Interface Design for the Elderly Purpose of this Document This is a record the design process undertaken for the development of icons and an interface of the ConnectApp application for a user group of 80+ individuals. The document details the initial design brief, need for design and the agreed upon design goals and constraints of the project. Based on an analysis of existing applications and user scenarios, several suggestions for improving the usability of the application have been made in this document. The process and rationale behind the choice of icons, the design of the proposed interface and modification undertaken in the same have also been documented.
1. Design Brief ConnectApp is a computer based application for users of the age group 80 and above. The application enables users to keep in touch with friends and family over the internet, by providing a single window interface to send and receive emails, engage in text chat, and make telephone or video calls over the internet with the help of web cam, speakers and microphone; devices which are readily available in most desktops and laptops. The application gives indications of completion, pending, cancellation of tasks. Icons need to be developed for each of these activities namely: 1. Email 2. Text Chat 3. Telephone / Voice Chat 4. Video Chat The overall Interface is to be designed using these icons and keeping in mind the following points: 1. Visibility and Legibility 2. Simple and Intuitive functioning 3. Moving of complex processes to the background While the application is currently targeted at desktop and laptop users, in future touch-pads and touchscreen PCs which come with inbuilt Bluetooth, wireless modem, web cam and microphone should also be able to run this application.
2. Need for design and designer In the context of computer and mobile phone applications an icon is a picture or symbol used to represent a tool or function that can be performed by the application. It may also indicate formatted data files that can be accessed from within the application. Icons are important visual cues which provide an intuitive understanding of the tools or functions associated with them. The icon may be a literal, conventional or metaphoric depiction of the tool or function. A good icon is self-explanatory; the text at the bottom only serves as a confirmation of what is already understood. To develop an icon requires an understanding of the implicit meanings of objects, and how users derive meaning from images. Icons need to be simple, scalable and non-verbal; they should be understandable across languages and cultures. Within an icon set, all the icons need to be stylistically similar but at the same time, each icon should be individually discernable, sans unnecessary elements. Often an icon may stand for two different things to two different people, and this needs to be avoided. Color palette, size, scalability and future portability to mobile devices and/or touch-pads are also issues that need to be addressed.
3. Design Goals Creation of an icon set that enables Intuitive Understanding and is Consistent, Scalable and Portable Creation of an Interface that takes into account the presence of multiple service providers for email, chat, internet telephony and video calling as well as social networking and the need to manage accounts with each of these providers from a single window.
4. Design Problem Applications tend to be produced by young designers, who often assume that all users have perfect vision and motor control, and know everything about the Web. These assumptions rarely hold, even when the users are not senior citizens. However, as indicated by our usability metrics, elderly people are hurt more by usability problems than younger users. Also, many seniors retired without having used computers and the Internet extensively during their working careers. Thus, they have not necessarily learned good conceptual models of how these technologies work, which makes it more difficult to understand their quirks.
5. Beneficiaries People age 70 and older now constitute the fast growing group of computer users and information seekers on the World Wide Web. Seniors usually limit themselves to sending emails. Thus, an interface is required where they can IM with anyone on their buddy list, chat face to face, make calls etc. I am going to design an interface for elderly people to be able to communicate with their friends and family. The real target age group for this system/device appears to be 70+ and they tend to want/need physical contact. Such an interface may offer older people a place, where they do feel empowered, because they can make these connections and they can talk to people without having to ask a friend or a family member for assistance. While advanced age is not a hindrance to computer or Internet use, there are normal, gradual ageassociated declines in vision and certain cognitive abilities that may limit the use of electronic technology.
6. Design Constraints There are two obstacles that retard the universal usability for the elderly. First, most of the current elderly population has spent the bulk of their life span without computing technology, so they usually have either no or very limited experience with the technology. In addition, the elderly usually face a number of technology accessibility impediments related to income and education. A 1995 study conducted by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) indicates that income and education are far more important in determining universal access than age. Second, elderly people face technology usability impediments related to physical, mental, and cognitive impairments. Although these impairments vary a lot among elderly people, what is known is that certain abilities related to vision, hearing, psychomotor skills, attention span, and memory can degrade with age. Older people show a reduction in the width of their visual field, light sensitivity, color perceptions, resistance to glare, dynamic and static acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual search and processing, and pattern recognition. Hearing, especially the ability to hear higher pitched sounds, declines with age as do response times for certain complex motor tasks and the ability to pay attention to particular details in the presence of distracting information. Older people speak less fluently with more evidence of language planning deficits. Their reasoning ability also declines. Short-term memory does not decline much with age, but spatial memory and working memory do show impairment, which are significant predicators of
learning difficulty. So the goal of improved interface design is to minimize the burden on all these aspects, such as demands on spatial memory, working memory, visual functions and motor ability. 
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Changes in vision that occur with age can make it more difficult to read a computer screen. These include reductions in the amount of light that reaches the retina, loss of contrast sensitivity, and loss of the ability to detect fine details. Hence, only 12-14 point type sans serif fonts have been used in this interface, which makes it easier for them to read. Motor skill diminishment : Pull-down menus, hierarchically walking menus, and other moving interface elements cause problems for seniors who are not always steady with the mouse, as well as keyboard use for some sufferers. Hence, a touch-based user interface is best suitable for the elderly people. Thus, this interface can be used in touch-based devices.
6 Analysis of the existing interfaces 6.1 Email The process of delivery of the message is moved to the background, but unlike an email or letter, there is no address to be filled in. People have to be invited to chat, and once an invitation is accepted, one no longer has to key in an address, but simply press the chat button next to the chosen recipient and type out a message to them. Error in delivery occurs when there is a break in internet connection. If the recipient is not online when the message is sent, it is store automatically to be displayed the next time they login.
Fig1: Task flow diagram of sending an email from a typical email application
6.2 Instant messaging/Chatting The process of delivery of the message is moved to the background, but unlike an email or letter, there is no address to be filled in. People have to be invited to chat, and once an invitation is accepted, one no longer has to key in an address, but simply press the chat button next to the chosen recipient and type out a message to them. Error in delivery occurs when there is a break in internet connection. If the recipient is not online when the message is sent, it is store automatically to be displayed the next time they login.
Fig2: Task flow diagram for a chat session
6.3 Video and Voice-Based Calling The Voice over Internet calling is carried out in a manner similar to using a normal landline or mobile telephone. The telephone number, or alternatively the Voip Id of the person one wishes to call is dialled and the call is connected if the person happens to be at home, or online as the case may be. The job of the telephone exchange, or the Voip provider, in connecting the call to the correct person is a process hidden from the user. If the number or id is incorrect, one might connect to the wrong person, or receive an error message, dependent on the nature of the error.
Fig3: Task flow diagram of Voip/Video chat
7. Proposed Solution for Icons Most social networking sites use a similar set of icons to depict functions such as chat, call, video chat etc. Among these icons, the most recognizable are those of the envelope (email), telephone (call), speech bubble (text chat) and phonebook (contact list). Having evolved unchanged from older technology, they are best maintained – as replacing these with totally different icons would lead to confusion of meanings. I have used light graphics on dark colored backgrounds and have avoided patterned backgrounds so that it is easy on the eye. Icons and buttons are easier to find when they are large, bright, and in a color that contrasts with the background. For the present application 256 x 256px icons have been used for the home page of the application and internally the icon size has been reduced to 128 x 128px keeping in mind the simplicity of the icons, the special needs of the user group and the onscreen space requirements of other components of the interface. There are several existing internet services that provide a range of internet based communication services to registered users. These services are geared towards a specific market segment and one needs to understand how a user interacts with each of these services to best determine how ConnectApp can serve its user-group better. 7.1 Hardware, Software and Connectivity The user will be able to install the application on touchpad, mobile phone, touchscreen or internet enabled television. The basic requirements for any of these devices will be internet connectivity, touch based hardware and the presence of inbuilt mike, webcam and speakers or headphone facility.
The interface has currently been designed for a screen resolution of 1280 x 800 which is common to most desktop and laptop computers. To accommodate larger screens and resolutions are available and will
become more common in future, hardware scaling functions will be incorporated into the application so that it detects available screen size and resolution and optimally scales the application to fit the screen without distortions. I have used light graphics on dark colored backgrounds and have avoided patterned backgrounds so that it is easy on the eye. Icons and buttons are easier to find when they are large, bright, and in a color that contrasts with the background.
7.2 New Email This section deals with the sending and receiving of emails. The icon used for this section is derived from the original brown envelope used for sending mails. This icon is easy to identify by the target users.
7.3 Instant messaging/Chat This button once pressed, opens up a pop up window into which the user can type onThe icon used here has two dialogue boxes, indicating two people in a conversation.
7.4 Audio and video calling The icons used for this section are derived from the actual phone and a video camera, so that they are easily recognizable by our audience.
Audio call
Video call
8. Proposed design for the interface ConnectApp is a single-window interface. Thus, users will not have to deal with opening and closing of up multiple windows, which can lead to confusion. It has the contacts section on the left hand side which has the pictures of all the contacts. In the centre of the interface is the main window, where the function is performed. Example: Instant messaging. On the bottom, are the icons which are against a dark background and hence, easily recognizable. Once, a particular contact is chosen, the user will have to choose one of the icons and the corresponding window will appear on the main window itself.
The new future of old age is about staying in society, staying in the workplace and staying very connected. And technology is going to be a very big part of that, because the new reality is, increasingly, a virtual reality. It provides a way to make new connections, new friends and new senses of purpose.