https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/02/designing-digital-technology-for-the-elderly/
- Avoid font sizes smaller than 16 pixels (depending of course on device, viewing distance, line height etc.).
- Let people adjust text size themselves.
- Pay particular attention to contrast ratios with text.
- Avoid blue for important interface elements.
- Always test your product using screen readers.
- Provide subtitles when video or audio content is fundamental to the user experience.
Motor Control
Our motor skills decline with age, which makes it harder to use computers in various ways. For example, during some user testing at a retirement village, we saw an 80-year-old who always uses the mouse with two hands. Like many older people, she had a lot of trouble hitting interface targets and moving from one thing to the next.
In the general population, a mouse is more accurate than a finger. But in our user testing, we’ve seen older people perform better using touch interfaces. This is consistent with research that shows that finger tapping declines later than some other motor skills.
- Enable connection with a smaller, more important group of people (not a big, undifferentiated social network).
"“I know there are things down there that I want to read” he said, gesturing to the bottom of the screen, “but I can’t figure out how to get to them.” After I taught him how to use a scrollbar, his experience changed. "" -We should assume anything when designing for older people, we take for granted even that fact that we intuitively know how to scroll
https://www.cna.com.br/sobre-cna/exchange#
video...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3885/ - Changes in Cognitive Function in Human Aging
http://ci-journal.org/index.php/ciej/article/view/778/890 - Life-based design against loneliness among older people.
- "Despite many anti-technology arguments throughout the mass media, communication technology and social media do not have to restrict or replace other forms of social contact. Quite the contrary, these technologies should be seen as tools to facilitate them."
- "As has been evidenced in the Facebook phenomenon, a vast majority of users appreciate the way they are able to re-connect with old acquaintances, friends and family with the help of social media. This would seem to be of benefit to older people, too. Being able to expand connections to reach those whom you once knew, or even making new friends with similar interests and experiences, should work to decrease the feeling of loneliness. Of course, one of the main obstacles for older people using social media as a tool for gaining and finding social contacts is not just whether or not they can use the technology but also whether or not their friends and peers are present in cyberspace." - at least we know that the youth will most likely be on social media platforms.
- "Prevention of loneliness presupposes face-to-face contact, although genuinely interactive kinds of social media can form the basis for the prevention of loneliness."
The following sub-services can be seen as logical steps in concept design:
1. Discourses;
a) Everyday chat - an easy way to build trust between people and to approach other people.
b) Hobbies - another important type of relatively neutral way to approach other people with similar interests.
c) Thoughtful consideration - earnest chats to deepen relationships.
2. Sharing;
a) Memoirs - memoirs and the possibility to find people with similar backgrounds, can be used in the search for friends.
b) Photographs –an easy way to communicate with people.
3.Tutorials (brief videos on communication, feelings and social habits);
a) Tutorials – brief pieces of information presenting typical problems associated with loneliness and coping with communication and emotional models.
b) Social discourse practices – can be helped by presentations.
4. Events;
a) Information about where one can meet other people.
5. Friend finder;
a) A service to contact other people via definable criteria.
- "In older people's lives, self-efficacy is an essential factor of coping."
- "If we wish to eliminate the difficulties encountered with usability, it is essential to find usability metaphors which remind the user of past technologies, such as the use of the traditional ringtone as an option in modern mobile phones. It is also important to eliminate any unnecessary steps in accessing a service, and it is essential to consider the difficulties of usage caused by age-related decline in vision, hearing and dexterity. The main thing is to maintain familiarity with the kinds of interfaces the target people have used over the years."
- Elimination of unnecessary steps in accessing the service can be achieved by icons with familiar metaphors for older people and accompanied by clearly readable texts.
- Technology for elders - "It should be applied to support the strengths of older people and to facilitate their participation in society.
