My Articles on Tech-enhanced Life

Design and seniors

The Paradox of Good UX Design for Seniors

Seniors report avoiding, or using in as stealth a manner as possible, technologies that would improve the quality of their lives — even enhance their safety — because they are associated with or specifically designed for the elderly. The paradox, then, for good UX design that addresses seniors’ needs is to do so without explicitly seeming to target the “old.”


My Background:

I’m a Sociologist who taught for years at The Ohio State University – Sociology of the Family, Marriage and Society and Social Gerontology were some of my favorite classes. Now I’m applying my years of experience with qualitative methodologies – interviews, focus groups and ethongraphy – to user experince research. I hope to do “good” for seniors by keeping their needs, abilities and preferences in designers’ minds at every step of the design process.

Learn more about me:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariemika