Rosenverse

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

Age and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools

Thursday, February 23, 2023 • Advancing Research Community
Share the love for this talk
Age and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools
Speakers: Rittika Basu
Link:

Summary

According to a survey by Pew Research Centre, seniors are the demography least inclined towards digital applications, and face significant barriers in equitable access to the internet.

Key Insights

  • Only 8% of seniors use the internet compared to 48% of younger adults, highlighting the digital divide.

  • Digital literacy involves higher-order skills beyond basic digital competence, including understanding privacy and security.

  • Technophobia and computer anxiety cause many older adults to avoid technology use.

  • Age-related physical factors like presbyopia and motor skill decline require adjustable font sizes and large interactive buttons (48px+).

  • Designs should rely on multiple sensory outputs, including subtitles and audio, to compensate for sensory impairments.

  • Memory deterioration in seniors necessitates simple, reminder-enabled interfaces and avoidance of complex or lengthy texts.

  • Gerontechnology combines aging science with design thinking to create solutions for older populations.

  • Accessibility features like WCAG 2.1 guidelines and tools such as Color SafeCo help create usable color palettes for accessibility.

  • Teaching seniors through tiered, image-rich tutorials catering to individual learning paces increases digital adoption.

  • Localization and language barriers are consistent challenges globally for older adults engaging with technology.

Notable Quotes

"Only 8% of older adults are using the internet in contrast to 48% of younger adults."

"Technophobia is an irrational fear and unease towards modern technology."

"Buttons should be sized 48 pixels and above to avoid fat finger errors for seniors."

"Digital literacy requires someone to examine and peruse information on digital platforms, not just basic use."

"Older adults prefer devices that match their habits, like larger tablets over small phones with glasses."

"There's no universal design for all aging factors; customization is key."

"Helper texts appear when hovering on unfamiliar features, explaining what buttons or controls do."

"It’s good practice to offer one-on-one interactions with older adults due to their learning preferences."

"Localization of content is essential because language barriers affect older adults globally."

"Anyone can become a person with accessibility needs at any time, so inclusivity should be a default."

Ask the Rosenbot
Sarah Fathallah
Beyond insights: Rethinking the role of researchers as stewards of organizational wisdom
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Satyam Kantamneni
Do You Have an Experience Vision?
2023 • Enterprise Community
Dawn Ressel
Full-Stack User Experiences: A Marriage of Design and Technology
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Theme Three Intro
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Jonathon Colman
How to Maximize the Impact of Content Design
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
You’ve got Gold! A Rosenverse demo with Lou Rosenfeld
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Anna Nguyen
Why Our Voice of the Customer is Better Than Yours
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Ebru Namaldi
Designing the Designer’s Journey: Scaling Teams, Culture, and Growth Through DesignOps
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Laura Gatewood
Beyond Buzzwords: Adding Heart to Effective Slack Communication
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Jacqui Frey
Panel Discussion: Integrating DesignOps
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Paul Bakaus
Killing the handoff: Iterating design live in the browser on real production code
2026 • Designing with AI 2026
Conference
Prayag Narula
HCI 2.0: Humanity Deserves the Attention that UX Research has to Offer
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Luca Rager
Empowering Gaming at Scale: How Xbox Builds Powerful, Automated, and Distributed Design Systems with Sketch
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Jules Monza
Use These Words and Count These Things
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Amy Jiménez Márquez
The Atypical UX Manager Path
2020 • Enterprise Community
Janaki Kumar
Innovate with Purpose
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold

More Videos

Sarah Auslander

"Always design a thing by considering it in this next largest temporal context — a day in a month, a decade in a century."

Sarah Auslander Betsy Ramaccia Gordon Ross

Insights Panel

November 18, 2022

Lukas Moro

"Conventional user interfaces have a very low rate of information exchange between the user and the technology."

Lukas Moro

“Feels Like Paper!”: Interfacing AI through Paper

June 11, 2025

Andreas Huebner

"It’s really been helpful that research supports design not just in discovery but also in validating that what we build meets customer expectations."

Andreas Huebner Amy Takata Craig Brookes

What Is It Like To Be Part of The UX Team at Compass?

March 11, 2021

Benjamin Real

"We finally instead of using the compass and the map we finally were able to build a GPS."

Benjamin Real

Maturity Models: A Core Tool for Creating a DesignOps Strategy

October 1, 2021

Alla Weinberg

"Leadership usually determines whether psychological safety is built or eroded in a culture."

Alla Weinberg

Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

September 8, 2022

Meredith Black

"When hiring, we want candidates who know the product well — both what works and what doesn’t."

Meredith Black

Scaling Design Culture

November 6, 2017

Jill Fruchter

"Researchers are uniquely positioned to be sense makers for the business; we connect the dots between data, knowledge, and wisdom."

Jill Fruchter

Inconvenient Insights: The Researcher's Role is to Stay Curious

March 29, 2023

Gabrielle Verderber

"Encourage adoption by sharing documentation in relevant channels, referring team members to it, and including it in onboarding."

Gabrielle Verderber

Documentation Your Team Will Actually Use

October 3, 2023

Llewyn Paine

"If you don’t need a designer to create designs, what happens to designers?"

Llewyn Paine

Day 1 Using AI in UX with Impact

June 10, 2025