Recently Kate and Jeff were invited by the Stanford University Computer Science Department to give a talk in the department’s “People, Computers, and Design” talk-series. The talk took place on January 10, 2014. Our talk was titled “Designing for Older Adults: Usability Considerations for Real Users“. It covered the following topics: Demographics: Age-breakdowns of users […]
A reporter from the Washington Post contacted me recently to talk about how people use smartphones. He was working on a story about the relationship between people and smartphones. His premise was that most people who have smartphones don’t understand or use most of the phone’s capabilities. Of course, I gave him an earful, some […]
A recent BayCHI session featured Don Norman, who has released a revised and expanded edition of his 25-year old classic, The Design of Everyday Things. Although the entire talk was fascinating, I was particularly struck by a couple of topics. A Little White Lie? This was definitely an audience consisting of people who totally believe […]
My article, Designing User Interfaces for Older Adults: Myth Busters, was published by UXmatters.com on October 7, 2013. In it, I describe why factoring the older population into design considerations is essential, just in terms of their numbers and how important they are to businesses, the marketplace, and the world. I present, and then debunk, […]
Re-posted by permission of the author. Edited. Original appeared on SSB BART Group, 1/8/13 by Debra Ruh, founder of Ruh Global Consulting I am a big fan of social media. I use it to chatter about the value of includingeveryone in society, with a special emphasis on the community of people with disabilities and accessible Internet, […]
Ruth Ellison wrote “Future-proof: Designing for an Ageing Population” as part of a wonderful original series on UXmas.com (a “digital advent calendar for user experience designers”). Ruth’s humorous yet expert observations are spot on, and provide a painless introduction to some of the usability and accessibility issues that Wiser Usability addresses. And, note the coincidental red-and-green colors of the […]
A Case Study of Three Travel Sites for the 50+ Traveler Dramatic aging of the global population. Ever-rising numbers of older adults online. Increasing sophistication of online apps. Growing public awareness of differently-abled individuals. Collectively, have these trends resulted in improved website design for older web users? To study this question, we conducted an independent […]
Although this topic has nothing to do with website usability, it deserves attention. At the recent Aging in America Conference, presented by the American Society on Aging, we presented a poster on “The Digital Afterlife.” This doesn’t refer to anything supernatural, but to digital artifacts (emails, photos, profiles, etc.). What happens to them after we are […]
I was pleased to read in VIA Magazine that AAA has revamped one of their sites, seniordriving.aaa.com. The article said the revision would provide new content, including advice, tools, and even brain-fitness exercises. The site officially launched March 1, 2012, and I checked it out as soon as possible. First, let me say that I love […]
I know, I know, “silver” is one of many words on a long list of how to not refer to “them.” Maybe it’s a less touchy issue in the UK than it is here in the US. But in one of my many late-night internet surfing sessions, I came across this posting and thought it […]
