Seems that article is more about interfaces for the handicapped than anything specific to the elderly; probably because being elderly in general doesn't preclude one from technology. In my experience it's the elderly people who have no desire to learn something new that are the issue. My GF's dad is in his 70s and uses his iPhone, iPad and laptop regularly with no issues, because he embraced technology years ago, uses it every day and is open to learning how to use it. His wife on the other hand is a little more "set in her ways" and intentionally avoids technology aside from a few things like Facetime and Plants vs Zombies, and as such runs into a lot of everyday issues that she doesn't know how to deal with and just waves them over to him or me or the nearest Apple Genius.<p>Technology being "impenetrable" is not a trait only applied to the elderly. It's initially "impenetrable" to everyone when they first start using it, whether that be at age 3 or age 80. Learning to use technology well comes with experience like anything else, and those many elderly people who have attained some technical proficiency are proof of this. If someone doesn't want to put forth that effort then they shouldn't feel patronized when the interface assumes the lowest common denominator.<p>Now designing for medical issues and handicaps that may or may not come with age is another issue. I'm all for medical accessibility, but I'd divorce that issue from "designing for the elderly", on the grounds of over-generalization. For instance, phones with oversized numbers are also used by legally blind young people.
I do wonder if the answer to this is more diversity in our engineers. Let me explain:<p>While I have no doubt that a lot of great companies have awesome engineers, SF/SV tech is filled with white men in their early twenties. Nothing wrong with that, but it seems like diversity in age, race and ethnicity is a token that plays second fiddle to "meritocracy".<p>The latter really at the end comes down to whether you wear an ironic hoodie, can solve a graph algorithm problem well and can work long hours through the night.<p>Nothing wrong with all of those, I have done those and been a good mimic. But, the more I think about it, the more I think that it creates an echo chamber where there is only one true way of designing and building products. The ones that that clique can use.<p>Sometimes, I belong to that clique with things like Hipmunk that I love to use. Sometimes, I am confused as fuck say when it comes to Unix commands. I wonder how many many many users we are missing out because of our focus on building and designing things that are focused towards the needs of the few.
Any attempts to eliminate accidental complexity in products should be lauded but the people attempting to make these apps quickly run into the fact that there's still a lot of intrinsic complexity built into the system that can't be hidden away.<p>Like a frog in boiling water, anybody who started in tech when it was simple and then gradually learnt along the way as tech adapted are in a good place because they've just internalized all of the little tricks and quirks and magic invocations that are necessary. Anyone who's trying to jump in now has to accept that it's either going to take a large amount of time and effort to get acclimated or it's going to be a very hard, sharp shock.<p>The same would apply the other way around. If young people were teleported back to the technology of the 50's, they'd be equally frustrated with all of the quirks of a typewriter or an ice box. But old people would be fine because they'd already internalized all of that learning.
With so much effort going into life extension, I feel this is the wrong perspective on the problem. It's not about making technology more accessible to the elderly, but more about making the elderly fit for the modern and ever changing world.<p>As brutal as it might sound, making technology accessible to the current "state of the art" in terms of what it means to be old is a long term solution to a short term problem... I hope.
The revelation here is not that the elderly have different UI/UX needs, but that Touch is not a panacea despite the claims of certain smartphone/tablet companies.