Seeking Anecdotes Regarding "Older" Persons' Use of Web Services
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001103.html
Greetings. I'm seeking anecdotes regarding the use of Web services
(e.g. as provided by Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) by "older"
users. Keeping in mind that our memories, vision, and other key
attributes typically begin to degrade by the time we reach our 20s,
I'm not specifying any particular age ranges here.
Please email whatever you can to:
[email protected]
I'm especially interested in any frustrations related to Web services
that you might feel -- or have noted with relatives, friends,
co-workers, or any other persons -- as you and/or they have inevitably
aged.
Particularly relevant stories include age-related experiences
regarding what seems to work well and what causes the most problems
when you're using these systems, or when you're trying to help others
use these systems (either in-person, over the phone, or via various
remote desktop environments), and so on.
Experiences of the "elderly" in any aspect and how ever you wish to
define this would be especially appreciated. I believe this category
to be of critical importance. This rapidly growing group increasingly
must deal with Web services to conduct routine affairs (for example,
email or other Web-based contacts with relatives or businesses,
government communications, and so on.) This is also a group that could
benefit greatly from calendar systems, person-to-person chat and video
systems, search services as memory aids, and social networking
environments (particularly given the social isolation that is so
typically part and parcel of advancing age) -- if and only if these
persons are able to use these services effectively.
I will treat all details you send as confidential unless you indicate
otherwise, but the more details you can provide the more useful your
information will be. Ages, background information about physical and
mental states, and level of technical familiarity are some of the
particularly relevant factors.
Also, information regarding the particular aspects of these services
that you or those you assist find particularly problematic, would be
very much in focus -- issues with fonts, backgrounds, user interface
designs, stability vs. changes in interface and operational models --
and how these users are affected by these and similar issues.
Anyway, you get the idea. Again, please send whatever you feel
comfortable with to:
[email protected]
Thanks very much. Take care, all.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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