View http://brightercollective.com/user-experience/healthcare-websites-for-seniors/
This is an interesting piece that deals with a very specific demographic, but in all reality the advice can be extrapolated to any potential audience member.
Design is ever changing. Take a look at the trends of today compared even to three years ago; it’s a different world. We don’t need to wax poetic about why it’s different. This time around it so happens to be responsive web design but last time it was something else and next time it’ll be something we can’t imagine quite yet. Design constantly evolves, and when it comes to user interface, we’re still learning a lot.
Every few years we get this surge and conglomeration around seemingly obvious talking points that for one reason or another went ‘unnoticed’ until now. The name of the game today is simplify. Everyone loves it, how can you not? There are many ways to simplify a design and even more reasons behind the effort to do so. I think both the reasons and the ways are called out effectively in this piece, but I can’t stress enough how much the bullet points resonate with me as ‘good practice’ as opposed to exclusive ways to better support seniors.
It’s true that seniors are not familiar with what we know as the modern web, but at the same time we do a lot of wacky stuff with the modern web just because we can. Those novelties rarely catch on if ever and we find ourselves catching a breath of fresh air when we see something that gets back to ‘the roots’ of being simple after being so enamored with the latest and greatest thing.
I think there’s a lot of great advice in this article, things we can all take note of the next time we’re trying to help out a family member or friend who may not be as well versed as us when it comes to the web. It’s a constant struggle for me, trying to put my experience aside to truly evaluate whether a design decision is effective, but I’m going to keep trying.
