Students are also responsible for responding to two other students’ initial post
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Students are also responsible for responding to two other students’ initial post. Responses should be substantive with a minimum of 200 words. Good academic writing style.
POST ONE–
The two principles that are relevant when it comes to evaluating the website consist of helping users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors and error prevention. These principles can be linked to each other. For starters the website recognizes how living a healthy and active life has caused people to live longer. It also recognizes how our bodies and mind change as we age and how some changes could also be caused by a medical problem. The website gives tips on how to diagnose any changes that could affect an older individual’s life. For example, there are helpful links that guide the user to view ways on how to recognize changes that they may not know about. Being able to notice changes and diagnose medical problems on time can save someone’s life and help them live a long life. There are tips that help users fix their errors. For example, if an older person is overweight and they notice changes in their body, there are links that guide the user on why their body has changed and what to do about it. The tips can consist of exercising, eating healthier, etc, and information about aging. When it comes to the usability principle of error prevention, the website offers information and tips on how to live a longer life. These tips can help users prevent diseases such as hypertension, osteoporosis, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases.
Although the website is helpful, it has lots of links, which could confuse the audience, especially those who are older and do not know much about technology. This could cause frustration among the users, which could cause them to navigate away from the website. User engagement can also be a problem that could arise. Without user engagement, it can be difficult to update the information and layout of the website. This could lead to an increase in errors on the website.
POST TWO–
When it comes to Usability, there are two principles that should be taken into consideration when designing a website for our senior population. People older than age 65 are more prone to certain limitations including diminishing eyesight, loss of hearing, loss of motor skills and memory loss. Meaning that the user interface targeting senior citizens should be designed using principles that include
(1) a minimalistic design and (2) flexibility and efficiency of use. Because our aging population has different needs, User-Centered design must be able to fit those needs of that age group especially for those are not very computer savvy and/or suffer from the previously mentioned health challenges.
While looking at the MedlinePlus website, although it is a well organized and an excellent resource for advanced healthcare, its interface usability does not completely serve to minimize memory load. The website cleverly uses highlight over mouse selections and the texts are emphasized before selecting on the link. The problem is that many of those links are very close together and is not a productive use of space.
and its possible information overload may exist. This is important when considering the elderly or disabled need a more minimalistic design.
A solution would be to break information into short sections, simplify terminology and minimize scrolling per page. All these solutions would make the website a little more user friendly and straightforward. The existing positives of the MedlinePlus interface is that there is a lot of useful and helpful information available its homepage. It is organized using different colors but larger font should be used. Enlarging text would be another solution help those suffering from vision impairments. The website does use colors to differentiate between sections, the only suggestion would be to possible have higher contrasting color combinations. Especially with all the information that is being given to help consumers better meet their needs. It is always best engineers work collaboratively with senior citizens when taking considerations for the designing process for an aging targeted audience.
Creating a minimalistic design would eliminate frustrations for elderly who suffer from loss of vision and digital literacy. Too much complexity is something to avoid when creating an interface for elderly folks. Although MedlinePlus website seems to be well organized and effective in providing resources for its target audience, too much information can cause confusion. The website does have some flexibility by having the main resources always listed at the top of every page. This creates flexibility and efficiency of use, a great usability principle for older adults that makes it easier to browse. Understanding and interviewing potential user, creating a minimalistic interface design as well as flexibility should be the most important principles when evaluating overall design process in an aging population.
MedlinePlus [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); [updated Jun 24; cited 2020 Jul 1]. Available from: https://medlineplus.gov/.
The universal access handbook, 1, 1-16.
