How do we design for the older generation? This group is often ignored in the development of new products, despite many over 55s having ample money and time to invest in the latest technologies
Learn what you need to consider in your research and design process to create usable products for older users. We will look at some of the cognitive and physical changes associated with aging and consider how these impact on use of products and technologies.
Technology can also be a huge enabler for older users – we will also look at some products in market or development which are helping elders stay independent and healthy for longer.
We’ll demonstrate all this with some real life examples from user research and end on a great video.
5. Let’s not forget the millions of other older users
• Limited incomes
• Housebound
• Restricted
mobility
• Limited access to
technology
6. • Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy increasing
• By 2025 almost a ¼ of the UK population will be over 65
• Value of grey £
Spending power of over 65’s (2010) = £76 billion
By 2030 this will grow to £127 billion = growth of 68%
“There was no respect for youth when I was young, and now that I’m old,
There is no respect for age – I missed it coming and going”
J.B. Priestley
The ‘older population’ is something we’ll ALL be part of
8. • Number of 65 - 74 using tablets to access the internet has trebled
• 40% of Daily Mail newspaper readers have a tablet
• Increase in age 65 - 74 going online in any location up 70% from 2005
• 20% of 65 - 74 use a smartphone compared to 12% in 2012
• Half of 55 - 64 have a social media profile
• Key area’s of interest are travel, news, watching TV playing games and health
Some facts about the older user and technology?
9. “We assume only younger
tech-savvy people will want to use this”
“The problem of older users
will go away in the next 10
years...”We don’t have the time,
money, or expertise to set
up and maintain a website
that is tailored to the
needs of older people
“We don’t know any older users who’d
want to
participate in our studies”
“We don’t want to see anybody over
65 in this sample”
How often have you heard the following?
10. This results in a vicious cycle of exclusion
Products
are difficult
for older
users
Older
people try,
have
trouble, feel
alienated
Bad
experiences
promote
avoidance
Older
users not
perceive as
the ‘target
market’
Products
not built
with older
users in
mind
11. “They say adapt or die. At my age, I feel
I can’t adapt, because the new age is not
an age that I grew up to understand.”
Anne - 89
Why design for this group? A worst case scenario…
13. How do changes affect memory and processing ability?
Memory and
information processing
14. Declines with age:
• Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex
• Hormones and proteins that repair
brain cells
• Blood flow to the brain
• Neurotransmitters vital to learning and memory
• Efficiency of absorbing brain-enhancing nutrients
Memories are harder to make and recall as we age
Add brain image
Hippocampus
Prefrontal
cortex
15. Changes in memory make noticeable changes in behaviour
Older users are often:
• Slower and more methodical
• More likely to read all information
• Susceptible to issues of cognitive load
• Need more help learning new skills
• Reluctant to try new things
• More likely to use search engines to save time
• Twice as likely to give up on a task
• Assign blame to themselves
17. Changes in vision accelerate with age
What happens:
• More difficult to see objects clearly
• Over 85, one in 20 are legally blind
• Presbyopia - long-sightedness caused by lens hardening
• Pupil shrinkage - require more light
• Loss of peripheral vision - decreased by 25% by 80 years
• Contrast sensitivity diminishes from 40 years
- Reduced by 83% by 80 years
• Half of all over 65 years have cataracts
How macular degeneration effects vision
over time
21. Difficulty clicking buttons on insurance site
Slow clicks timed out
Older users often take longer to do things:
• Timeouts
• Session lengths
• Other time-based assumptions
Older users do things more slowly and deliberately
22. Research: new touch screen UI
• Huge gesture-based age divide
- Younger users: no problem
- Older users: nearly impossible
• Physical movement changes with age
“It’s like a doorbell, you assume you have to
press it long and hard to get someone to hear
you”
Older and younger people gesture differently...
24. • Arthritis is a common disability in the 55+ age group
• Joints: causes painful degeneration
• Mobility: severely restricted
• Dexterity: limiting, operating controls and switches, gripping
objects such as door knobs and using tools
• Small objects: poor ability to handle very small objects eg.
mouse, phones, hearing aids
• Slower task times
Elderly users often experience difficulties with their hands
Arthritis
25. A lot of people in the tech industry talk about
“changing the world” and “making people’s lives better.”
Making it better
We can do this ….
Follow some simple principles, to create products that work better for
everyone, especially those who need and enjoy them most.
26. • The reasons:
- Increasing older population
- Available cash
- Loyal once hooked
• Expose product teams to older users
• Understand needs of older user groups
- how they differ from younger
• Include a +70 sample in your research
• Older and younger friendship pairs
Start with product strategy
27. Running usability research with our older users
Preparation
• Give clear up front information
• Replicate home environment
• Provide pen and paper to make notes
• Make participants feel comfortable
In session
• Stress that you are not testing them
• Keep them focussed
• Avoid technical jargon
• Allow for extra time and for them to think
28. Keep the following in the back of your mind
The Basics
• Clear paragraphs, headings, links
• Maintain consistency throughout
• Provide feedback on clicked links
• Design for colour blindness
• Make obvious – click, tap
• Provide explicit instructions
• Show trusted
• Stay in one window
29. Technology can help older users stay independent longer
Technology is helping people who aren’t able to do what they used to with things like shopping,
driving and communications.
30. Technology can help augment lost senses
Technology to be the eyes and ears by helping older people who lose hearing or sight continue to
enjoy doing things they used to
Audiobook libraries
accessible anywherePulse vibrating wristband, Lechal
shoe for navigation
The Google Lens
(illness treating)
Empatica seizure
predicting wristband
Bluetooth hearing aids and in-
ear sound systems
31. Technology can help elderly users to remain ‘medically safe’
Medical alarms
“Your mother hasn’t moved
for a while...”
Medication monitoring
Home care monitoring systems
Medminder Pill Dispenser, and Protius Biotech’s smart tablets
Phillips Lifeline
CanaryCare
sensor system
‘The 2010s will be known as
the era of digital medical
devices’
32. Technology can help make sure you‘re never ‘lost’
GPS Shoes embedded with GPS trackers help find a person with Alzheimer's or Dementia
34. Technology can be a force for change in the
way we treat older people.
Thank you
Questions?
Notas do Editor
Intro – Good Morning – how are you all?
I hope you’re enjoying the conference …there’s been some great speakers so far
Firstly let’s introduce ourselves…
I’m Julie Kennedy head of User experience at Mail Newspapers, working with my colleague Lucy Scott our inhouse Senior User Researcher.
Our topic this morning is ‘Designing for our Future selves’ or a more fashionable way of saying ‘Designing for older users’
Between us we bring a wealth of Experience working across successful global and UK brands
Let me give you a bit of background to this presentation before I start.
why the topic of older users?
When I joined the Daily Mail around 18 months ago where many of our users are in the ‘older users’ age group, I began to realise that through our user testing this demographic wasn’t designed for. This was coupled by my passion about making digitally accessible products for all and I recognised how some accessibility issues were also relevant to older users.
Older people are a demographic where there is lack of research, they’re often excluded from the target market by big corporations and startups alike.
This is also a topic that’s relevant to all of us, whether we’re in that demographic already, we will all be one day.
To be clear for this session we’re defining ‘older users’ - as over 55yrs, the reason is we start to see marked mental and physiological changes from this age, and this is also a common classification used in market research. We will reference specific age segments though such as 65-74 and need to consider that people are different, and individuals lifestyles, attitudes, gene’s and other factors have an impact on how we age.
We’re going to share some facts and industry case studies with you and show you some video clips of older users, which we hope it will give you some tips to consider in your projects to help all of us design better products for our older customers.
Well let’s meet some older users -
As you can see from this selection of celebrities it’s a diverse bunch we are designing for or NOT designing for.
Our users could range from a 56 yr old Madonna to an 87 yr old Roger Moore.
At Mail Newspapers we have a demographic of older users who are healthy, socially active and cash rich who use the latest technology and have the support around them to use it.
But in contrast let’s not forget our other older users who maybe on limited incomes, housebound or have restricted mobility and have limited access to technology and support to help them use it.
I think it’s interesting that a measure of many societies is how it sees and values it’s older people, in the East older people have an elevated status and are respected but in the UK over 65’s are too often seen as a burden on societies resources
I loved this quote from J.B. Priestley… and know how he feels!
It feels like I’m never at the right age!
It’s a fact though we’re all living for longer and living healthier lives
By 2025 almost a ¼ of the UK population will be over 65
- Over 60’s spending power will increase to £127 billion by 2030
A growth of 68% to today
Source from ONS – Office of National Statistics
These graphs from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) put OUR OLDER USER wealth into perspective
The Data shows that household wealth, in particular, property and financial wealth, is highest in the 55-74 age groups. Nearly all over-75s are inactive in the labour market, so their wealth is slowly reduced over time as they begin to draw down their pensions. However, the rate at which wealth decreases after retirement is likely to be offset by the continued appreciation of property assets or rising financial wealth from investments.
This means that pensioners are still much better-off, even if they no longer earn a regular income, compared with the younger demographics, who have not had as many opportunities to accumulate financial or property assets.
Physical wealth consists of durable (or semi-durable) physical assets held in homes such as vehicles, art, furniture, televisions etc
Distribution of Wealth by Age Group
Property, physical and financial wealth, by age of designated household head, 2008/10
Let’s look at what these older users are doing with technology and on what devices they are accessing the internet
Tablet growth continues to grow
40% of our readers have a tablet
My Dad who found it difficult to use his laptop loves his tablet – not having to log on/off makes it more accessible to him
There’s also a growth in smartphone use, some in this demographic will have brought the latest handsets, whilst other may have 2nd generation handsets passed on to them from their children.
50% of 55-64yrs now have a social media profile. (Oftel report)
What are they doing on these devices they love looking at travel as many have the income to travel and aren’t tied to school holidays dates like many of us. They catchup on tv and news, enjoy playing games and checking out their health
I
Source from Mintel
How often have you heard the following …
Any examples?
When I worked at the mobile network 3 I frequently heard we didn’t want anyone over 45yrs in the sample
Excluding older users creates a vicious circle
Makes them feel incompetent, frustrated or stupid and will drive them away.–
Many feel current designs were not meant for them. Designers often have their own ideas of good design and may be unaware of … established guidelines such as the w3c accessibility ones that will help design more accessible products for all.
See more at: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2013/10/designing-user-interfaces-for-older-adults-myth-busters.php#sthash.0CHNS21I.dpuf
This sad story is an extreme example but actually happened, an 89 yr old lady named Anne, committed suicide as she couldn’t keep pace with technology. Anne was a smart lady a retired art teacher and Royal Navy engineer who said computers and TV had created a “lack of humanity”.
“They say adapt or die. At my age, I feel that I can’t adapt, because the new age is not an age that I grew up to understand.”
It’s an extreme example, but has actually happened; older people are frequently left behind, disempowered and humiliated by technology. It happens every day…an example is in banks removing counter staff and forcing all transactions to be done at a terminal.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/retired-british-art-teacher-ends-life-at-dignitas-because-she-couldnt-adapt-to-modern-world-9242053.html
I’m now going to hand over to Lucy
So what changes take place as we grow older? We’ll look now at what happens to us physically and cognitively as we age, bearing in mind of course that for some individuals these changes are more rapid and more severe than they are for others. We’ll look factually at what actually happens – I have various facts and stats for you - and then how this can impact on behaviour and how technologies should be adapted so they are easier and more suitable for older people to use.
I’m going to go through the body, looking at some of these key changes.
Starting with the head, we may joke about how older people forget things a lot, but it is a fact that memory deteriorates and there are many physiological reasons for this.
We’re going to take a bit of a look at the brain. I don’t profess to be an expert on the brain or on memory, but am going to talk through some key changes that take place over time and some prominent theories on how these effect memory.
There are two areas of the brain which are particularly associated with memory and it’s unfortunate that these areas tend to also be the most affected by age.
Hippocampus (say hippercampus) – horse shoe shaped area - consolidates info from short term to long term memory. Involved in forming, organising, storing and retrieval of memories. After age 40 the hippocampus loses about 5% of its nerve cells with each decade. By time people reach 80s may have lost as much as 20% of nerve connections.
The prefrontal cortex is most strongly associated with short-term memory. This area of the brain actually shrinks in size to a greater degree than most other regions.
So when you’re mum’s forgotten where she’s put her glasses two minutes earlier, you now know that it’s likely to be due to a shrinkage of the prefrontal cortex.
There are various other physical changes which take place -
With age we also see a decline in the Hormones and proteins that protect and repair brain cells and stimulate neural growth.
Older people often experience decreased blood flow to the brain. This results in decay of the white matter linking together different parts of the brain. Subsequently this leads to impairment of memory and changes in cognitive skills.
Chemical messengers – or neurotransmitters– which are used to carry signals through the brain are reduced
Older people are less efficient at absorbing brain-enhancing nutrients
All of these physiological changes have a detrimental impact on memory.
LUCY
The changes to our brains also result in slower processing speeds and reduced processing resources. We also find our filtering processes are diminished – that is our ability to suppress irrelevant distractions which are competing with our attention and clogging working memory.
So how do these changes tend to manifest themselves…?
There are many typical behaviours that we witness in our elderly users when they use technologies.
Older people are usually a lot slower when they use technologies. Prior to running user tests I often have a practice run with a colleague and find that conducting the test for real with one of our older users typically takes a lot longer than it does with a colleague who’s a similar age, or younger, than myself. Nielsen Norman amalgamated the results of 75 usability studies and found that on average those aged 65+ are 43% slower at using websites than users aged 21-55.
They are more susceptible to cognitive load. It’s more difficult for users to retain info which appears on a previous page, or if they have to multitask and they’re more likely to be distracted from tasks if there’s irrelevant, competing info on a page.
Reluctant to try new things
Flip side of this is more likely to use functionalities they are familiar with – for instance 50% more likely to use search engines than younger users.
Very keen on blaming themselves. 90% of time they’ll blame themselves rather than their technology if something goes wrong.
So what happens to our vision?
Sadly we will all find our vision deteriorating as we grow older.
Here you can see various facts on how our eye sight declines with age.
One that really shocked me is among those over 85, one in 20 are legally blind.
I was also a bit distressed about Presbyopia as I hadn’t realised how universal and inevitable a condition this is. Presbopia is basically long-sightedness which is believed to be caused by a thickening and loss of flexibility of the lens. At what age do you think Presbyopia tends to set in?
There are various other changes which take place. We’ll see a decline in peripheral vision and contrast sensitivity and our pupils will shrink.
In addition to natural ageing of eye, there are common eye diseases can seriously affect vision: Cataracts are the most common of these. Again I was quite shocked by a statistic: as many as half of all over 65s have cateracts. My Mum had removed. Had no idea that this was such a common problem.
Another common disease is Age related Macular Degeneration – in which central vision deteriorates You can see on this slide how somebody with this condition would see over time. Not reversible.
Depressing facts. More positive note – things we can do to help.
An obvious way in which we could help older users with poor vision when using websites is to make it very easy for them to change font sizes.
Here we see a 75 year old with his Kindle – the font size he has selected when able to choose for himself is many times bigger than the average default text size on a mobile phone.
We may assume that users will know how to change the text size on their devices, but we know that many of our users don’t and they frequently say they would love it if more websites had a function on the site which allowed them to change the font size.
Now, if you were thinking that your eye sight deteriorating was bad enough, I have more good news for you now in that colour blindness also deteriorates with age and that’s not just the guys.
Ask if they know reason why?
The lens of the eye can become opaque and yellow and less violet light is registered. This affects the eye’s ability to discern closely related colors, especially in the blue-green end of the color spectrum.
Look briefly now at how our tendency to physically slow down with age can affect how we use products & technologies.
Some colleagues of ours from a research agency did some work for a home insurance website. They found that older users were having a lot of trouble using the buttons on the site. Initially very mysterious since the buttons were so large and obvious.
It eventually transpired that the buttons were programmed to submit on the up-click/release, rather than the down click.
The older users were very slow and deliberate with their mouse clicks than younger users –they tend to press down very slow and hard, and by the time they let go of the mouse button – which is when the click would have been registered – it had actually timed out so the system did not recognise their click at all.
So older users tendency to do things much more slowly can really effect how websites are used. There can be issues with timeouts, session lengths and other time based assumptions. UI faces really need to take this into consideration and accommodate older users
Similar findings came out of another study involved usage of TV remote controls. There was found to be a huge age divide with younger people being absolutely fine at using the remote and older users being almost completely unable to control the remote. Again it was discovered that older people’s gestures were markedly different from younger users they were less confident, slower, and applied more pressure. The device actually needed a very light touch – similar to using an iPad. Pressing down very slow and hard caused problems.
When the remote didn’t respond properly the problems worsened as the older users’ reactions were to apply even harder, longer button presses, thinking this was what was needed in order for it to register. One quote perfectly sums up their line of thought “it’s like a doorbell, you press long and hard to make sure the person inside hears you.”
Older users have a more mechanical, physical understanding of the world that forms their mental model when using new technology; very abstract concepts are alien to them.
Touchpad algorithms were written by younger users, and unconsciously with younger users in mind, so they didn’t know or understand the differences in movement or in mindset in order to correct the algorithms so they would work for everyone.
We’ll look now at some more specific physical issues and how these can effect how we use products.
The older we get, the more we lose muscle tone, bone strength and joint flexibility.
One of the most prevalent joint complaints is arthritis which causes inflammation and pain in our joints plus stiffness and reduced joint mobility. This can result in simple tasks taking them longer.
Parkinsons another common age-related condition. It’s a progressive neurological condition whose primary symptoms include tremor – trembling in hands, arms; rigidity – stiffness of limbs and trunk.
Both Arthritis and Parkinsons likely to cause difficulties with gripping smaller objecting so using a mouse, for instance, can become a lot more difficult, as can operating controls and switches.
Julie – Thank you Lucy
As technologists, designers, developers and researchers we all want to create products that are enjoyable, useful and usable for our users.
I’m going to show you how we can all design better products by using some simple principles that will benefit our older users.
We’re also look at a range of products that are currently in the market that are helping keep older people independent for longer and improving the quality of their lives
We need to begin with our product strategy
I mentioned earlier why we should be designing for older users
- A Growing older population –Almost a ¼ of the UK population will be over 60 in 10 yrs time
Value of grey £ = that’s £127 billion by 2030!
Very loyal and will be advocates for our brand
Include older users through your design process and understand they’re needs
Include a 70+ person in your research
Look at how, older and young people can work together e.g Have grandchild help grand parents use technology
User testing. We’ve learnt from our user research - Lots of positives about older participants some key points are
They’re v reliable, have greater availability, enthusiasm, and usually turn up early.
In Preparation
Avoid anxiety, provide very clear instructions on what to do upon arriving.We usually collect them from reception which gives us some time to chat to the participants and make them feel more relaxed.
Provide them with a pen and paper so they can take notes, as they maybe do this when using the internet at home. And provide a tablet pen if testing on a tablet.
Extra important to make participants feel comfortable.
Stress at the beginning of the session that you are testing the product such as a website and not their technical skills. Best to reiterate this throughout the process. Users will blame themselves when things don’t work well and we don’t want them to feel flustered and anxious.
Good to provide very clear upfront info on what the session will entail so users feel prepared and know what to expect. Need to stress from outset that won’t be able to give feedback which will influence their behaviour as want to make as realistic as possible. Users will often ask – should I do this now, do you want me to press this – and it can be disconcerting if you can’t answer. So emphasise reason for this early on and set their expectations.
Make concerted effort to keep the focus of the session. Many older users want to chat, often go off on tangents. Need to be vigilant in directing them back on course which can require tact, patience and assertiveness.
Avoid technical jargon during testing. Use every day language and make a note of terms which confuse them. Don’t make assumptions about users’ knowledge.
Extra time – usually take significantly longer than younger people to complete tasks. They’re likely to stop talking if the task becomes complicated so you should allow them time to think the task through.
Remember the basics (don’t let design ‘fashion’ pre-empt usability principles)
Clearly distinguish between paragraph, heading and link styles
Make links look consistent and ensure visited links change colour
Make buttons prominent
Designing for colour blindness will help older users too
Make sure click/tap-able items are easy to target, and are clutter-free,
Write to make scanning easier; use simple, short sentences; bullets aid scanning
Provide explicit instructions e.g ‘More Details..’
Trust – use padlock signs, use words such as ‘safe, secure and confidential’
We’ve talked a lot about how technology and design are failing older users but let’s remember that it can also be a huge enabler, letting older users be independent longer.
Online food shopping with big supermarkets and companies like Ocado and Amazon are great for the elderly especially if housebond, but these could benefit from improvement by making the technology being easier to use, e.g. the delivery driver showing they’re ID (for peace of mind) and being able to put the shopping away for you.
Barclays have a team of volunteers called digital eagles who run in bank training or go out to help get older people use to technology.
Services like FaceTime and skype can reduce social isolation amongst elderly and in the future automatic cars! If maybe a bit scary!
Technology can help with sight loss, hearing and monitoring health. Let’s look at some of the products in the market
The vibrating Lechal shoe, helps the blind navigate their way by a series of vibrations
There are a number of smart watches that can help predict seizures and send an alert
The Google Lens: assists diabetics by measuring glucose levels in tears
Hearing: blue tooth induction loop, many devices can connect to things like TVs, so family members with hearing loss won’t need to blast their family out of the room in order to hear (avoiding annoyance and alienation)
Audiobooks: Audiobooks are of obvious benefit for those who are housebound, restricted mobility or have poor eyesight, there is an explosion of availability of these but aren’t the easiest to use and are missing a big target market of older users. (grandma)
There’s a whole host of new technology in the market and being developed that can help support older users remain independent for longer.
Medical alarms
Medical alarms have been around for a while. User is equipped with a button to push in case of emergency. A weakness in this system is the action required by the user, who in case of a severe emergency could be unconscious and not able to able to communicate.
To solve this, Philips Lifeline has included an auto alert feature to its medical alarm, which includes fall detection with automatic access to help.
Medication monitoring
Forgetting to take medication is one of the main reasons older people are put in care homes. Remote medication monitoring can help old people remain at home for longer. Here’s a few that are currently available -
The Medminder pill dispenser reminds the user to take their medications with a series of visual or auditory alerts, and phone call reminders.
AdhereTech, sends voice or text messages to patients when it’s time to take their medication. Sensors track when the bottle is opened and how many pills are taken out at time.
We are seeing a range of Smart tablets like the Protius Biotech – these tablets have a silicon chip inside them the size of a grain of sand and after they’re swallowed theY interact with the bodies natural juices to produce a small voltage that can be read through the surface of the skin through a detector patch which sends a mobile message to let the doctor know the pill has been taken. The same technology can also be used for monitoring heart rates and medication for tuberculosis, mental health and diabetes.
Homecare monitoring systems
By using sensors placed in different locations at home, daily activity movements can be safely monitored. If and when a senior opens the refrigerator, goes to the bathroom, or takes their medication, this can all be tracked and analysed. Conversely, if the refrigerator hasn’t been opened for a long time, this could alert a loved one.
the 2010s will be known as the era of digital medical devices
Currently around 850,000 Briton’s have dementia, this is expected to increase to one million by 2025 as the aging population grows.
This GPS Tracking Device is Wearable Technology that keeps you connected to the ones you love using real time GPS tracking technology.
They don’t require users to remember to carry a separate device, nor suffer a stigma from "lock-on" bracelets or trackers.
I experienced this recently with a lost neighbour…Norman
This would have been ideal for Norman’s wife to help locate him, as she called his mobile which he’d forgotten how to answer I did answer it for him and his wife came to collect him.
I also think it would be useful to track teenagers!
Anyway Just before we finish I want to share the video on how young and old can come together to help one another.
Be warned – it’s a tear jerker!!
CNA – Speaking Exchange (watch the video on You Tube)
A great example of technology invented to get youth and the elderly together by helping one another