Best Practice Report

Designing Interactions For An Aging Population

Are Old People Getting Wired, Or Are Young People Just Getting Old?

July 31st, 2007
Elizabeth Boehm, null
Elizabeth Boehm
With contributors:
Bruce Temkin , Olga Melnikova , Steven Geller

Summary

The oldest members of the baby boom generation hit 60 this year, signaling the first edge of an unprecedented tidal wave that will swell the ranks of senior technology users. But today's seniors are not the financial foot-draggers and technology luddites that they are often stereotyped as being. What drives technology adoption in this older generation? Our research uncovered two distinct drivers of adoption: aging shift and real growth. Seniors, like other generations of consumers, increase their online activities over time — although the older crowd tends to be later bloomers. Customer experience professionals should create solutions that will meet seniors' vision, hearing, mobility, and cognition issues — without stepping on seniors' fragile egos.

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