Designing for seniors

Bottles with screw tops you can’t open without a wrench. Clamshell packaging you can’t open without a Swiss Army knife. Medication bottle labels you can’t read without a magnifying glass and a flashlight. Digital devices with keys so small you hit three keys at once, land in some dark corner of cyberhell, and can’t get out. There are a lot of us seniors now. Why can’t they design things to help us instead of throwing up all these roadblocks?

It shouldn’t be very complicated, really. Some of us need to compensate for vision and hearing problems. Some have health issues affecting fine motor control. Some are inexperienced in using digital devices. And some have cognitive issues affecting memory and attention. If designers were to bear these issues in mind, the results would benefit not just seniors, but many other groups as well.

Here’s a novel concept: ask seniors what we want. Involve us directly in designing our products. Don’t make assumptions about what seniors are looking for in a product. Ask us what we need before you start designing. Watch us interact with products, and solicit our reactions. Listen to us as we evaluate existing products. Learn from what we say.

An American organization called Tech-enhanced Life has been doing just that. Groups of seniors meet monthly to explore new ideas, products and services that show promise for improving life as we age. They also explore unmet needs, and brainstorm potential solutions to those unmet needs. They publish their recommendations and selection guides for a wide and eclectic variety of products and services: everything from medical alert systems to apps, medication management guides, clothing and everyday objects. It’s a sort of Consumer Reports for seniors. Check them out at Tech-enhanced Life.

This is an American group, so some of the products they list are not available in Canada. Wouldn’t you love to see a Canadian version of this initiative? What a fantastic project this would be for some enterprising Canadian seniors.