Accessibility – Designing for older people: 7 tips

On the Dutch site MarketingFacts this article was posted about designing websites for older people. Below you find a short abstract. Visit MarketingFacts for the whole article.

Facts:

• In 2040 there will be aproximately 4 millions 65+ people in The Netherlands.
• According to research by Jacob Nielssen the time to complete a online task increases with 0.8 percent each year. So a 40-year-old needs 8% more time to complete a task then a 30-year-old.

3 reasons why older people are less likely to use computers:

• They aren’t motivated enough and don’t see why they should use computers.
• Lack of computer experience
• Physical constraints (reduceed sight)

So how can u make sure older people can use your site?

• Bigger navigation menu’s and action buttons. Also, mouse-over effects encourage clicking
• Use sans-serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial and Verdana with font size 12 or 14
• Use a line distance of 1,5 to increase text readability
• Don’t use many images and icons because they distract too much. Make use of descriptive icons.
• Use bread crumbs
• Use bold for important words.
• Avoid fly-outmenu’s.
• Use search with ‘auto-suggest’ too avoid spelling errors.