Older people may neglect applications that are not useful to them. However, if they see the benefits of using an app or website, they’ll be motivated to use it regularly and to respond to notifications. To motivate elderly  to use an app, designers should make sure an app is useful and easy to use.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The older population (age over 65) comprises 8.5% of people worldwide (617 million) (2015, U.S. Census Bureau), and it is expected to double by 2050. As people age, they go through physiological and cognitive changes. When we design it is important to design for older people, we need to understand and accommodate to their physiological and cognitive changes. Things to consider:
-	Vision changes
-	Motor skills
-	Memory and Concentration
-	Motivation
-	Social Factors


Interface Design for Older Adults

https://www.toptal.com/designers/ui/ui-design-for-older-adults

Visual changes are common among older people, UI designers should consider the changes, for some older adults it is hard to read small fonts, also shades of blue may appear faded for them and that mean changes should be made to the interface elements to accommodate the vision changes. Things to do to ensure a website is designed for older adults:

•	Changes to interface elements: 
        Using larger font sizes (minimum of 16px)
        Using readable fonts: Sans serif typefaces 
        Using larger buttons
        Using larger icons and it should be labeled 

•	Increasing color contrast.

•	The text is easy interpreted

•	Including subtitles when using video or audio content


Vision changes

As people age, cognitive decline might happen. The speed to process information will slow which might take a longer time to complete a task and complex tasks will be challenging for them.

Designers should consider these limitations, gradually introduce product characteristics—progressive disclosure and minimalist design—can help prevent cognitive overload from slower mental processing speeds in older adults. Ensure their attention is not distracted by limiting the tasks and parts of a screen. Provide clear feedback on progress and remind them of the end goal. Avoid splitting tasks into multiple screens if they require memory of previous actions. Follow user friendly design and include reminders, notification and tooltips.

Memory and Concentration

Motivation

Older adults prefer to connect with smaller, more intimate groups of people and may limit connections to close friends and family members. They also concerned about privacy and security and they are selective about who they share data with.
Designers should make sure that privacy and security settings are easy to manage. They should also strive to be transparent in how information is used, and be forthcoming about any data breaches to ensure trust is maintained among older users.


Social Factors

As people age, motor skills might decline which make some interactions challenging. To improve interaction, visual cues need to be clear, easy to understand and easy to interact with. Things to consider improving interactions: increase button size for apps and websites commonly used by older people, gestures should be simple to perform (consider gestures that could be performed with one hand), movements should be simple horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, and avoid gestures with quick movements and that require the of both hands or more than two fingers. 


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