How Older People Interact and Use Email in Their Daily Life
From: Asian News International - 04/20/2010

Scientists from the Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF) have spent the past three
years studying how older people interact and use email in their daily life,
and the research will be used to make email systems more intuitive and
accessible. The researchers followed about 400 people between the ages of 64
and 80 in social centers in Barcelona. The study found that older users often
send relatives a few detailed and emotional emails a month, but provide close
friends more frequent updates on their social life. The researchers designed
prototypes for SeniorMail, a redesign of the Outlook Express email manager;
Simple Mail, a simulated email system with a user interface of five
functions; and Cybrarian, which has fewer functions but increases the size of
the features. "We have observed that making it easier and remembering the
steps to perform tasks is more important than increasing the size of the
elements on the interface," says UPF researcher Sergio Sayago. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_how-older-people-interact-and-use-email-in-their-daily-life_1373547

Link:
Sergio Sayago
http://www.tecn.upf.es/~ssayag/