jawfish

Rocking Chair Interface Part 1
john posted in technologies on November 14th, 2005

How to build a transparent computer system for the elderly, or, how to dignify a person’s actual needs rather than changing the world.

As with most other commentators on the subject, this quest started with my own Mother and her outdated laptop. In trying to decide whether to replace it, and with what, I read this thread on TidBits.
( play with the buttons to get the forum software to show all the posts)
Many interesting points were made about what older people can and can’t do.

This article relates the experience of adapting a standard Linux distro for an older Windows user. From these two sources and my own experience, a few groundrules emerge:

1 An interface that changes is a big problem.

2 Older users will tend to learn computing tasks by rote, not by understanding the system.

3 Reliability is even more important for these users.

The first three observations are all change-related. Let’s not, however, get in the habit of associating fear and distrust of changing computer interfaces with mental rigidity. Just assume it might well be wisdom, and all the hours you’ve spent messing with computers would have been better spent tending children or gardens. Does anybody here think car stereos, VCRs, camcorders and the like have a good interface, worth learning? Case closed. Just figure that your novice elderly user sees the computer that way too.

So the interface must be stable, buttons and icons must stay put, and be clearly marked. A toaster which has the blue temp dial on the left one day, and changes to a red slider on the right next day, is a Bad Toaster. Humans don’t like uppity machines. Even if the interface is clumsy, people can learn it quickly if it stays put.

It’s reported that older users want to write down breadcrumb trails of how to do things, instead of the usual grokking the interface. Obviously some users will want to understand how things work, and they should be directed to the usual learning channels, like the Dummies books and classes. For the users I am describing, assume they have bigger things to worry about than industrial toys. When your joints hurt, when twisting a jar top sends shooting pains up your wrist, when getting out of a chair hurts, and when you take five really strong medicines every day, each of which has a nasty side-effect, you won’t be wishing for O’Reilly books for Christmas either. And, it’s depressing enough to see what your children’s generation has done to the place, without having the smug little pricks treating you like a custard-brain. As my Mom says, “Getting old ain’t for the faint of heart.”

So oldsters will happily write down a list of tasks, and unlike some of us younger folks, they won’t lose it. So in order to make their task-list accurate, we also have to make sure that the interface doesn’t crash, burn, and mangle itself. The more stable it is, the better our users will like it. But we are going to have to prevent interference and attacks too. Enter the twin threats of viruses and automatic updates.

This piece was written not long after the Sony rootkit scandal, and malicious tinkering with one’s operating system is on everybody’s mind. Microsoft XP’s auto updates have burned me and countless other users, and nobody loves a virus. OK, we can avoid Windows, and use anti-virus and firewall software, and we can use a filesystem with good security. But what about the insidious application that pops up a dialog that asks ingenuously for your root password? What about those fake error messages popped up in websites? We need a read-only operating system and applications, with some ability to retain and backup personal data. As an ultimate fix, we want to be able to tell the user to “just reboot it” and have the system reliably return to the expected state.

4 The physical interface must be accessible.

Another friend points out that the physical interface is specially important, that the keyboard, mouse, and monitor have to be better than normal. Getting a good monitor ( i.e. 19″ LCD or better ) may be out of budget, but it’s worth a thought. The resolution needs to be set to large type, and be made as readable as possible. Some folks are even going to need to run at VGA size, or 800×600. Check that your user can see the colors and that there is enough contrast.

Here’s a mouse add-on that damps hand tremors to make the cursor more stable. See the source list at the end of this article for a number of accessibility resources.

5 The interface must be simple.

Along with the mandate for stability, the interface also needs to be “just the facts ma’am.” Resist the impulse to describe all the wonderful things that could be done. A few users will advance later, but many will happily stay put with basic tools. If the user doesn’t need a tool or button, don’t present it.

Here’s a starting list of essential applications-

The applications are a bit problematic. Most of the common ones are geared to more sophisticated, or at least more unflappable users. It would really help to be able to hide most of the features in them. Some have that ability already. It might be wise to use yahoo mail or gmail instead of a local mail app. Games seem to be widely liked, though you could decide that online access to games is good enough.

6 Avoid fancy iconography.

Seniors are often afraid of breaking their computer, and they have a very hard time gaging the importance of error messages and pop-ups. An icon that obviously is just a cutesy gee-gaw, may seem like a warning to them. Conversely they may be too willing to allow spyware onto their computer. The jumping MS paperclip or the KDE lightbulb are just going to confuse them. Not to mention being as irritating as muzak.

Despite the PARC and Mac evangelists, the click and drag icon is not intuitive. It doesn’t act like anything in the real world. When you think about it, the whole concept of an icon is artificial. In the real world things don’t present a tiny crude symbol to your eye - they present themselves. The 32×32 icon is pretty thin stuff compared to a rose or a doorknob. P-N-R-D-L is not much help either - we need Park-Neutral-Reverse and so forth.

7 There must be provision for system administration.

Things are going to go wrong, and someone needs to be able to get in and fix them. If the OS & apps are on a CD or DVD, that just means sending a new one. But there will be some data saved locally. There needs to be automatic backup of the data, and there need to be system logs so the admin can trouble-shoot. There also needs to be remote access for the admin.

And here’s a list of automatic system administration needs:

The final guidelines are:

1 An interface that changes is a big problem.
2 Older users will tend to learn computing tasks by rote, not by understanding the system.
3 Reliability is even more important for these users.
4 The physical interface must be accessible.
5 The interface must be simple.
6 Avoid fancy iconography.
7 There must be provision for System Administration.

See future Part 2 of this article for implementation ideas.

Other Sources:
Newsforge Article
Linux Access Org
KDE Accessibility
Gnome Accessibility
Free Standards
Linux Accessibility Site
Universal Usability