, there is a huge difference when designing something to young/mid aged people than designing to kids or elderly. There are a lot of different things to take in to a consideration.
Elderly people didn’t grow up with technology like we did. They had to start learning to use computers when they were already old thus making it harder for them. Like the saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, can be applied here. It is difficult to have the elderlies to start using technology. But thankfully all the elders are not stubborn about learning new things. That is why Tampere has some free programs that are dedicated to help elders using technology, they assist with daily tasks e.g. how to pay your bills.
When designing for elders you must take in consideration that their senses are not what they used to be. They have decrease of vision and hearing, they got nearsightedness, reduced field of vision and decline in contrast sensitivity and color sensitivity. Their working memory capacity is lower than younger people and they aren’t so vigilant anymore. Motor skill have deteriorated so it is harder to operate with mouse, they have a longer response time. There are basic usability principles that should be taken in to consideration when designing for the elderly. Everything should be visible, that means big and clear fonts and pictures. Association with buttons, they need to understand what happens when pressing certain icon. There need to be big targets because of the poorer motor skills. Design shouldn’t be too complex, support recognition rather than recall and limited amount of functions. If error happens, there should be easy way to recover from it. And always remember to have clear guidance.
A good example of a design for elderly is OldPhone [2]. OldPhone was done in part of a master thesis, it’s aim was to investigate what is the possible way to design a video communication system for elderly. There was found very interesting findings e.g. touch is the easiest way for elderly to interact, they can just point the function they want to use, you should teach them one step at a time, and one participant commented that her grandchildren told her just to press and try but she is afraid that she will get lost. Multiple participants took part in the study and they tried different unit interfaces to come up with the best unit interface for elderly. Interfaces should be adaptable to meet different needs. You should avoid different command for similar gestures e.g. touch and touch+hold. Information should be presented in steps, don’t overflow the user. Most preferable menu is with only one level, two at max and use metaphors proper for the age generation.
References:
1. Ahtinen, A. and Chowdhury, A. 2018. Psychology of Pervasive Computing lecture slides. Tampere University of Technology.
2. KRÜGER, I. (2017) OldPhone: A video communication system designed to suit elderly people's abilities and needs Derived by a PD process with elderly people. Göteborg : Chalmers University of Technology
Most of the time you are starting to design something new your first thought is to design it to a user group that is familiar with technology and knows how to use it. However, there is a huge difference when designing something to young/mid aged people than designing to kids or elderly. There are a lot of different things to take in to a consideration.
Elderly people didn’t grow up with technology like we did. They had to start learning to use computers when they were already old thus making it harder for them. Like the saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, can be applied here. It is difficult to have the elderlies to start using technology. But thankfully all the elders are not stubborn about learning new things. That is why Tampere has some free programs that are dedicated to help elders using technology, they assist with daily tasks e.g. how to pay your bills.
When designing for elders you must take in consideration that their senses are not what they used to be. They have decrease of vision and hearing, they got nearsightedness, reduced field of vision and decline in contrast sensitivity and color sensitivity. Their working memory capacity is lower than younger people and they aren’t so vigilant anymore. Motor skill have deteriorated so it is harder to operate with mouse, they have a longer response time. There are basic usability principles that should be taken in to consideration when designing for the elderly. Everything should be visible, that means big and clear fonts and pictures. Association with buttons, they need to understand what happens when pressing certain icon. There need to be big targets because of the poorer motor skills. Design shouldn’t be too complex, support recognition rather than recall and limited amount of functions. If error happens, there should be easy way to recover from it. And always remember to have clear guidance.
A good example of a design for elderly is OldPhone [2]. OldPhone was done in part of a master thesis, it’s aim was to investigate what is the possible way to design a video communication system for elderly. There was found very interesting findings e.g. touch is the easiest way for elderly to interact, they can just point the function they want to use, you should teach them one step at a time, and one participant commented that her grandchildren told her just to press and try but she is afraid that she will get lost. Multiple participants took part in the study and they tried different unit interfaces to come up with the best unit interface for elderly. Interfaces should be adaptable to meet different needs. You should avoid different command for similar gestures e.g. touch and touch+hold. Information should be presented in steps, don’t overflow the user. Most preferable menu is with only one level, two at max and use metaphors proper for the age generation.
References:
1. Ahtinen, A. and Chowdhury, A. 2018. Psychology of Pervasive Computing lecture slides. Tampere University of Technology.
2. KRÜGER, I. (2017) OldPhone: A video communication system designed to suit elderly people's abilities and needs Derived by a PD process with elderly people. Göteborg : Chalmers University of Technology
This is an important topic, because nowadays many things (for example bank services, mail, public transport ticket purchasing) are done mostly online and the service providers are reducing the resources for the face to face services. Old people who might be afraid of new technology and for whom it is harder to learn to use new devices, need to do these things anyway and it is important that they have the same possibilities to use services. The points you wrote about are great for designing for old people. Along with elderly-friendly desingning, we should also aim to reduce their anxiety or even fear related to new technologies and devices. Maybe the best way for this is if a family member or o friend shows and teaches the person to use the devices, but maybe some alternative ways to introduce the technologies to elderly people could be invented? Maybe some kind of video instructions could be useful? Or a social robot to advice the person?
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! I like the way How solution the write process is. I know elderlies can read n write but chould there be any similarities between ‘designs for kids’ and ‘design for elderlies for first time’?
ReplyDelete