Designing Displays for Older Adults

by Richard Pak, Anne McLaughlin

Literally hundreds of papers have been written about interface issues experienced by older adults, but how many actually influence the designs older adults use? The sheer number of articles available, the fast pace of the industry, and time constraints combine to build barriers to knowledge transfer from theory into practice. A distillation of decades of published research, Designing Displays for Older Adults is a primer on age-related changes in cognition, perception, and behavior organized into meaningful principles that improve understanding. Using theory backed up by evidence provides an understanding of why we see certain problems with many displays and often predicts solutions. This understanding surpasses an individual interface and provides practitioners with ways to plan for older adults on multiple display types. Based on this, the book delineates the theories, then explores how to apply them in real design exercises, providing specific guidelines for display examples that bridge theory and practice. The authors explore the complex set of mental and physical changes that occur during aging and that can affect technology acceptance, adoption, interaction, safety, and satisfaction. This book provides a fundamental understanding of age related change and explores how such information can influence design from the very beginning stages, rather than waiting for testing to reveal the problems users have with the product. The authors open the way for designing with an understanding of these changes that results in better products and systems for users in all life stages.

211 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 16, 2010