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Usability For Older People



  • Mat Mirabella
  • Principle Accessibility / Human Factors Specialist
  • Melbourne – Australia
  • Mathew.Mirabella@team.telstra.com



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Overview

  • Some characteristics of older people


  • Is usability different for older people?


  • Some Usability Principles
    • Target Design
    • Navigation and user flow design
    • Text, icon and content design and layout
    • User Feedback, Help and Support
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Some characteristics of older people

  • Older people = our definition is 60+ years, mostly 70+ years


  • Did not grow up with computers and modern technology - may not be familiar with interfaces such as MS Windows


  • Are not likely to be familiar with the abstract model underlying many GUIs, such as menus, tree structures, etc.


  • More likely to accept UIs with real physical buttons than abstract UIs


  • Some members may be acquiring physical and sensory impairments due to aging, such as vision loss, hearing loss and dexterity difficulties.


  • May find it difficult to deal with high cognitive loads for tasks
  • e.g. losing short term memory or the ability to recall complex information


  • Are effected by issues that arise from inaccessibility of interfaces
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Is usability different for older people?

  • Older people therefore often differ from other people in terms of:


    • 1.  Physical capability (dexterity/mobility)
    • 2.  Sensory ability (vision/hearing)
    • 3.  Cognitive capacity (memory/recall)
    • 4.  Level of experience with technology

  • So making new applications usable and useful to older people is different and can be a challenge


  • But a challenge that our accessibility efforts can help to address


  • It is also largely an issue of good general usability
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Target Design

  • Regarding links, buttons and other items
    • for user selection

  • 1.  Provide large and clearly distinguished
    • targets with labels that are easy to read and understand
    • e.g. buttons on a phone handset, large links

  • 2. There should be clear and easily perceived confirmation of target capture.  Older adults should not be expected to detect small changes
    • e.g. Large highlight regions on selection

  • 3. Targets should be clearly named and should lead to unique actions
    • e.g. strong labels on buttons

  • 4. Targets should be in recognizable structures and should not be too tightly clustered in the interface
    • e.g. phone number pad grid or menu of links are recognizable structures
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Navigation and user flow design

  • Use consistent navigation tools throughout an interface with extra and bolder navigation queues
    • e.g. consistent navigation areas, bolded headings, etc.

  • Avoid fly out dynamic menus
    • e.g. those menus that appear and disappear depending on where the mouse is moved

  • Group information into meaningful categories but do not use a deep hierarchy and limit the number of items in lists
    • May seem hard to achieve - conflict of ideas?

  • Avoid scroll bars or minimize the need for scrolling
    • e.g. make web pages look like real pages

  • Provide only one open window. Pop-ups or multiple overlapping windows should be avoided


  • Provide redundancy in access to features
    • e.g. redundant links, alternative methods of access, multi modal access, DTMF key presses that do the same as speech commands on a phone system

  • Provide ample time to read information under time dependent constraints
    • e.g. older people may need more time
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Text, icon and content design and layout

  • Use simple and clear language and avoid irrelevant information
    • WCAG discusses the concept of simple and clear language - hard to define

  • Graphics and icons should be clear, simple, relevant and not for decoration. No extraneous animation should be present


  • Important information should be highlighted or made to be easily identified within the interface
    • e.g. using headings, bolding, white space and line spacing

  • Avoid moving, blinking or scrolling text (mentioned in WCAG)


  • The main body of the text should be in sentence case, not ALL CAPITAL LETTERS


  • Use san serif or serif type fonts of at least 3mm in height and avoid script or fancy font types.


  • Color should be use conservatively and should not be used as the sole means of conveying information or meaning


  • Background screens should not change rapidly or be cluttered with patterns or images that reduce contrast with the foreground content


  • Use high contrast between background and foreground content
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User Feedback, Help and Support

  • Provide help in forms of quick reference guides, tutorials and help information
    • e.g. A site map may also be useful

  • Support user control and freedom
    • Let users have control over their interactions, to go back, undo, or quit

  • Error messages should be simple, descriptive and easy to follow
    • e.g. the HTTP 404 error is not descriptive
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Recap of Overview

  • Some characteristics of older people


  • Is usability different for older people?


  • Some Usability Principles
    • Target Design
    • Navigation and user flow design
    • Text, icon and content design and layout
    • User Feedback, Help and Support
10
Reference

  • Kurniawan, Sri and Zaphiris, Panayiotis, 2005.  "Research-derived web design guidelines for older people."  Proceedings of the 7th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility.  pp. 124-135.