Successful and available: interface design exemplars for older users

An increasing number of older people will need to use computers and computer related systems in the future to avoid social exclusion and enable them to live more independently. For example, we can envisage the web becoming the first source of information on bus timetables or council collections, and even doctor or hospital appointments being handled by a Web applications. There will therefore be many interface designers searching for pointers to good design for older people, a user group which is significantly different from the mainstream user groups as a result of age associated changes. There is currently no detailed body of knowledge from which interface designers can learn how to design for this user group. This paper suggests a framework for encapsulating good interface design for older people that is based on rigorous experimental work and sets out the findings in the form of patterns, a representation previously used in the domain of software engineering and architecture.