Designing Technology With The Older Population In Mind
Human-Computer Interaction Considerations
Abstract — The senior user base, which we will define as sixty-five years or older, is often overlooked during the design of new technologies, apps, or devices. Many human functions, such as hearing, sight, and motor skills, decline rapidly after this age, causing difficulties when interacting with small devices and non-intuitive interfaces. This article will analyze current design patterns of technology, their appropriateness for the elderly, and find recommendations for designing interfaces with the older population in mind.
The tech industry today is dominated by software engineers and product owners in their twenties and thirties. It is easy to forget that older people are also part of the user base when designing new digital products, apps, and smart technologies. There are many human functions such as motor skills, vision, and hearing that rapidly decline after the age of sixty-five, many of those beginning to decline earlier in life. There are also many user interface elements that younger people have embedded in their second nature, such as the scroll bar, search bar, or navigation bar. But lack of digital experience usually causes the elderly to stumble while trying to navigate a website or app. Poor design choices can cut off the older population from reaping the benefits of technology. Just like the younger population uses technology to instantly communicate through messaging, video chat with family across the country, share photos through social media, and even stay healthy through fitness apps, the older generation has their own set of needs that can be achieved with technology in hand. We will look into what design patterns make an interface friendlier to the elderly, what the elderly have to say after having used technology, and discuss why it is important to include the older population with new waves of technology.
In many wealthy countries, people over the age of sixty-five are the fastest-growing demographic, and they are becoming a big consumer of modern digital products. Around 19% of people in the U.S. will be over the age of sixty-five by 2030 [6]. This is a large portion of the population that would be left out if interface designers and new devices do not acknowledge the needs of the elderly.
A majority of software engineers and product designers are in their early twenties and thirties, so it is safe to say that technology is being designed mostly by young people for young people. An important consideration is that the current generation of seniors, born between 1946 and 1964 and known as the Baby Boomer generation, is far more likely to have had substantial experience with technology during careers or in the latter half of their adult life [6]. The seniors from 10–15 years ago were much less likely to have used computers and tablets in their work and personal life. Thus, digital literacy is on the rise and today’s seniors will behave and interact with technology more fluently than the seniors from twenty years ago.
User Persona
After collecting information about the older generation, I developed a fictional representation of an elderly woman, depicted in Fig. 1, to illustrate the physical and social qualities that may be typical amongst the elderly. The user persona created describes an elderly woman who is really interested in using technology in her everyday life, and more importantly, even needs technology to accomplish important tasks. There are a few important takeaways. She wants to be independent and learn things on her own, so easy access and understanding of technology will be crucial. Her physical abilities to interact with devices that require touch, or point and click, might be limited due to her trembling in the right hand. Lastly, technology is a vital part of how she communicates with her children and grandchildren. Being able to use a video communication system is important for her daily communication with her family. She also strives to become a more active Facebook user by learning how to post her own pictures and be more involved with online media by starting her own baking blog.
The Elderly Relationship With Technology
The elderly make up a diverse and large consumer base. Technology is an impactful part of their lives and can improve the quality of their life. But, the internet, apps and devices do not consider challenges the elderly need to overcome in order to interact with technology designed for the younger population. Interface design, such as text, colors, icons, and assistive features, are important as well as providing instructions to guide a new user of an application.
Technology Can Change Their Lifestyle
Technology can simplify and assist with the everyday tasks of the elderly. They can use the internet to pursue interests, shop, manage money, follow current events, research topics, and stay in touch with family and friends [6]. This is very similar to how a younger person relies on technology to accomplish their everyday tasks. Seniors can use apps like Uber and Lyft to easily get around rather than driving themselves or having a family member transport them. A growth in virtual healthcare, also called telemedicine, allows for connection with doctors via video camera so a patient with limited transportation does not have to worry about leaving their home. This virtual connection allows health care professionals to monitor important vital signs and conduct teleconferences with their patients on a regular basis, increasing doctor and patient interactions [8]. Another useful online service is grocery shopping and food delivery. Elders do not have to worry about leaving their homes, carrying heavy grocery bags, or pushing a cart. Next, they can pursue their hobbies and interests because video streaming gives them access to endless content and the ability to learn new things without going anywhere. One way this is used is to learn new hobbies like baking, golfing, or gardening. Video streaming is a cross-age service that can benefit just about anyone who is curious about learning online. Lastly, there are many apps for mind games and physical exercises. These are used by the elderly to practice memory and cognition and even are recommended by health professionals to maintain a healthy brain. In a Nielson Norman group research study, an 87-year-old participant stated: “going online has made me feel so much more independent [6].” Independence is a quality that is of primary importance to our user persona above, and especially to elders that want to live alone and not ask family and friends for assistance with everyday tasks.
Identifying Physical and Mental Differences
After the age of sixty-five, the elderly face unique challenges when using websites and apps. This is because of physical, mental, and generational differences. It becomes harder for them to read text that is small and close. Text that has similar colors becomes hard to distinguish, especially shades of blue. Motor skills decline with age, especially with chronic illnesses like Parkinson’s, making it harder for seniors to point and click on tiny interface elements and move the mouse from one thing to the next. Research has shown that tapping is much friendlier to the elderly because finger tapping declines later than other motor skills [1]. The elderly also prioritize different kinds of relationships than do younger users. They tend to prefer connecting with a smaller group of people, such as their immediate family and close friends, whereas younger users prioritize social networks [1]. Next, there is a gap in digital experiences. The elderly are described by the term “digital immigrant”, having adopted technology at a later point in life. “Digital natives” are the generation who were born into technology; they are like native speakers of a language [4]. When faced with a new product, natives can quickly understand or experimentally figure out the interface. In contrast, digital immigrants want to read a manual first. The older population did not grow up with apps or devices, so interface elements are not second nature to them. Repeated digital experiences have programmed younger users’ brains to build mental models of their digital experiences [4]. In contrast, a lack of digital experience makes it hard for the elderly to build a mental model of an app or device. Apps do not come with instruction manuals, but many older people are used to reading paper instruction manuals. Lastly, there is a difference in the levels of memory and attention. Short term memory, which is remembering recent events, and prospective memory, which is remembering to do something in the future, begin to suffer. But, the attention span and methodical behaviors of the elderly excel far beyond younger users. Older people tend to be able to focus on one thing for a long period of time.
Usability Challenges
How do these differences affect the interactions that the elderly have with devices and interfaces? The internet is unfriendly for people with bad eyesight. Readability of text is an issue as well as elements like buttons, dropdowns, and links that are displayed at a small size cause difficulty when tapping or clicking. Many apps are inflexible in how they receive input. For example, a calendar date/time selector is difficult for an older person to navigate and click. It would be more usable if the date could be typed in the proper format or even recorded through voice input in order to accommodate users that are not able to click through a calendar widget. Next, there can be error messages that are hard to understand, too technical, or are unclear on what to do next. There are also some icons that are not intuitive to digital immigrants. For example, the bell icon for notifications or the gear icon for settings does not explain itself if you are a beginner with technology. These challenges make it hard for the elderly to accomplish tasks on devices and make them feel inadequate to use technology. Inaccessible design choices can be unfriendly for users of all ages as well. In a Nielsen Norman study of teenage users of technology, they found that “teenagers dislike tiny font sizes as much as adults do [10].” The teens expressed that they had to squint to read font sizes that were smaller than 16. Small text size draws complaints from teenagers too, and if a feature irritates young users then it will definitely be a substantial barrier for the elderly.
Feedback From the Elderly
A focus group study conducted by researchers in the United Kingdom, titled “Older Adults Perceptions of Technology and Barriers to Interacting with Tablet Computers: A Focus Group Study” [9], recorded themes and subthemes, illustrated in Fig. 2, expressed by the elderly when asked about technology usage. They interviewed eighteen people, between 65–76 years old, who were novice tablet users. The participants expressed these four main themes regarding tablets and technology after the interviews: barriers to technology, disadvantages and concerns, advantages, and skepticisms about using technology in general.
A subtheme of note under the “Barriers to using technologies and tablets” theme is lack of instructions and guidance, and participants noted that if there were instructions, they were too technical. One participant expressed, “The manual is written by the techies. It’s not written by [users] and that’s probably a big message to send to the manufacturer [9].” The instructions for a technical device must be conscious that users of all ages and from all places will be reading to learn how to use the device. And the biggest seeker of instruction manuals will be digital immigrants, not digital natives. Thus, it would be safer to write the manual at an elementary level, without any assumptions of technical knowledge. Another participant said it would be helpful to have “A little handout with each tablet showing what the keys are for [9].” It seems like the elderly are looking for guidance when it comes to using new technology, but a lot of modern devices and apps do not come with manuals. It is hard for them to intuitively identify the features of an app, but if they were given the opportunity to learn all the useful features of a device, they could experience the full potential of technology. One of the negative features of tablets expressed by a participant was, “I think the buttons are far too difficult to handle and they should have a label on them saying what they are [9].” We will later discuss how labeling a graphic icon with text is not only helpful to beginners with technology, but results in an overall improvement of app usability. Lastly, the participants said the positive features of tablets were portability, versatility, convenience, and easy access to information. At the end of the focus group, 94.4% of participants rated their tablet experience as excellent and 66.6% stated they would be likely or very likely to use a tablet in the future [9].
Problem
The biggest drawback for seniors when it comes to using technology is they feel like the design of devices and interfaces is not inclusive. In order to tailor to the elderly, many devices are being designed specifically for the older population, trying to target their needs. Usually, these products are a simplified, less powerful version of another product that the younger population uses every day. The problem is these devices are exclusionary and make the older population feel isolated from modern technology. The GrandPad senior tablet is shown in Fig. 3.
The name suggests that it is designed for grandparents and might be unappealing to the older population. Second, the user interface does not look modern; it is redesigned to largely highlight important features like phone and photos. It even has written instructions to tap left and right on the arrow keys to see more. The device can be configured to pull photos from Facebook and Instagram and display them on a photostream, allowing seniors to have access to photos of their family and friends without having to dive deep into social media platforms [7]. The concept and execution definitely seem more usable for digital immigrants, but it also is evident that it is like training wheels for technology. A participant in the study described above expressed a feeling of inadequacy when using technology. He stated, “My children just look at a piece of equipment and they’re off. […] My brain is just not built to deal with half of the technology out there. I wish I was more the other way, I really do, because I am aware of the being left behind I suppose [9].” Another participant felt disconnected from his son when it came to technical knowledge. He says, “My son is just too fast. He says it’s common sense, use your brain, you should know this. They just have no patience […] they expect to tell you once [9].” The elderly feel a big gap between themselves and the younger generation, and this leads to decreased confidence when using technology. The elderly are aware that their son, daughter, or grandchildren are not using the GrandPad tablet or similar devices, and this makes it difficult for them to feel included with modern technology.
Improvements
When it comes to designing the next iPhone, Android device, tablet, or website, including the following features will not only increase usability for seniors but will also be a general improvement for users of all age levels. First, keep the actions on the screen to a minimum. This allows the user to focus on one task and not be overwhelmed by buttons, symbols, or text that is not essential to the interface [3]. Always give clear feedback during a process or after completing a task [5]. For the elderly, this validates if they are interacting with the interface correctly. For the younger population, knowing the status of an action, such as submitting a form, is an important visual indicator that an operation performed successfully. The messages in Fig. 4 illustrate how clear text, icons, and color can be combined to provide an easy to understand feedback GUI (graphical user interface).
The messages above also practice pairing icons with text. Not all icons are intuitive, such as the gear for settings or the bell for notifications. It will only be beneficial to pair these with their respective meaning, even for users who are experienced. An interface designer should check design color choices by using online visual impairment simulators. This is beneficial for the elderly who begin to lose quality of vision and for color-blind individuals. Next, automatically having subtitles for all video and voice provides optimal usability for the hearing impaired or seniors who suffer from hearing loss. Embracing these accessible design patterns will expand the reach of many online retailers, applications, and online consumer services, allowing seniors to perform more tasks online.
Recommended Solutions
So, what is the best step a developer and product designer can take when designing for a user base that should also include seniors? One suggested solution is called parallel experiences [4]. A parallel experience is a design solution for users at different levels of digital and technical experiences, allowing them to change the preference setting at any time. The entire front end experience would adjust for the selected level. This is not exclusionary because it gives the user control over their preferred experience. Some of these improvements may not only apply to the elderly, and this is because the impacts of aging do not strictly begin at age 65. We need to consider the impacts of human aging on usability long before. The advantage of parallel experiences is that the elderly could use the same devices as the younger population. Another advantage is user customizability based on any physical or mental hindrances.
When it comes to using new technology, 77% of seniors say they will need assistance and won’t be able to figure it out on their own [4]. This is due to a lack of appropriate instructions, designed to accommodate a diverse user base. Thus, the second solution I will suggest is providing a form of guidance or instruction with the purchase of a new device. This handbook would be optional, and stores like Apple, Best Buy, or online purchases, could ask customers if they would like a copy of an instructional handbook to guide them through using the device. This would be helpful for describing what an icon means, different touch features that are available, how to use voice control, how to download new apps, and much more. These tasks are intuitive to a digital native, and even if they are faced with a new device, they can iteratively figure out how to navigate it. But, the digital immigrant is better at performing tasks accompanied by instructions. Application designers should highly consider including a walkthrough or product tour for all new users. A walkthrough is a way of making someone familiar with an app and shows that app designers are thinking of first-time users.
A good example of an interactive tour is implemented by the Duolingo app in Fig. 5 above. The app guides users as they interact with it, and explains new features and functions as they are used. The app feels more personal, engaging, and explains new features simply [11]. This would be helpful especially for the older population who want to be independent and learn about technology on their own and cannot intuitively figure out a new app by the icons.
An example of a “don’t” when introducing a user to a new app is illustrated in the leftmost screen of Fig. 6. It shows an “empty state” page, which is a page in the experience that may not have any content yet. The worst thing to do in the case of an empty state is to drop the user into a dead end, causing confusion, uncertainty, and a greater likelihood of ending their interaction with the app. The page states, “No challenges”. There are no examples and no guidance. A better design of an empty state page would provide the user with an obvious way to move forward, shown in the rightmost screen of Fig. 6. The screen is used as a learning opportunity and explains what the plus icon can do, even pointing the user with an arrow towards the plus icon.
In addition to the improvements suggested above, an instructional manual or more guided walkthroughs will help close the knowledge gap between younger and older technology users, helping the older population feel more confident when using new technology.
The elderly want to be engaged and feel included with modern technology, and this will only happen if interfaces optimize for their accessibility. A first step would be to design interfaces with the HCI (human-computer interaction) practices mentioned under “Improvements” in mind. Very modern interfaces tend to overly simplify navigation, icons, and important functions, but it should not be assumed that all people can intuitively understand simplistic interface design. A lot of the design recommendations made, such as pairing icons with text, text size, color choices, and giving clear feedback, are applicable to both immigrants of technology as well as native users. I see preference-based interfaces, such as designing parallel experiences, to be a leading way in transitioning the elderly into modern technology. Instruction manuals and application walkthroughs will provide another boost in usability for new digital products, which will help bridge the gap between experienced and non-experienced users of technology.
References
[1] Campbell, Ollie. “Designing For The Elderly: Ways Older People Use Digital Technology Differently.” Smashing Magazine, 5 Feb. 2015, www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/02/designing-digital-technology-for-the-elderly/
[2] Alering, Alisa. “Designing Technologies That Older Adults Actually Want.” Science Node, sciencenode.org/feature/designing-technologies-that-older-adults-actually-want.php .
[3] Digital, Spire. “Accessible Design: Designing for the Elderly.” Medium, UX Planet, 28 Feb. 2019, uxplanet.org/accessible-design-designing-for-the-elderly-41704a375b5d.
[4] Tenhue, Nicholas. “A Human-Centered Take on Seniors and Technology.” UX Blog, UX Blog, 3 Oct. 2017, theuxblog.com/blog/ux-for-elderly-seniors.
[5] Toxboe, Anders. “User Interface Design Patterns.” UI Patterns, ui-patterns.com/.
[6] Kane, Lexie. “Usability for Seniors: Challenges and Changes.” Nielsen Norman Group, www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-for-senior-citizens/.
[7] Brandon, John. “GrandPad Senior Tablet Review: This Easy-to-Use Device Can Help Families Stay Connected.” TechHive, TechHive, 18 Feb. 2015, www.techhive.com/article/2885061/grandpad-senior-tablet-review-this-easy-to-use-device-can-help-families-stay-connected.html.
[8] Ng, Emily. “Heart Failure Telemedicine Programs Prove Effective Six Months after Discharge, Study Finds.” Heart Failure Telemedicine Programs Prove Effective Six Months after Discharge, Study Finds | Northwell Health, Northwell Health, 24 Dec. 2019, feinstein.northwell.edu/news/heart-failure-telemedicine-programs-prove-effective-six-months-after-discharge-study-finds.
[9] Vaportzis E, Clausen MG, Gow AJ. “Older Adults Perceptions of Technology and Barriers to Interacting with Tablet Computers: A Focus Group Study.” Front Psychol. 2017; 8:1687. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5649151/
[10] Alita, Joyce. “Teenager’s UX: Designing for Teens.” Nielsen Norman Group, 17 March 2019, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-of-websites-for-teenagers/
[11] Babich, Nick. “Mobile App Onboarding: The Do’s and Don’ts.” Shopify, 10 March, 2017. https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/mobile-app-onboarding
