📌 Authors: Chorong Park & Rua M. Williams
📌 Institution: Purdue University
📌 Keywords: UX Design, Accessibility, Aging, Kansei Engineering, Inclusive Design
Older adults face frustration, anxiety, and loss of autonomy when using consumer technology due to design flaws that do not account for age-related changes (e.g., vision, motor control, cognitive shifts).
This study applies Kansei Engineering (KE)—a user emotion-driven design methodology—to identify barriers older adults face when using technology and proposes UX strategies to transform these negative experiences into confidence, independence, and usability.
✅ Core Finding: Poor UX design disempowers older adults, leading to disengagement from technology.
✅ Industry Application: Fixing accessibility flaws benefits all users, enhances retention, and aligns with accessibility compliance.
📌 Real-World Data Collection:
📌 Qualitative Analysis:
📌 Key Metrics:
Older adults struggle with seven primary UX challenges:
1️⃣ Complex Navigation & UI Overload: Non-intuitive menus and hard-to-find features.
2️⃣ Frequent & Unpredictable Updates: Forced changes disrupt learned workflows.
3️⃣ Touchscreen Sensitivity Issues: Low conductivity, tremors, and fine motor control make touch gestures unreliable.
4️⃣ Password Management Struggles: Memory and cognitive challenges create friction.
5️⃣ Automated & Non-Human Support: Chatbots and AI-driven help desks fail to address accessibility needs.
6️⃣ Lack of Clear Feedback & Undo Options: Fear of mistakes makes users hesitant to explore.
7️⃣ Social Stigma in Tech Support: Older adults often avoid asking for help due to fear of being perceived as incompetent.
🔹 Proposed UX Fixes:
✅ Touchscreen Calibration for Older Users → Reduce misinterpreted gestures.
✅ Reversible Actions & Undo Features → Remove fear of “breaking” technology.
✅ Higher Contrast & Larger UI Elements → Improve visibility and ease of interaction.
✅ Alt-Text & Guided Pop-Ups → Simplify user education without cluttering interfaces.
✅ User-Controlled Interface Updates → Give users a choice to adapt gradually.
🔹 Business Value:
🚀 Market Expansion: 1 in 6 people will be over 65 by 2050 → Designing for aging users drives long-term engagement.
🚀 Customer Retention: Reducing frustration lowers churn rates and boosts product adoption.
🚀 Compliance & Risk Reduction: Future-proofs products for accessibility laws (WCAG 2.0, ADA, A11y).
🚀 Universal Design Benefits All Users: Design improvements for older adults enhance usability for all demographics (e.g., reducing cognitive overload).
💡 Product Managers: Prioritize user-centered accessibility design in upcoming updates.
💡 UX Designers: Implement Kansei Engineering to measure emotional user responses during usability testing.
💡 AI & Support Teams: Optimize customer service AI for accessibility—older adults struggle with automated systems.
💡 Marketing & Growth Teams: Recognize aging users as a key growth demographic rather than a niche market.
📌 Current technology is failing older adults by neglecting age-related usability challenges.
📌 Industry professionals have an opportunity to lead in accessibility innovation and build user-friendly, emotionally intelligent products.
📌 Applying Kansei Engineering principles can transform UX from frustration to empowerment, benefiting all users—not just older adults.
🚀 Next Steps: How can we integrate these insights into your company’s UX strategy? Let’s connect.
As a lead researcher and practitioner, my contributions have focused on enhancing accessibility, user experience, and autonomy for older adults through evidence-based design research.
✅ Principal Investigator: Led a multi-year study examining older adults’ emotional experiences with technology.
✅ Ethical Compliance: Designed and secured Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval (Purdue IRB-2022-1333) for human-centered research.
✅ Cross-Disciplinary Approach: Applied principles from Kansei Engineering, UX Research, and Accessibility Design to identify user pain points.
✅ Hands-On Technology Support: Provided over 500 hours of direct tech assistance to 500+ older adults over 2.5 years.
✅ Human-Centered Data Collection: Conducted 20 semi-structured interviews and analyzed 500+ hours of field notes to capture authentic user frustrations and needs.
✅ Thematic Analysis Expert: Led three rounds of qualitative coding using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA).
✅ Identified Key UX Barriers:
4. Industry-Relevant Solutions & Recommendations✅ Proposed UX Design Fixes:
✅ Strategic Business Value:
