A special design approach for special people

Abstract

Those designing software for older adults and disabled people often have little knowledge of their interactional needs. Additionally the usual method of ensuring optimal interaction, User Centred Design, is particularly difficult to employ with these users. This paper proposes the use of interface design patterns, which enable researchers to present design knowledge gained through experimentation with our special users and pass on instances of successful design to inexperienced mainstream IT applications builders. © Springer-Verlag 2004.