Website Design for Senior Citizens is a presentation given to a graduate class at University of Baltimore which looks at design heuristics web developers and designers should consider when developing a website for seniors and the general population.

1. Designing Websites for Seniors
Nikki Kerber and Allison Francis
IDIA 612
Feb. 14, 2012

2. Introduction
● Older adults, or seniors have a harder time using the
Internet and browsing websites compared to younger adults
and teenagers.
● Designing for seniors is relativity easy - it only takes a few
modifications. In fact, it has been noted that designing for
seniors makes the design better for all other user groups as
well.

3. Introduction
● Seniors use the web to find health information, bank online,
research travel options, shop, and e-mail.
● A Seniornet study [1998] discovered that a major incentive
for older adults to own a computer is to obtain information
about health care and medical conditions.
● A 2003 study showed that searching for health information
was one of the most popular activities on the internet for
older adults.

4. Who Are Senior Citizens?
● AARP classifies "older adults" to be those over 50
years old.
● Many studies account for a wide variety of definitions,
involving participants between 55 - 75 years of age.
● (Bailey 2004) proposes the following classification
system to help clarify age definitions:
○ Young: 18-39 years
○ Middle-ages: 40-59 years
○ Older: 60-74
○ Old-old: 75+ years

5. Statistics
● The United Nations (UN) estimates that by 2050 one in five
individuals will be over 60 years old.
● As of 2003 in Canada, about 25%
of households with people 65 and older and 59% of
households with people 55–64 were online. The percentage
of Canadians age 65 and older who are online has more
than doubled in the past four years (Statistics Canada 2004)
● In a February 2004 survey, 22% of Americans age 65 or
older reported having access to the Internet. This
represents a 47% increase between 2000 and 2004. Eight
million seniors now go online.

6. Statistics
Demographic forecast for the EU

7. Aging Issues That Affect Seniors
● Vision decline
○ 16% of people 65 - 74 years
○ 19% of people 75 – 84 years
○ 46% of people 85+ years
● Cognitive decline
● Motor skill decline
○ Arthritis, Parkinson's,Tremors
● Hearing loss
○ 47% of people 61 to 80 years
○ 93% of people 81+ years

8. Barriers to Web Use
Older people are experiencing web accessibility barriers due to:
● Poor design and poor coding of websites
● Complex software and assistive technologies
● Little or no prior experience with computers

9. Web Accessibility Initiative: Aging Education
and Harmonization (WAI-AGE) Project
The WAI-AGE project ended in
2010 but included activities to:
● better understand web
accessibility needs of the aging
● community work with the aging
community to obtain more direct
input and contribution for Web
accessibility solutions.
● revise existing and develop new
educational materials
● promote the adoption and
implementation of a common set
of Web accessibility guidelines
for older adults and those with
disabilities. http://www.w3.org/WAI/older-users/

10. Making Your Website Senior Friendly
● Organizing Web Information for Older Adults
● Writing Online Text for Older Adults
● Designing Readable Online Text for Older Adults
● Making Web Information Easy for Older Adults to Find
○ Including Other Media
● Making Sure That Older Adults Can Use Your Website

11. Making Your Website Senior Friendly
● Break information into short sections.
● Give instructions clearly and number each step.
● Minimize the use of jargon and technical terms.
● Use single mouse clicks.
● Allow additional space around clickable targets.
● Use 12- or 14-point type size, and make it easy for users to
enlarge text.
● Use high-contrast color combinations, such as black type
against a white background.
● Provide a speech function to hear text read aloud.
● Provide text-only versions of multimedia content.
● Minimize scrolling.
● Choose a search engine that uses keywords and doesn’t
require special characters or knowledge of Boolean terms.

12. Resources
http://www.nia.nih. http://www.nlm.nih.
gov/health/publication gov/pubs/staffpubs/od/ocpl/agin
/making-your-website-senior-friendly gchecklist.html

13. Design Principles for Seniors
● Interaction design: designing the way users work
with the site
● Information architecture: organizing the content
● Visual design: designing the pages
● Information design: writing and formatting the content

14. Design Principles for Seniors
Interaction design
● Use conventional interaction elements.
● Make it obvious what is clickable and what is not.
● Make clickable items easy to target and hit.
● Minimize vertical scrolling; eliminate horizontal scrolling.
● Ensure that the Back button behaves predictably.
● Let the user stay in control.
● Provide clear feedback on actions
● Provide feedback in other modes in addition to visual.

15. Design Principles for Seniors
Information architecture
● Make the structure of the web site as visible as possible.
● Clearly label content categories; assist recognition and
retrieval rather than recall.
● Implement the shallowest possible information hierarchy.
● Include a site map and a link to it from every page.

16. Design Principles for Seniors
Visual Design
● Make pages easy to skim or scan.
● Make elements on the page easy to read.
● Visually group related topics.
● Make sure text and background colors contrast.
● Use adequate white space.

17. Design Principles for Seniors
Information design
● Make it easy to find things on the page quickly.
● Focus the writing on audience and purpose.
● Use the users’ language; minimize jargon and technical
terms

18. Website Examples

19. Website Examples

20. Website Examples

21. Website Examples

22. Website Examples

23. Website Examples

24. References
● Arch, Andrew. “Web Accessibility for Older Users.” W3C, May 14, 2008.
Retrieved February 2012.
● Arch, A., & Abou-Zahra, S. (2010, September 30). Wai-age project (ist
035015). Retrieved from http://www.w3.org/WAI/WAI-AGE/
● Bailey, B. (2004). Segmenting Adult Web Users into Meaningful Age Categories. July
2004. Powerpoint presentation available at http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.
org_/articles/research/oww/university/Bailey_AgeCategories4.ppt
● Becker, S. (2004). A study of web usability for older adults seeking online
health resources. ACM Transactions on Human Computer Interaction, 387-
406.
● Chisnell, Dana, and Ginny Redish. “AARP Audience-Centered Heuristics:
Older Adults.” AARP, 2004. Retrieved February 2012.
● Chisnell, Dana, Ginny Redish, and Amy Lee. “Designing Web Sites for Older
Adults: Expert Review of Usability for Older Adults at 50 Web Sites.” AARP,
February 1, 2005. Retrieved February 2012.
● “New Heuristics for Understanding Older Adults as Web Users.”
COMMUNICATION, February 2006. Retrieved February 2012.
● National Institute on Aging. “Making Your Website Senior Friendly.” National
Institute on Aging, February 2001; revised March 2009. Retrieved February
2012.
● Nielsen, J. (2002, April 28). Usability for senior citizens. Retrieved from
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/seniors.html