“Not Our Target Users”: UX Professionals’ Perceptions of Designing for Older Adults

Humaira Tasnim, Cosmin Munteanu

Keywords: Older adults, Inclusive design, UX professionals, User interface design, Senior-friendly design guidelines

TL;DR: Revisiting Jonathan Lazar’s work on web designers’ perceptions of accessibility for people with disabilities, we follow the same approach to contribute similar insights into the current state of designing websites and applications for seniors.

Abstract: In this paper, we revisit Jonathan Lazar’s early work on understanding designers’ perceptions of accessibility for people with disabilities and follow the same approach to instead contribute similar insights into the current state of designing websites and web applications for seniors. For this, we present a survey investigating how design professionals consider digital accessibility and usability for the ageing population in the UX practice. The survey probed on awareness and application of usability principles for older adults and challenges that hinder the design of senior-friendly products. Findings reveal that many respondents did not incorporate senior-focused usability practices in their work, nor were they familiar with design principles specific to older users. Lack of awareness and knowledge regarding the accessibility and usability needs of older adults were stated to be the main barriers to senior-friendly design. The study identifies several other challenges facing UX professionals when designing for seniors and provides directions for future research.

Track: HCI/visualization

Revision: No

Summary Of Changes:

We have addressed all the content revisions recommended in the meta-review.

We have fixed the formatting using the Word template linked from the VGTC page, although this didn't seem to produce the same fonts as the included sample paper -- we have manually changed all discrepancies to match the sample paper (we hope this addresses the formatting differences).