Design Factors for the Elderly
Posted in General Business on November 9th, 2010 by RachaelAs the growing population becomes older and the use of technology becomes more prominent, it is extremely important to consider the various needs of the elderly.
As people age, they experience vision and hearing impediments, worse memory, shorter attention spans and longer response times. Senior citizens can find it difficult to understand copious amounts of information, they repeat similar errors, have a negative attitude towards technology and they hesitate when faced with unfamiliar choices (Akatsu, 2007). To cater for these needs, products should have large text, big buttons, a simple and intuitive layout, simple and memorable operations, clear instructions and long response times.
Nielson (2002) states that “by focusing on improving usability for seniors, you can increase their satisfaction and the odds of forming a long-term relationship (with the product)”. Senior citizens are a sensitive group; if they find something hard to do, they won’t do it. Therefore, usability is extremely important when designing products to be (possibly) used by the elderly. Three usability issues that are important in improving the relationship between technology and the elderly are (Egea, 2008):
1. Ease of learning
2. Memorability
3. Error frequency and severity
Ease of learning is perhaps one of the most important usability issues; can an elderly user who has never seen the interface before successfully accomplish their task? One way to improve ease of learning is to separate operations into a series of easy to follow steps. This prevents seniors from getting an overload of information, and it allows them to perform operations easily and with self-confidence (Akatsu, 2007).
Memorability is obviously a key usability issue since the elderly have a decline in memory (Akatsu, 2007). To overcome memorability issues, interfaces need to be uncluttered and include help files to enable the elderly to look up instructions if needed. Operations should be intuitive and well documented to allow for a user with little or no experience to operate. This minimizes the need to remember operations.
Because senior citizens often make and repeat errors, reducing the error frequency and severity is an important issue when designing for the elderly. Error messages need to be clear, informative and allow the elderly user to fix the problem easily (Nielson 2002).
References
Akatsu, H., Hiroyuki, M. & Naotsune, H. (2007). Design Principles Based on Cognitive Aging. Human-Computer Interaction: Interaction Design and Usability, 4550, 3-10.
Nielson, J. (2002). Usability for Senior Citizens. Retrieved 10 March, 2008, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/seniors.html.
Egea, K. (2008, 5 March). Human-Computer Interaction – Fundamentals of HCI, Presented at the COMP2506 Lecture, Brisbane.
