Calgary Web Designer Jenn Armour | Info Architecture + User Centric Web Design + Online Marketing + Social Media + Ideas

Usability & Design for Adults 50+

// October 16th, 2006 // Strategy

More than 40 million U.S. adults over 50 are online. “They bank, they buy, they search, they read, they contribute.” –older, wiser, wired

Are we surprised? I was!. I think this group is often overlooked as a non-target audience.

The Internet enriches many seniors’ lives, but most websites violate usability guidelines, making the sites difficult for seniors to use. Current websites are twice as hard to use for seniors than for non-seniors. – Jakob Neilson

If we want to include this massive user group we need to pay attention thier needs and habits. In studying best practices for seniors’ alot can be learned about design for all users.

Some differentiations of seniors’ user habits

• Older users generally take more steps than younger users in finding the same amount of information.
• Usually the greatest factor affecting older web users is their decline in vision.
• Older adults have reduced attention spans.

DESIGNING WEB SITES FOR OLDER ADULTS: HEURISTICS

a heuristical analysis

RESEARCH BASED GUIDELINES MAKING SITES MORE ACCESSIBLE TO ALL ADULTS

National Institute on Aging has a great checklist to aid designers in facilitating better design for seniors’

Aging Checklist

The Nielson Norman Group has published an exhaustive usability study on Seniors’ using habits. You can purchase it for $125USD

46 Design Guidelines Based on Usability Studies with People Age 65 and Older