On December 9th, 2010, I went to the AIST Gerontechnology Forum 2010 / International Society for Gerontechnology Japan Chapter, organized by Affective Laboratory of TokyoTech at AIST Tokyo Waterfront conference room (11th floor), Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan. I joined the workshop of Designing for Older Adults: Human Factor Approaches by Prof.Dr. Wendy A. Rogers and Prof.Dr. Arthur D. Fisk from Human Factors & Aging Laboratory, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
Assoc.Prof. Hiroyuki Umemuro opened the workshop
Prof. Wendy A. Rogers
Prof. Arthur Dan Fisk
Aging Demographic
From the research, 65-year-old Japanese men is expected to live more 23 years in the future and longer for women. Around 68.8 % of Japanese is going to continue working when they are older.
From the research, 65-year-old Japanese men is expected to live more 23 years in the future and longer for women. Around 68.8 % of Japanese is going to continue working when they are older.
In US, 65+ are living alone for 15% men and 30% women. Over 50% of them is hypertension, and other deceases. It means they need to use the medical activities. There is an increase rate of computer use for 65+ from 20 to 40% 2010 comparing with 2000. The frequent process 65+ people do is open a file, save a file, and use a printer. About Internet usage, it's quite similar with the computer usage (10 to 40%). For Japan, it is also increases.
Older adults' capabilities and limitations
Older adults' capabilities and limitations
Process of aging
Primary aging
- Normal, disease free development during adulthood (inevitable)
Secondary aging
- Developmental changes related to disease, lifestyle, environmental factor
- Tertiary aging
- Rapid loss in organs
Primary aging
- Normal, disease free development during adulthood (inevitable)
Secondary aging
- Developmental changes related to disease, lifestyle, environmental factor
- Tertiary aging
- Rapid loss in organs
Movement control limitations
- Response time slows and more variable
Percentage of people in each age that require visual correction, Cataracts, Glaucoma or other Visual Impairments
The need of visual correction increases when people grow older, the maximum is around 60 plus. The speech intelligibility is also going down when people grow older.
Cognitive aging
Decline in
- Working memory
- attention limits
- Multiple tasking
Some remain intact
- Verbal ability
- General knowledge
- Schemas and scripts
- Previous experience
- Metacognition
Design guidelines
Decline in
- Working memory
- attention limits
- Multiple tasking
Some remain intact
- Verbal ability
- General knowledge
- Schemas and scripts
- Previous experience
- Metacognition
Design guidelines
The general way of guideline is to view an older as adult's system as "a noisy information channel". We need to boost the signal strength, like increase the size of visual objects (font size, icon size). And decrease the noise, like isolate messages from other message channels, and maintaining the consistent positioning of target items.
Good design for text
- Black on white 28 point is better than gray and smaller font
- Black on white 28 point is better than gray and smaller font
Design input device
- Match it with the task demands
- Direct: for pure pointing and clicking tasks
- Indirect: experienced users, combined input tasks,large movements, precision
- Speech recognition: restrictions in manual dexterity; low ambient noise level
- Keyboard input
- Use large keys with clear markings and inter-key spacing
- Provide tactile and auditory feedback with keypads
Remote example
Remote example
Comparison of good and bad design of remote control
Design output device
- High contrast between characters and background
- Text size 0.6 degrees of visual angle or greater on display
- Shield visual output screens from glare
- Provide an adaptive, adjustable display (with instruction)
- Important warning message
Interface design
- Minimize clutter
- Visual: too many display items in any one location
- Auditory: too many sounds to make sense out of such as warning tones
- Cognitive: too many things to keep in memory
- Movement related: too many or too small response items
- Ensure that characters and targets are conspicuous and accessible
- Font size less than 12 should be avoided
- Icons should be large enough to select easily
- Auditory information should be presented at the proper pitch, frequency, and rate
Interface design-Navigation
- Screen scrolling should be minimized ( especially horizontal scrolling)
- Provide the site map
- Provide search history
- Indicate clearly where the user currently is
- Provide the navigation assistance for linking
Interface design - information organization
- Frequent and important actions should be easily visible and accessible
Interface design-Navigation
- Screen scrolling should be minimized ( especially horizontal scrolling)
- Provide the site map
- Provide search history
- Indicate clearly where the user currently is
- Provide the navigation assistance for linking
Interface design - information organization
- Frequent and important actions should be easily visible and accessible
- Optimize information organization within natural or consistent groupings
- Develop the menu structure to match medium
One of the good examples is the web site that we can search by both letter and category.
One of the good examples is the web site that we can search by both letter and category.
Example of bad design of web page
Example of better design of web page
You can see the tips at Making Your Website Senior Friendly (National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine).
Anyway, the Golden rule is a user testing.
Involving older adults
Methods in the human factor & aging lab
- Questionnaires
- Structured Interviews
- Diary Studies
- Observation
- Experiments
- Field Trials
General consideration
Selecting a representative sample
- depends on research question
Aging in place issues
Technology use problem (user testing)
Benefit of computer system in home
Structuring testing environment
- Minimize distractions and ambient noise
- Ensure adequate lighting
- Adjust screens to accommodate size differences and eyeglasses
- Comfortable chairs
Actually, it is important for everyone, but especially for older adults.
Format of materials
- High contrast text of background
- 6th grade reading level
- Minimize jargon
- > 14 point San serif font
- Avoid fancy font, even it looks fun
Framing your questions
- Distance yourself from developer
- Use reminder
- Provide scenario to elicit opinion
- Video or demonstration of technology
- Goals
Pacing of events & Timing of sessions
- Recognize that environment may be foreign to older adults
- Allow time to get acclimated
- Sequence task easy to difficult
- Provide basic instructions
- Assume 1.5 times needed by younger
- Allow time to break
Pilot test everything
- clarity of instruction
- working of materials
- timing of tasks and overall session
- explain pilot testing to participants open and honest
Technology Acceptance
Attitudes
- Identify barriers to adoption
- Instrusiveness, privacy, security concerns
- Conditional adoption
Older adult does not use tech as much as younger adult. They concern about tech description, and others.
Introduction new technology to older adults
- Recognize their unique preferences, capabilities, limitation, and experiences
- Provide written, well-designed instructional material
- Ensure that perceptions are accurate reflections of the complexity and ease of use of the technology
- Do not assume users will understand why technology might be useful to them, make benefits explicit
I like the sentence that they mention during the discussion period, "We should not think about what technology can do, but we should think about what the technology should do."
General consideration
Selecting a representative sample
- depends on research question
Aging in place issues
Technology use problem (user testing)
Benefit of computer system in home
Structuring testing environment
- Minimize distractions and ambient noise
- Ensure adequate lighting
- Adjust screens to accommodate size differences and eyeglasses
- Comfortable chairs
Actually, it is important for everyone, but especially for older adults.
Format of materials
- High contrast text of background
- 6th grade reading level
- Minimize jargon
- > 14 point San serif font
- Avoid fancy font, even it looks fun
Framing your questions
- Distance yourself from developer
- Use reminder
- Provide scenario to elicit opinion
- Video or demonstration of technology
- Goals
Pacing of events & Timing of sessions
- Recognize that environment may be foreign to older adults
- Allow time to get acclimated
- Sequence task easy to difficult
- Provide basic instructions
- Assume 1.5 times needed by younger
- Allow time to break
Pilot test everything
- clarity of instruction
- working of materials
- timing of tasks and overall session
- explain pilot testing to participants open and honest
Technology Acceptance
Attitudes
- Identify barriers to adoption
- Instrusiveness, privacy, security concerns
- Conditional adoption
Older adult does not use tech as much as younger adult. They concern about tech description, and others.
Introduction new technology to older adults
- Recognize their unique preferences, capabilities, limitation, and experiences
- Provide written, well-designed instructional material
- Ensure that perceptions are accurate reflections of the complexity and ease of use of the technology
- Do not assume users will understand why technology might be useful to them, make benefits explicit
I like the sentence that they mention during the discussion period, "We should not think about what technology can do, but we should think about what the technology should do."
For more information, you can visit their website at http://psychology.gatech.edu/hfa
Ref.
[1] Summarized from Workshop: Designing for Older Adults: Human Factor Approaches by Prof.Dr. Wendy A. Rogers and Prof.Dr. Arthur D. Fisk, AIST Gerontechnology Forum 2010, December 9, 2010.
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