Design for Elderly Friendly: Mobile Phone Application and Design that Suitable for Elderly

Abstract

The mobile phone design currently is always lack of concern towards the usability of the elderly. The elderly always having problem in understanding and using the mobile phone cause by this lack of study in understanding the needs of the older people. This paper provides the information related with the concept and issues related with the mobile phone design. The other topic in this paper is the application that suitable to be design in the mobile phone for the elderly. The function that need by this elderly is limited compare to the younger people. The elderly needs the mobile phones that have the design that suitable with their needs without concerning about the fashion or styles.

For Better or for Worse? A Scoping Review of the Relationship between Internet Use and Mental Health in Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…According to Chamber and colleagues, several issues need to be considered to make social technology more elderly-friendly such as size of text, letters, and symbols should be big, number of text per page should be short, the contrast between text/graphics and background should be obvious, jargon be avoided in the text, and the size and relevance of images should be appropriate [ 37 ]. Furthermore, Yusof and colleagues also recommended that the design framework of elderly-friendly applications should be based on the visual (size of text and symbol, colour contrast), cognitive (user-friendly and less cognitive ability required to operate the application), dexterity (voice recognition application instead of fully operated by fingers or hand), and audio (appropriate audio to make the application more interesting) aspects [ 38 ].…”

Elderly and Smartphone Apps: Case Study with Lightweight MySejahtera

“…According to [8], mobile apps for elderly should be meaningful, engaging, user-friendly, and encourage technology adoption. One of the common unfriendly situations found is the size of the navigation button of the apps.…”

“…While switching from the conventional phone to the smartphone without the keypad, they tend to "touch" on wrong number on the touchscreen when the size of button is not big enough for them. Not only the size does matter, [8] also suggested that having a good spacing between the buttons will be helpful for elderly. They also highlighted that the font size of the display on the button does affecting the visual and navigation experience for elderly.…”

“…In the study of [8], they suggested that the visual design must be altered to meet the needs of the senior citizen. Specifically, it should be larger than the normal text used in the apps.…”

AnAbEL: towards empowering people living with dementia in ambient assisted living

“…Since the interface can be configured by the primary user, we apply design recommendations focused on being clear and easy to understanding for the elderly, including the font style and size, layout and elements of colours and contrast [43]. For example, black letters on a white background were chosen initially, and the opposite to distinguish sections for high contrast.…”