Designing a portal for older users

Abstract

A multidisciplinary team from industry, government, and academia developed prototype email, Web search, and navigation systems for users over 60 years old who were inexperienced in using computers and had never used the Internet. The academics encountered problems in persuading other team members of the specific challenges of designing for and working with older people. A number of ways of overcoming such challenges were implemented, and the final “radically simple” systems evaluated by a team of older people. The collaboration highlighted the conflicting pressures of the commercial world and the time and patience needed to design for older users.