At Fraunhofer AICOS, researchers are continuously working on the design of user interfaces that meet the needs of older adults. The Contacts user interface for smartphone is a very important one and the Human-Computer Interaction team wants to make sure that it is really senior-friendly, being very simple and easy to use, so that seniors can quickly find their relatives or friends and make a phone call or send a message.
In order to study what the preferences of seniors are, COLABORAR organized some usability test sessions at the Centres and asked seniors for help. This time around, we used paper prototypes, which consist of mock-ups of the user interfaces; we heard seniors’ thoughts and observed their reactions to the layout and functionality of the interfaces, as we asked them to complete small tasks, such as searching for the contact of a friend.
We had a great time there! Back at Fraunhofer AICOS, researchers brought a lot of information regarding the way seniors prefer using the interface of contacts and also small fragments of their stories: how they spent their holidays, the happiness of receiving a call from their granddaughter or sharing a cake with friends. These shared moments allow us to better understand seniors’ priorities in life and what really matters to them.
A big thank you for your support! With your help, researchers will do a much better job, as technology will more accurately reflect what you want of it.