Designing for Older Adults: Case Studies, Methods, and Tools - Paperback

by Walter Boot (Author), Neil Charness (Author), Sara J. Czaja (Author)

Designing for Older Adults: Case Studies, Methods, and Tools

There are many products, tools, and technologies available that could provide support for older adults. However, their success requires that they are designed with older adults in mind by being aware of, and adhering to, design principles that recognize the needs, abilities, and preferences of diverse groups of older adults. Achieving good design is a process facilitated by seeing principles and guidelines in action. Design success requires understanding how to use the methods and tools available to evaluate initial ideas and prototypes. The goal of this book is to provide illustrative "case studies" of designing for older adults based on real design challenges faced by the researchers of the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) over the past two decades. These case studies exemplify the use of human factors tools and user-centered design principles to understand the needs of older adults, identify where existing designs failed older users, and examine the effectiveness of design changes to better accommodate the abilities and preferences of the large and growing aging population.

Features

• Reviews important design considerations for older adults and presents a framework for design
• Provides a series of real-world case studies to ground design principles and guidelines
• Offers a unique set and broad array of design challenges, from the design of healthcare devices, to computer systems and apps, to transportation systems and robots
• Gives an overview of emerging technologies, their potential benefits to older adults, anticipated design considerations, and new and emerging approaches to evaluating design
• Covers these topics with designers in mind, providing the most up-to-date recommendations based on the scientific literature but in an accessible, easy-to-understand, non-technical manner

Author Biography

Walter R. Boot Ph.D., is a Prof. of Psychology at FSU and director of the university's Attention and Training Lab. He received his Ph.D. from the Univ. of IL at Urbana-Champaign in Visual Cognition and Human Performance in 2007. Walter is one of 6 principal investigators of the multi-disciplinary CREATE, a long-standing and award winning National Institute on Aging funded center dedicated to ensuring that the benefits of technology can be realized by older adults. He is also Co-Director of the ENHANCE (Enhancing Neurocognitive Health, Abilities, Networks, & Community Engagement) Center, funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), with a focus on how technology can support older adults living with cognitive impairment. His research interests include how humans perform and learn to master complex tasks (especially tasks with safety-critical consequences), how age influences perceptual and cognitive abilities vital to the performance of these tasks, and how technological interventions can improve the well-being and cognitive functioning of older adults. He has published extensively on the topic of technology-based interventions involving digital games.

Neil Charness, Ph.D., is W. G. Chase Prof. of Psychology, Director of the Institute for Successful Longevity (ISL), and Associate Director of the University Transportation Center (Accessibility and Safety for an Aging Population, ASAP) at FSU. He received his BA from McGill Univ. and MSc and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon Univ. in Psychology. Prior to coming to FSU he was on the faculty at Wilfrid Laurier Univ. and the Univ. of Waterloo in Canada. Neil's current research focuses on human factors approaches to age and technology use, interventions to promote improved cognition, and aging driver and pedestrian safety.

Sara J. Czaja, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center on Aging and Behavioral Research in the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. She is also an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Univ. of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM).She received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, specializing in Human Factors Engineering, at the Univ. of Buffalo. She is the Director of CREATE. Her research interests include: aging and cognition, aging and healthcare access and service delivery, family caregiving, aging and technology, training, and functional assessment.

Wendy A. Rogers, Ph.D., is the S. & A. Carlson Khan Prof. of Applied Health Sciences at the Univ. of IL Urbana-Champaign. Her primary appointment is in the Dept. of Kinesiology and Community Health. She also has an appointment in the Educational Psychology Dept. and is an affiliate faculty member of the Beckman Institute and the IL Informatics Institute. She received her B.A. from the UMass - Dartmouth, and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the GA Institute of Technology. She is a Certified Human Factors Professional. Her research interests include design for aging; technology acceptance; human-automation interaction; aging-in-place; human-robot interaction; aging with disabilities; cognitive aging; and skill acquisition and training. She is Director of the Health Technology Education Program; Program Director of CHART; and Director of the Human Factors and Aging Laboratory.