Designing User Interfaces for an Aging Population ─ Towards Universal Design

Designing User Interfaces for an Aging Population presents age-friendly design guidelines that are well-established, agreed-upon, research-based, actionable, and applicable across a variety of modern technology platforms. The global population is becoming more reliant on digital technology and connectedness, but at the same time it is aging: the percentage of adults over 55 is growing quickly, especially in the developed world. Older adults control a majority of disposable income, and companies, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and infrastructure providers are increasingly motivated to ensure that their products are accessible to this large potential user group. With advancing age, to varying degrees, most people experience age-related changes: visual, auditory, motor, cognitive, and motivational. These changes impact the ability of people to use digital technology, leading to experiences that are difficult, frustrating, and off-putting.

The book offers guidance for product engineers, designers, or students who want to produce technological products and online services that can be used, easily and successfully, by older adults, as well as by others. It presents typical age-related characteristics, addressing vision and visual design; hand-eye coordination and ergonomics; hearing and sound; speech and comprehension; navigation, focus, and guidance; cognition, attention, learning, and memory; content and writing; attitude and affect; and general accessibility. The authors explore characteristics of aging via realistic personas which demonstrate the impact of design decisions on actual users over age 55.

• Understand the characteristics of older adults that can hinder use of technology
• Know the guidelines for designing technology to be usable by older adults as well as younger people
• Review real-world examples of designs that implement the guidelines as well as designs that violate them