Don't make mom angry--talking about elderly users

A period of time before the holiday home is a rare leisure, strange less than a week to sit still, right and wrong, the heart is itching AIDS-the original is the Internet addiction committed-to persuade parents to agree to pull the net, I promise them, to ensure that they learn to surf the internet!

My plan is: within a week, teach my mother to surf the web and teach my father to go online and fight the landlord.
Let's play through the finale. A week down, mother angry. The NO. 500 time I muttered "How can I still learn", she roared: "I am not stupid!" Either the computer is not good, or you teach bad, in short, you are not good! Dad at this time chose to dodge, he silently in the corner with the iphone playing the landlord.

The user experience is so bad, it's time to reflect. When we shout "Internet accessibility", we are shutting out the fast-growing elderly users. When everyone is surfing the Internet, maybe your parents are sneaking around behind you looking at you with eager curiosity.

In this failure teaching, I summed up the impact of my parents normal Internet access to the stumbling block for everyone to design reference:

1. They do not have computer knowledge, and learning ability is limited
They like to use the mouse, afraid to touch the keyboard, that is, do not understand the button what meaning, afraid of damaging the computer
They are in the Web page to distinguish between hyperlinks and plain content text
They can not distinguish the text and advertising in the Web page (I read the news, mom even pointed to the right side of the Web page breast ads worried asked, why do you see this?) ）
Their view of the long stay in the picture-especially the beating of the http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/12592.html ">flash
They can't type, knock on the keyboard with a Yang finger, a large part do not understand pinyin, let alone five input
Their lack of identity to the computer, with stubborn stereotypes: "Users are not serious, netizens are not sober, online shop are deceptive, the site is not reliable." ”

2. Their functioning is somewhat degraded
They have a bad memory. In extreme cases, they can even be viewed as occasional users who are always and forever in need of operational guidance.
They need more reaction time. (Dad's network card friends always urged him to make a card faster, Dad said that the pressure is very high)
Their attention has been degraded. (Dad always notices when he's playing games)
Their hands are not very sensitive. Lack of stability using the mouse (dot link and button); It is difficult to double-click a mouse;
Their vision has degenerated. Visual acuity drops--see not clear, unable to find, vision persistence declining---------long sight, color resolution drop--no difference in color contrast; flickering objects distract them--"jump, jump, and see what they are."
Their hearing has deteriorated. The perceptual ability of pure tones decreases and is susceptible to background noise interference.

3. They also have a lot of needs
Hope to connect with the trend--"What is the fun, I also come to see"
Want to interact with children and relatives--"I want to chat and video with my kids online"
Enjoy online Entertainment (web games)
Care about the financial situation of the family (including stock, vegetable price and house price)

To this end, we should consider the elderly users in the design, and provide them with more convenience--
Detailed and thoughtful help. Help needs: Visualization, very very very attractive, descriptive text detailed and understandable, if Flash demo, please slow down a little bit.
Simple functional design. The function design needs simple, the step is few, reduces the memory burden.
Refreshing interface design. Too many elements tend to interfere with the elders ' attention.
Large, clear, contrast-high font (Microsoft's design principles also mention that fonts are not less than 12-point)
Click the main action mode.
Increase the button area!
Thoughtful feedback design. such as mouse over and click on the chain to change the color, the button before and after the click can also have corresponding feedback.
Provides a multi-channel design that complements speech and vision. (e.g. "Blow You Up" "King Fry ~")
provides handwriting input design. (Don't spit and say "why don't you buy him a tablet", some families do think it's a luxury.) ）

In the above, I just listed my parents encountered problems, and did not cover all the middle-aged and elderly users, I believe that we can pay attention to more in life, but also special welcome you to supplement the elderly are also some of the use of habits. Long-winded so long, just want to appeal to everyone in the design, a little more to consider them.
Think of the New Year home with dad to buy mobile phones, store shop staff recommended a so-called "elderly mobile phone." Take a look, nothing more than the large font, big volume and handwriting function of the combination. function and simple, modelling very cottage, but instantly took away father's heart.

Today's network can really fit the elders of the design is very little, we should do more for them, is not it? The final review, the teaching of their own patience, the next home to continue to work hard ~
(This article originates from Tencent CDC Blog, please indicate the source when reprint)