aging

Designing Displays for Older Adults: Chapter 1 (excerpt)

August 18, 2010

Below is the preface and excerpt of Chapter 1 from our forthcoming book.  The book will be released September 2010 and will be available where fine books are sold or directly from our publisher CRC Press.  Until January 31, 2011, you can get 20% off the cover price when you purchase directly from CRC Press using this link and this code: 810DE. [...]

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Almost Here: Designing Displays for Older Adults

July 20, 2010
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After a long process and over a year of work, Anne’s and my book on user interface design for older adults is almost available!  The cover of our book has been finalized (shown below).  The book will be released September 21st, 2010 and will be available where fine books are sold or directly from our publisher CRC Press. We’ll give [...]

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Online Banking Should Be Easier for Seniors

April 1, 2010

A new study has identified how poorly designed online and electronic banking is for older users and will seek to find remedies. From the news article in www.theengineer.co.uk: The new assistive technology developed by Newcastle and York researchers will be tried out by a variety of focus groups over 18 months. Some ideas include a wallet shaped foldable display. One [...]

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Careers in Human Factors & Aging

February 25, 2010

A graduate student contacted me with questions about career paths for those of us in HF with an aging background.  This sounded like a great opportunity for discussion so I’m posting it here.  If you can contribute responses to any or all of these questions, please leave a comment! I am giving a presentation on the Aging Technical Group [of [...]

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HF Graduate Programs: North Carolina State University

February 4, 2010
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This is the second post in our 2-part look at some HF programs.  Rich’s post about Clemson’s program can be found here. The psychology graduate program at NCSU in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A, boasts eight faculty in the Human Factors and Ergonomics specialization. This is in addition to the faculty in our sister program in Industrial Engineering and related faculty [...]

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HF Graduate Programs: Clemson University

January 26, 2010
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This is the first post in our 2-part look at some HF programs. Anne’s post about North Carolina State University’s program can be found here. Did you know that Human Factors is not only a fun blog, but something you could get a graduate degree in?  The field is known by many names but they are the same, more or [...]

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HF Potpourri

January 6, 2010
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James Rubinstein sends along a this post about a 32 inch LCD TV presumably designed for older users.  It has features such as a dramatically simplified remote control, fewer wires, and a shut-off timer.  [Engadget] Designing Devices is a relatively new blog devoted to “how and why to create devices” from Dan Saffer (author of Designing for Interaction).  I’m loving [...]

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Vision-themed Potpourri

December 20, 2009
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Today’s potpourri happens to be related to understanding or enhancing what your users see (or don’t see): Google Browser Size let’s you see how much of your web content is visible by users. Rocker Lou Reed (of the Velvet Underground) designs an iPhone app for near-sighted users.  It basically increases the font size in the contacts application.  It appears that [...]

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HF Potpourri

December 14, 2009
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More potpourri from the web: Jakob Nielsen has a new book on using eye-tracking in web usability. View a 32 page chapter PDF (26 mb) for free (via PhotoshopSupport). Using autistics for software quality-control work. Would this work for usability? An obsessive attention to detail is good for design/usability (via Slashdot) The HF/usability company HumanCentric held an internal competition to [...]

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Human Factors and Healthcare: The older patient & nurse

December 10, 2009
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I‘ve recently published two papers on the topic of human factors and healthcare. Each paper covers a different “stakeholder”: the older patient and the nurse.  The first paper is available for free but the second paper (a collaboration with my architect colleague Dina Battisto) is available at your local library (or you can request a PDF reprint from me). Pak, [...]

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Medication Adherence Case Study

December 9, 2009
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I talked with an 80 year old man last weekend about how he remembers to take his medication. His solution? Put all the pills in one bottle and take out what he needs each day. It appears to be an anti-organizer. If you or your loved ones are more interested in environmental support, a new free application created by Consumer [...]

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HFES Conference in San Antonio, Part 4 – Hearing and Understanding

November 3, 2009

The paper described in this post was part of the Aging Technical Group sessions at HFES. Hearing Levels Affect Higher-Order Cognitive Performance – Carryl L. Baldwin, George Mason University Perhaps I was excited by this talk because I could see how the information could be used in the book Rich and I are working on. This presentation was a fascinating [...]

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HFES Conference in San Antonio, Part 3 – Health/Internet…and ROBOTS!

October 29, 2009
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One of my major interests at the moment is in the use of technological tools (primarily the Web) in the management of health.  So it was with great pleasure that there was so much research on this topic (I will mention more in future posts). The first was presented in the Aging session (where Anne was program chair).  Jessie Chin [...]

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Consequences of Mobile Phone Usability…big consequences

September 16, 2009
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Time.com is reporting that part of the economic recession may have been caused by Warren Buffet not being able to check his voice mail: as Buffett was rushing out to a social engagement in Edmonton, Alberta, he got a call from Bob Diamond, the head of Barclays Capital…[ed. Diamond was creating a plan to save an investment bank and needed [...]

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HF/Usability Hodgepodge

August 28, 2009

Things too small for their own post but interesting nonetheless…it’s a hodgepodge, a mélange, a potpourri! Stay in touch with those who don’t have or want a computer (via Gadgeteer) “upgrading customer usability without breaking the bank” (via UXforward) If Craigslist got a makeover, what might it look like? (Wired) Men and women use car navigation systems differently (GPSworld)

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Two HF Driving News Articles

August 19, 2009

1. Although I had trouble finding corroborating sources, it looks as though the government of Samoa is going to switch what side of the road people drive on in a few weeks. You don’t have to be a human factors expert to guess at the trouble this will cause. 2. New study says older drivers are not “such a hazard.” [...]

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