The elderly are an increasingly relevant target group for digital innovations, products and services. But most technologies are not yet well tailored to their needs. With modern user research methods, the elderly’s needs and requirements can be well understood, and digital offers can then be tailored specifically to this target group.

In this project we carry out a detailed analysis of the psychology of this target group and develop new methods in user-centered design in order to put the “best agers” at the center of technology development.

Although the so-called User-Centered Design (UCD) process, a set of methods for integrating users in development processes according to ISO 9241, is finding its way into the working methods and processes of more and more companies, the users – involved in technology development – are mostly limited to an age in a range of approx. 18 to 60 years.

This can be seen in technologies and products across different industries, such as:

are not geared towards elderly people in terms of usability and accessibility.

Our project goal is to implement and establish User-Centered Design with and for elderly people as a practice in companies that develop innovative products. In order to achieve this goal, proven methods of User-Centered Design should be tested with elderly people, especially people who are technically distant, and the findings should lead to a toolbox including different methods and a practical guide. We will make this available to the community via this landing page and other blog posts.