Elders using smartphones - A set of research based heuristic guidelines for designers

Abstract

Smartphones and an increasingly aged population are two highly visible emergent attributes in the last decade. Smartphones are becoming the canonical front end for the cloud, web, and applications from email to social media - especially so if you include pads in the same category. In Europe, the Americas and Asia the ratio of over those over 65 compared to the total population that is becoming increasingly skewed. This paper is about the intersection of these two socio-technical vectors, or more to the point about the mismatch between them: a mismatch which can lead to an increase in the digital divide rather than the decline that the more affordable smartphones could promise. We present a study of literature and results of a design process in the form of heuristics to support smartphone/tablet designers making useable and useful products for elder end-users. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.