Presentation given at Stanford University's Design Seminar, January 10, 2014. Video at: http://myvideos.stanford.edu/player/slplayer.aspx?coll=9b820963-686d-43d6-b351-a93015476a3b&s=true

1. Designing for Older Adults
Usability Considerations for Real
Users Kate Finn & Jeff Johnson, Wiser Usability,
Inc.

2. Definitions



“Older Adults” (OAs) = people 50+
Usability: How easy it is for something's
intended users to successfully use it for its
intended purpose.
Design for All/Universal Design: Designing for
usability by everyone, regardless of age or
ability.
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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3. Basic Premises



“Design for Older Adults, and you design for
almost everyone else.” [Alan Newell]
Poor usability affects almost everyone, but
affects OAs more severely, more frequently.
Several populations w/ overlapping usability
issues




People w/ low vision or other impairments
Second language learners
People w/ low literacy
People w/ little tech experience
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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4. Background
Changing Demographics
• Who Is Online?
• What Is Everyone Doing
Online?
•
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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5. #s of US Adult Population, by
Age
Yea
r
Source: US Census Bureau
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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6. % US Adults Online, by Age
98
92
83
56
Source: PewInternet.org
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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7. Common Online Activities, by
Age
Activity
18-33
34-45
46-55
56-64
65-73
74+
Email
Search
Health
Info
News
4
4
4
4
4
5
Purchases
Travel
Banking
5
7
6
6
5
4
6
5
7
5
6
7
6
5
7
4
6
7
1
2
3
Source: PewInternet.org
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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8. Social Network Use, by Age
% of Total Social Network
Users, by Age Group
Source: PewInternet.org
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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9. Social Network Sites, by Age
Facebook:
46% increase in 45-54
Twitter:
79% increase in 55-64
Source: PewInternet.org
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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10. 2013: Device Ownership, by
Type
Source: PewInternet.org
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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11. 2013: Device Ownership, by
Age
Source: PewInternet.org
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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12. Most Popular Mobile
Applications?


Good question!
Strong push for “helpful” apps for the 50+
“Devices & Apps for the Elderly”
•MedWatcher
•Diabetes
•Prime Alert
•MediSave Virtual Pillbox
“Savvy Seniors”
•Skype
•Story Before Bed
•Find My Phone
•Over 40 Magnifier
•Pillboxie
•VizWiz
•Dragon Dictation
•iDiabetes
•BP Monitor
“Top Apps for Post50s”
•It’s Done
•Eye Reader
•Pandora
•Park’n Find
•iTriage
•Mint.com
•Ambiance
•GasBuddy
•Fandango
•AroundMe
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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13. Tech Can Be Transformative…

Huge potential benefit of usable interfaces to
OAs:





Less tech-literate
Socially isolated
Poor access to transportation
Little tech support
“A Mac laptop opened up the world to me,
right here, from my kitchen table. This is a
blessing because my mobility is now
extremely limited due to my physical
disability.” [NY Times online reader]
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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14. …but All Is Not Well
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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15. We Know How to Do It Right…
Pace U Gerontechnology students,
empathic modeling
Jeff trying a “Wheelchair for All”
Part of the team helping students
with a new Wii Remote design (UI-UC)
Ford’s ‘Third Age Suit’ Helps
Architects Design Homes
Shopping with AGNES
Photo by Nathan Fried-Lipski; MIT
AgeLab
Testing a prototype of a
re-designed walker (UI-UC).
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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16. …So Why Don't We?
Can't they make setups that have
"universal design" tech elements, like
the Jitterbug, to make access and
use simpler for everyone?
 A lot of usage is far from intuitive,
and when it's hard to see or move
fingers easily, some things are tough
to do.
 It would be so darn easy to make
things easier for seniors. I don't
understand why usability is being
ignored.
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real

16

17. User Interface Design
Principles
 Recognition (vs.
Discoverability
iOS 7 Design
Android Design
recall)
 Feedback &
Themes
Principles
 Consistency
communication
 Deference
 Enchant me
 Visibility
 Conceptual model
 Clarity
 Simplify my life
 Flexibility
 Real-world mappings
 Depth
 Make me amazing
 Error prevention,
 Constraints
recovery

Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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18. User Interface Design
Guidelines?






Use sufficient contrast
Avoid patterned backgrounds
Avoid animation
Be consistent
Be discoverable
Be visible
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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19. What about
WCAG 2.0 and Section 508?
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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20. Designers: Is this Really Us?


Tend to design for young and middle-aged
people; rarely consider the challenges which
their systems will present to older people.
[Newell, 2006]
Tend to design for people somewhat like
themselves, unless forcibly restrained.
[Hawthorn, 2009]
Seem to design products for themselves. How
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
about delighting the customer? [Orlov, 2013] 20


21. “We Have the Technology!”
Design Approaches
User-Centered
Design
 Participatory Design
 Empathic Design
 Design Thinking

Design
Tools/Techniques
Focus Groups
 Ethnographic Studies
 Usability Testing
 Personas

Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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22. Value of Face-to-Face
Encounters




Students (and professors) in design classes
often have little personal experience with OAs.
Designers tend to discount pure data on OAs.
OAs seldom included in participatory design,
usability tests.
Designers tend to over-estimate OA tech
ability until they see it; then they tend to underestimate it.
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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23. Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
23

24. Reality:
 Technology will continue to develop rapidly.
 Todays YAs (and others) not 100% technically
literate; as they age, they will experience
same problems as today's OAs.
 Skills, ability to generalize skills to new
situations, and willingness to learn new skills
decline with age.
 As they age, even today's technical literati will
face usability issues.
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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25. Not that we should stay stuck in the present!
But:
We could design for inclusivity.
We could provide much better support.
We could make transitions a lot less painful.
© 2012, Jack Zylkin,
www.usbtypewriter.com
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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26. Individual Differences
Age is just a number
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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27. Individual Differences





Cognitive decline begins at ~45 (maybe)
Vision starts to “change” at ~40
Hearing loss: 30's, 40's, 50's?
Aging is a continuous process
Change is not linear, or uniform
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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28. Individual Differences





Effects of aging are highly idiosyncratic
Rates of change in abilities are greater
Ranges of abilities are greater
Coping mechanisms vary widely
As a group's age increases:


Averages are less accurate
Variability in abilities increases
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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29. Individual Differences
“Studies on aging
are particularly subject to confounding effects.”
[Reddy, 2012]
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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30. Age-Related Changes
& Characteristics
Visual
• Auditory
• Motor
• Cognitive
• Affective/Attitudinal
•
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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31. Normal Age-Related Vision
Changes

Decreased ability to focus close (presbyopia)




Lower light sensitivity need for brighter
lighting
Increased sensitivity to glare
Reduced sensitivity to color & contrast



need for reading glasses
Especially for blue-green wavelengths
Narrower field of vision
Slower to adapt to changes in lighting
Slower to re-focus with changes in distance

Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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32. Normal Vision
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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33. Reduced Ability to Focus Close
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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34. High Glare Sensitivity
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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35. Low Contrast Sensitivity
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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36. Age-Related Vision Disorders





Lens yellowing (common cateract)
Glaucoma
Macular Degeneration
Cataracts (less common type)
Diabetic Retinopathy
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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37. Normal Vision
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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38. Lens Yellowing
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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39. Glaucoma
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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40. Macular Degeneration
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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41. Age-Related High-Level
Visual Perception Deficits





More trouble recognizing meaning of
unlabeled symbols & icons, especially small
ones
Slower on visual search tasks: spotting target
amid distractors
Decreased ability to tell if similar objects are
the same or different
More difficulty reading moving text
More likely to lose track of screen-pointer
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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42. Normal Visual Search: Linear
unless Target “Pops” in
Periphery
Linear: Find letter in pile of characters
L Q R B T J P L F BM R W
S
F R N Q
S P D C H K U
T
G T H U J L U 9 J V Y I
A
E X C F T Y N H T D O L L
8
G V N G R Y J G Z S T 6

Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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43. Normal Visual Search: Linear
unless Target “Pops” in
Periphery
Nonlinear: Find font-style in pile of letters
G T H U J L U 9 J V Y I A
L Q R B T J P L F BM R W S
3 L C T V B H U S E M U K
F R N Q S P D C H K U T
W Q E L F G H B Y I K D 9
G V N G R Y J G Z S T 6 S
E X C F T Y N H T D O L L8

Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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44. Normal Visual Search: Linear
unless Target “Pops” in
Periphery


Linear: find item in
unfamiliar menu
Non-linear: find item in
familiar menu
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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45. Seniors: Visual Search is
More Often Linear
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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46. Seniors: Visual Search is
More Often Linear
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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47. Auditory
Harder to:
 Filter out background sounds
 Localize sounds
 Understand fast speech
 Detect high-pitched sounds
Everyone:
8 kHz
Under 50:
12 kHz
Under 20:
16 kHz
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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48. 48
48

49. Motor





Reduced fine-motor control
Reduced hand-eye coordination
Slower movement
Stiffness
Increase in hand tremor
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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50. Motor (continued)


Difficulty grasping/manipulating small objects
Difficulty with continuous movements


Problems executing coordinated gestures





E.g., click-drag, tap-drag, tap-hold, draw
E.g., pinch, spread, double-tap
E.g., one- vs. two- vs. three-finger drag
Increased variances in movementslower
reliability
Increased risk of unintentional click or touch
(Decreased sense of touch; conductivity?)
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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51. Struggles to Select “Kenya”
from Pull-Right Menus
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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52. US Adults with Fine Motor,
Vision,
or Hearing Impairments
14.5
Age
15.2
%
9.3
6.8
0.6
1.8
5.4
7.5
1.5
Source: Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults:
National Health Interview Survey, 2010
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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53. Cognition

Reduced short-term memory/attention span







Difficulty keeping track of task-status
Harder to concentrate; more distractable
Longer learning times; more repetition
required
Less generalization (skill transfer) between
situations
More difficulty retrieving words
Reduced ability to “multi-task” (time-share)
More susceptible to “change blindness”
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real

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54. “At this point… I would call
them. This is so overwhelming!
… Help!”
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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55. Affective/Attitudinal


Less comfortable with technology
Risk averse






Often get frustrated, give up
Tendency to assign blame


Strongly prefer familiar paths over efficiency
Afraid of “breaking something”
Tend to read everything on screen before acting
Fear of embarrassment
Either to self, or to application
Reluctance to give personal info
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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56. Frustrated; wants to quit task:
“I would screw this.”
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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57. “It's extremely frustrating. I
didn't grow up with computers
in my life.”
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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58. Older Adults Execute Computer
Tasks More Slowly & Succeed
Less
Contributing factors:
 Slower cognition
 Slower or faulty memory retrieval
 Slower or inaccurate perception




(e.g., reading & pattern recognition)
Slower or shakier movement
Caution, hesitance, fear of “breaking it”
Combinations of above
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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59. Guidelines for Designing
for Older Adults
We're working on it!
Guidelines for Web-design on
WiserUsability.com
General design guidelines (including mobile)
are in development
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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60. Thank You!



WiserUsability.com
408.806.8451
kfinn@wiserusability.com
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61. Conducting Usability Tests
with Older Adults
Recommendations
Designing for Older Adults: Usability Consideration for Real
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62. Conducting Usability Tests
with Older Adults
Test at Participant’s site if possible
 Be sensitive to security/privacy concerns
 Keep test sessions short
 Minimize audio/visual distractions
 Use their computer or provide a similar, familiar
setup
 Avoid speaking in computer/Web jargon
 Be patient and respectful
 Offer to explain things after the session
 Small Older Adults: Usability Consideration appreciated
Designing forcompensation is greatly for Real
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