Designing for Seniors: Innovations for Graying Times
From: ACM Interactions - July/August 2007
Edited by: Jonathan Livingston

This issue presents the topic of HCI and the elderly; we thank and
congratulate another outstanding volunteer guest editor, Jonathan Livingston,
for putting together this selection of articles. The elderly are becoming
more and more computer savvy, leading the way for the destruction of
deep-rooted stereotypes of computer illiteracy. The ubiquity of the computer
affects us all in different ways. This is not just a baby-boomer issue. Ten
years ago pre-baby boomers may not have been proficient computer users; today
computers are almost everywhere, in some ways changing the context of life.
EIC Jonathan's 86-year-old father was computer illiterate in the early '90s
but now has experience using three different operating systems spread over
five computers. That's not all - he has a mobile phone and an iPod and is now
contemplating his first DVR. Elizabeth's 85-year-old mother has mastered her
cable box, multiple VCR, DVD, and TV remote controls, and uses her computer
to play CDs, listen to the radio, and sometimes watch TV, but she hasn't
tackled the Internet like members of her senior group who have MySpace
accounts and chat internationally using instant-messaging software. It was a
challenge for guest editor Jonathan Livingston to avoid the clichéd approach
to this timely topic, and he did so in excellent fashion. 

Jonathan Arnowitz and Elizabeth Dykstra-Erickson
Editors-in-Chief


Contents:
Fresh: ok/cancel (Comic strip)
Aging technophiles
Tom Chi, Kevin Cheng
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1280000/1273967/p5-chi.html?key1=1273967&key2=5929373811&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=23217092&CFTOKEN=44194215

Information and communication technology design for elders
Jonathan Livingston
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1280000/1273977/p20-livingston.html?key1=1273977&key2=0219373811&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=23217092&CFTOKEN=44194215

Technology and aging: the untapped potential
Susan Ayers Walker, Michael Sarfatti
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1280000/1273978/p22-walker.html?key1=1273978&key2=5239373811&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=23217092&CFTOKEN=44194215

Mobile phone design for older persons
Sri Kurniawan
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1280000/1273979/p24-kurniawan.html?key1=1273979&key2=6439373811&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=23217092&CFTOKEN=44194215

Speech recognition and alternative interfaces for older users
Sara Basson, Peter G. Fairweather, Vicki L. Hanson
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1280000/1273980/p26-basson.html?key1=1273980&key2=4839373811&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=23217092&CFTOKEN=44194215

Ambient assisted-living research in carelab
Boris de Ruyter, Elly Pelgrim
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1280000/1273981/p30-de_ruyter.html?key1=1273981&key2=6149373811&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=23217092&CFTOKEN=44194215

The use of an intelligent prompting system for people with dementia
Alex Mihailidis, Jennifer Boger, Marcelle Canido, Jesse Hoey
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1280000/1273982/p34-mihailidis.html?key1=1273982&key2=3549373811&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=23217092&CFTOKEN=44194215

Exploring the nuances of Murphy's Law - long-term deployments of pervasive technology into the homes of older adults
Janna Kimel, Jay Lundell
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1280000/1273983/p38-kimel.html?key1=1273983&key2=4849373811&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=23217092&CFTOKEN=44194215

Neuroscience via computer: brain exercise for older adults
Michael Merzenich
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1280000/1273984/p42-merzenich.html?key1=1273984&key2=4259373811&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=23217092&CFTOKEN=44194215