How Web Design Guidelines are Used for Developing Systems for the Older Users - Essay Example

Explain How Web Design Guidelines are used for developing systems for the Older Users The goal of designing any interactive systems is that it shouldbe enjoyable, should be helpful and enhances the life of people who use them. [BoyenD, 2005.] It should be accessible, usable, and engaging, for which it should be human centred which means instead of technology, people should be the centre of design process. A study of demographic data shows older population is growing at a faster rate. In the year 2000, there were 35 million older people [65 +]in America and it was predicted that by 2030 it will become 70 million .Another opines that in the year 2000 12.4 % of Americans were 65 or more, and by 2003 it rose to 28%.A similar trend was found in countries like France, Canada and England.1 WHO estimates by 2020, 24% Europeans, 17% Asians, and 23% N Americans will be 60 and above The elderly are living longer, and are living alone, separated from family members and majority have age related disabilities. Second is the use of computers especially internet is growing at an increasing speed. Percentage of posted websites increased in a time period of 3 years, between 93-96 by 6500 fold while US population using internet increased 6 fold in 5 years time (1995-1999) A study by Nielson, J showed Seniors (65+) used internet for e-mail use, for research, news, tracking investments, research medicine and medical conditions, to shop and bank online, and read about hobbies. They can also benefit from online study courses. But the problem here is, this generation of elderly people spent most of their time when computers did not exist. So they face accessibility problems either due to lack of education or poor income. Another factor is aging factor which brings physical, mental and cognitive impairment. Study in 1999, by US department of Commerce showed the digital divide between information rich group (Whites, Asians/Pacific Islanders, those with higher incomes, more educated and dual parental house holds) and information poor group (younger, those with lower income and education levels, certain minorities, those in rural areas and central cities) is also increasing.2AARP study income and education are more important in determining universal accessibility than age. Any step taken to tackle this will help elderly people also.Shneiderman advocates three steps for attaining universal usability-'providing for technology variety, user diversity, and gaps in knowledge' which also accommodates the elderly problems. Elderly are fixed income groups requiring support for older hardware and software. Their predisposition to physical and cognitive impairment bringsforth another innovative issue in interface designs to meet their diverse needs. Finally having not been exposed to computers in schools or on the job, the elderly are likely to be novice users who need more guidance and training. So the computer designers should be sensitive to the need for backward compatibility with older versions. Online services should design for lower bandwidth connections. Software designers should use adaptive interface with training wheels and extensive online help for novice users. 'Thus user interface designers face one of the challenging tasks because of the need to support a broad range of user diversity'. Browne,H 2000.As a result a number of guidelines are sprouting and often same guideline apply to many different demographics .For elderly, guidelines relating to visually impaired , motor skills and working memory should be taken care of. WWW Consortium's web access initiative provides a set of guidelines for web pages designers to accommodate the elderly. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content Don't rely on colour alone [give redundant cues] Provide context and orientation information Provide clear navigation mechanisms Ensure the documents are clear and simple. Microsoft addresses in the' Seniors and Technology" web page issues related to adults with visual and motor impairment, and low bandwidth connections and novice users. Use large areas of white space and small blocks of text Provide larger graphics and click targets. Use contrasting foreground and background colours Minimize blinking images and animation Use at least 12 point Size fonts and avoid using too many different fonts. In addition to already reported, Hawthorn emphasizes Layout simplicity, clarity and consistency Use low frequency tones for sounds Design speech recognition software with slower speech Allow double click speeds to be slower. Avoid delay and distraction to minimize short term memory loss Study done by Ann Chadwick2003 using elderly adults above 55 and control group of younger individuals showed to perform a similar task44.8%elderly succeeded in 148.3 seconds while 64.2% adults of control group took only 109.5seconds .It was found elderly users were more cautious in interacting and also they clicked in nonlinks but these clicks were action oriented. They also found difficulty in accessing highly detailed table data. When these subjects were tested with redesigned version of retiree benefit prototype there was no difference between the groups. Accordingly she recommended following design changes Use action-work links Make links consistent and obvious Make icons and bullet links Website guidelines are used to improve design and usability .They can be used by designers especially new to the field so that it reduces the negative impact of opinion driven design and difference of opinion by design team members. They can be used by Usability Specialists to evaluate the design of website Managers can ask the designers to use the relevant portions of the guideline for use of the elderly. Researchers can use the guidelines to determine when new research is needed. Assess the research that has been conducted, increase validity of previous findings or to challenge the findings. They can be used to answer specific design questions like select guidelines for links and navigation, Merge the selected guideline with existing standards and guideline used within an organization. Ben Schneiderman said guidelines should be recognized as living document and then apply 4 Es- Education, -live presentation with discussion Enforcement-interface review by knowledgeable person and time allotted in the schedule for deviation or questions Exemption-Managers should balance enforcement process with an exemption process which is simple and rapid, to support creative work. Enhancement-in a fast changing world like information technology, alterations need to be arise, especially in guidelines. So revisions should be made annually. Individual designers should know the community they are going to serve and adopt the needed guidelines to suit their needs. Compiling all the recommendations following changes can be made Colour-Since aging is associated with decrease in colour discrimination and contrast sensitivity they have reduction in transmission of blue light and more difficulty in sorting and matching colours.They make mistakes in short wavelength and blue green regions than in other areas. Three visual attributes of color are hue, lightness, and saturation. Hue identifies special colours like blue, yellow and red. Lightness corresponds to how much light appears to be reflected from a surface. Saturation measures colour's intensity. When choosing colours we should use colour combinations with difference in all of these three areas thus providing maximum legibility. Colour wheel arranges colours of the spectrum according to hue. If primary colour is at the top opposite down will show its complementary colour.Very bright, fluorescent and vibrant colours with edges that appear to blur and create after images and tire the eyes should be avoided. "Maximize the contrast between foreground and background colours. Always use dark or light or white background. Avoid using colour of similar lightness adjacent to each other, even if they differ in saturation and hue". [Haixia Zhao, 2001]All information available with colour should be available without colour. Test your site by viewing in different resolutions and colour depths. Try to print out your pages since they look quite different on paper than from what they appear on screen3 Fonts Use fonts based on their legibility. Several types of fonts mixed together shouldn't be used. Avoid using decorative or narrow fonts. Keep to the basic and common fonts. Drop shadows on text, this is done to give appearance of text. Use at least 12 point size fonts. Larger font is easier to read.12-14 size for body and 2 no more for title can be used. Those with partial sight loss need 16 font or above.[Spiezel,Craig 2001] Use relative font sizes ,don't use any coding which will limit user's ability to choose his/her own font, size and colour, for both content and navigation elements. When user enlarges a web page, see that text images including logos, banner and buttons are not enlarged with the rest of the text on a page. Also be aware of navigation bars and other elements that cannot be resized. Type faces-Times New Roman is more legible so also courier while Arial and Verdana are less legible. Though bold faced text appears larger, its readability is reduced. So use bold only for title or keyword, Capital words also decreases readability. Navigation mechanisms- Due to working and spatial memory decline elderly are prone to get lost while navigating a website Provide clear consistent navigating mechanisms. Provide information about the general lay out of a site. Consistently underline a link- Standard practice that underlined text is a link. Sound Use lower frequency tones. Ability to hear high pitched sound decreases with age so lower frequency sound to be used. Content Always provide text equivalent to auditory and visual content. Synthesized speech is critical for individuals with reading difficulty. Minimize irrelevant screen information due to reduced visual search skills and selective attention. Layout and Style- Use larger areas of white space and small blocks of text Clear organization of content.-put related information together. Paragraph alignment -Use short line length and left justified text which increases readability. Keep Background simple. Using a grid pattern of background can help to reduce screen glare, eye fatigue and strain. Text itself can present as a complex background and use slow blinking red caret to help old users to locate current insertion position. Minimize blinking images and animation [Spiezle, Craig 2001] since it can affect readability of elderly. Provide larger graphics and easy click targets-aging is associated with decreased motor ability. [Czaja, SaraJ, 1997] Educating the elderly -Provide easy to use online aiding and support documentation on how to control interface, and resize the cursor, set up single mouse control,. Tutorials from Microsoft, Apple and Linux, and AOL, and Netscape can be made available on the website [Haixia, Zhao 2001]. Validate your website for accessibility with automated tools and human review. Automated methods are rapid, convenient but deficient in identifying all accessibility issues. Human review can help to ensure changing clarity and ease of navigation. Elderly people and those with disabilities [both expert and novice users] can be called to review the document. [W3C 1999] Appendix 1 BrowneH, 2000, Depatment of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA Chadwick-Dias A, McNulty M, Tullis T, Nov 2003, Web Usability and Age, ACM from Fidelity centre for Applied Technology, Human Interface Design, Boston Ben Schneiderman, professor 'Research Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines' Preface notes Haixia Zhao 2001, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA World Wide Web Consortium, Web content Accessibility guidelines May 1999, Appendix2 Accessible-content is accessible when it is used by someone with disability Backward compatible design that continues to work with earlier versions of a program, language Element is- Document uses the term element to mean a type of content or a logical construct Equivalent-content is equivalent to other content when both fulfill essentially the same purpose upon presentation to user Navigation Mechanisms-is any means by which user can navigate a page or site Screen reader software program that reads the content of a screen. Bibliography BrowneH, 2000, Accessibility and Usability of Information Technology by the Elderly, http://www.otal.umd.edu/UUGuide/hbrowne/ Chadwick-Dias A, McNulty M, Tullis T, Nov 2003, Web Usability and Age, ACM http://www.bentley.edu/events/agingbydesign2004/presentations/tedesco_chadwickdias_tullis_webusabilityandage.pdf CzajaSaraJ, HandBook of Human Computer Interaction, 2nd edn, Elsevier 1997 David B, TurnerP, TurnerS, 2005, Designing Interactive Systems, Addison Wesley publications GalitzW, Essential Guide to User Interface Design1996, Wiley computer publishing KoyaniSJ, Bailey RW, Nall JR, 2003, Research based web Design and Usability Guidelines NCI http://www.usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html MaryZajicek Oct2000, 6th ERCM workshop, 'Interface for All', Interface Support for Elderly People with Impaired Sight or Memory, http://ui4all.ics.forth.gr/UI4ALL-2000/files/Short_papers/Zajicek.pdf Neilson J, Web Usability for Senior Citizens: NN/g http://www.nngroup.com/reports/seniors/ HaixiaZhao, 2001, Universal Usability Web Design Guidelines for the elderly (age65 and older) http://www.otal.umd.edu/uupractice/elderly/ W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, May 1999, http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ Read More