This document contains usability resources that may be of interest to those developing Web content and services for older adults.
Note that this is a brief selection of items. You may also be interested in studies from AARP and other studies and demographic information.
For a more comprehensive search, we suggest our AgeLine database, which containing detailed summaries of publications about older adults and aging, including books, journal and magazine articles, research reports, and videos.
Usability and Older Adults
- Making Your Web Site Senior Friendly (PDF)
- This checklist, published by the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine, provides research-based guidelines for making Web sites more accessible to older adults.
- Creating Senior-Friendly Web Sites (PDF)
- This brief, from the Center for Medicare Education, provides reader-friendly guidelines for designing for older adults.
- Designing for the Elderly
- This article (from the Human Factors International UI Design Update Newsletter) examines the differences between older and younger users of technology based on sensing limitations and cognitive processing. The author, Dr. Robert Bailey, then noted several "age-related inventions" that address these issues.
- Technology Needs of Aging Boomers
- As the elderly population grows more numerous and more active, the public and private sectors will have to develop specialized products and services. This article (from the National Academies Press Issues in Science and Technology) describes some key needs and suggests the sort of products and services that might address those needs.
General Usability Resources
- usability.gov
- This is a comprehensive resource sponsored and hosted by the National Cancer Institute. You can find information about usability and usability testing, tools that are available, accessibility resources, and assorted guidelines and checklists.
- IBM's "Ease of Use" site
- This is a rich site about creating great user experiences through the discipline of User Engineering, supported by design guidelines, tools, services and other relevant materials. It includes educational and marketing materials, business cases, design guidelines, and downloadable tools.
- STC's Usability SIG
- The website of STC's Usability special interest group has a variety of useful usability resources, including booklists, a usability "toolkit" and much more.
- Wichita State's Software Usability Research Lab
- "The Software Usability Research Laboratory is a service division of the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at Wichita State University. The lab provides usability services such as user interface design, usability testing, and human- computer interaction research to corporations world-wide."
- Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines
- Apple was one of the first computer companies to really address user-centered design in its products. You can download the full document from this site, or browse through HTML pages. While the document is written primarily for software developers, the Fundamentals chapter is useful to anyone creating technology interfaces.
Suggest A Resource
If you have a resource for our list, please email us at webupdate@aarp.org.