Designing for Older Adults: Usability Considerations for Real Users

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

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

2

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


3

Background
Changing Demographics
• Who Is Online?
• What Is Everyone Doing
Online?
•


4

#s of US Adult Population, by
Age

Yea
r

Source: US Census Bureau


5

% US Adults Online, by Age

98
92
83
56

Source: PewInternet.org


6

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



7

Social Network Use, by Age
% of Total Social Network
Users, by Age Group



8

Social Network Sites, by Age
Facebook:
46% increase in 45-54

Twitter:
79% increase in 55-64



9

2013: Device Ownership, by
Type



10

2013: Device Ownership, by
Age



11

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


12

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]


13

…but All Is Not Well


14

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).


15

…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.


16

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



17

User Interface Design
Guidelines?







Use sufficient contrast
Avoid patterned backgrounds
Avoid animation
Be consistent
Be discoverable
Be visible


18

What about
WCAG 2.0 and Section 508?


19

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
about delighting the customer? [Orlov, 2013] 20


“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



21

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.


22


23

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.


24

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


25

Individual Differences
Age is just a number


26








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


27







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


28


“Studies on aging
are particularly subject to confounding effects.”
[Reddy, 2012]


29

Age-Related Changes
& Characteristics
Visual
• Auditory
• Motor
• Cognitive
• Affective/Attitudinal
•


30

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



31

Normal Vision


32

Reduced Ability to Focus Close


33

High Glare Sensitivity


34

Low Contrast Sensitivity


35

Age-Related Vision Disorders






Lens yellowing (common cateract)
Glaucoma
Macular Degeneration
Cataracts (less common type)
Diabetic Retinopathy


36

Normal Vision


37

Lens Yellowing


38

Glaucoma


39

Macular Degeneration


40

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


41

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



42

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



43

Periphery




Linear: find item in
unfamiliar menu

Non-linear: find item in
familiar menu


44

Seniors: Visual Search is
More Often Linear


45

Seniors: Visual Search is
More Often Linear


46

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


47

Motor






Reduced fine-motor control
Reduced hand-eye coordination
Slower movement
Stiffness
Increase in hand tremor


49

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?)


50

Struggles to Select “Kenya”
from Pull-Right Menus


51

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


52

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”



53

“At this point… I would call
them. This is so overwhelming!
… Help!”


54

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


55

Frustrated; wants to quit task:
“I would screw this.”


56

“It's extremely frustrating. I
didn't grow up with computers
in my life.”


57

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


58

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


59

Thank You!




WiserUsability.com
408.806.8451
kfinn@wiserusability.com


60

Conducting Usability Tests
with Older Adults
Recommendations


61

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
62


Designing for Older Adults: Usability Considerations for Real Users

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