the changing landscape of web users: how to design for an aging population - lea cuniberti-duran and...
TRANSCRIPT
T H E C H A N G I N G L A N D S C A P E O F W E B U S E R S : H O W T O D E S I G N F O R A N A G I N G P O P U L AT I O N
UXPA 2015 - SAN DIEGO
L E A C U N I B E R T I - D U R A N A N D K R Y S B L A C K W O O D
W H O A R E S E N I O R S / O L D E R A D U LT S ?
• 65+ years old
• Live on a fixed income
• Average income per person: $21,000 from Social Security and pensions
S E N I O R P O W E R !
• One of the fastest growing segments on the web
• 39M according to 2010 U.S. Census
• 10,000 Baby boomers retire everyday
O T H E R C O N S I D E R AT I O N S
• Designing for seniors will make your site accessible to pretty much everybody else
• Implementing good practices: Older Adults are particularly effected by poor usability standards
• Other populations may benefit from a senior-friendly design approach
• Low/impaired vision
• Little technological experience
• English learners
O L D E R A D U LT S O N L I N E
• 59% who are 65 or older go online
• 47% have broadband
• Once online it becomes a regular part of their lives
• 71% go online everyday
• 82% go online at least weekly
T O P M O T I VAT I O N S T O G O O N L I N E
• 75% to stay in contact with family and friends
• 58% to shop online
• 53% to research about health care or medical issues
• 46% to look for bargains on products
• 40% to keep up with the community
• 17% to watch TV, shows, videos, etc.
I N T E R N E T U S A G E VA R I E S B Y A G E
• Seniors who use the internet and adopt technology tend to be younger, more educated and affluent.
• Baby boomers
• Have at least some college
• Income above average ($30,000+)
• Live in an urban or suburban area
T E C H N O L O G Y
0
25
50
75
100
Cell Phone Desktop/laptop Smartphone Tablet
= Seniors over 65 yo
= All adults
T E C H N O L O G Y A D O P T I O N
• A substantial majority of seniors express trepidation about using new digital tools or devices without assistance
• Physical challenges play a role in technology adoption
• Less likely to go online
• Less likely to have broadband
• Less likely to own a smartphone
AT T I T U D E
• Attitudes toward technology differ based on age
• 60yo+ (Baby boomers)
• More apt at exploring
• 70yo+ (Greater Generation)
• Risk adverse
E F F E C T S O F A G I N G O N T H E E Y E
• Presbyopia (not being able to focus at close distance)
• Cataracts (yellowing of the lenses)
• Reduced pupil size (heightened sensitivity to glare, contrast, low lighting ).
• Decreased color vision
• Loss of peripheral vision. (Glaucoma)
Most common conditions experienced by older adults
O T H E R C O M M O N V I S U A L P E R C E P T I O N D E F I C I T S
• Decreased ability to visually compare elements (what is the same and what is different)
• Trouble decoding and recognizing icons
“Visual search is the common task of looking for something in a cluttered visual environment. The item that the observer is searching for is termed the target, while non-target items are termed distractors. ”
V I S U A L S E A R C H
V I S U A L S E A R C H I N O L D E R A D U LT S
• Significant changes in eye tracking speed and accuracy
• Reduced ability to detect changes in the visual stimuli
• Decline in peripheral vision
S E N I O R S C O N D U C T V I S U A L S E A R C H E S B Y S C A N N I N G L E F T T O R I G H T T O P T O B O T T O M
T Y P O G R A P H Y B E S T P R A C T I C E S F O R O L D E R A D U LT S
• Font size: 16 px or greater
• Font weight should be at least regular (avoid thin, light, etc)
• Contrasting font color
• Left align
T Y P O G R A P H Y B E S T P R A C T I C E S F O R O L D E R A D U LT S
Typographical golden ratio:
Line Width = Font Size x Font Height
E F F E C T S O F A G I N G O N H E A R I N G
• Seniors have difficulties with:
• Filtering background sounds
• Loss of high pitch sounds
• Understanding fast speech
• Think about this! how many instructional videos currently on the web have one or more of the characteristics listed here?
E F F E C T S O F A G I N G O N M O T O R S K I L L S
• Lower dexterity
• Seniors look at keyboard while typing TIP: avoid auto-populate
• Fitt’s Law is amplified: mice are hard to use
E F F E C T S O F A G I N G O N C O G N I T I O N
• Reduced processing speed
• Greater tendency to be distracted
• Reduced capacity of their working memory
• Reduced confidence as they question their own abilities and memory
T I R E D O F “ S C A R E TA C T I C S ”
• They express a lot of fatigue around negative messaging
• “Don’t tell me what to do, let me decide and help me do it”
• Hungry for neutral and unbiased advice
• Encouragement, positive spin, inviting, empowerment all good themes
T R U S T I S S U E S
• Lots of stories of people being taken advantage of
• Wary of the hard sell
• Suspicious of advertising: they know the cost gets passed on to them.
• Read the fine print
• Often they have at least one story of having been duped or bullied
T H E Y D O I T T H E I R W AY
• Frequently print pages and emails so they can review them later Tip: think about your print stylesheet and optimize for readability
• Will read every word on a page Tip: links in content/body
• Use their own terminologyTip: make sure you aren’t using lingo
T R U S T B U T V E R I F Y
• 50% want to pick up the phone and talk to a human being. 50% want to get information emailed to them or online. TIP: Have a prominent phone number in addition to online exploration
• Very thorough about doing their homework TIP: Provide meaningful content that brings value to the user
• Whether online or on phone, they want a human connection TIP: Use imagery with people