An investigation of smartcard technologies and e-consultation systems in local government,
taking place in Sheffield and the Black Country, is using older people as part of the usability
testing and evaluation panels. A number of panels and workshops have been conducted since late 2004
to elicit requirements, explore usability and, most recently, evaluate some of the devised products.
Many of these groups contained older people in various roles, including IT learners, members of
Credit Unions and participants in social groups.
As well as deriving usability data from these potential users, we have also observed the
behaviour of older people in the study and will report some of our observations. A group
of older people is just as varied as any other segment of the population and just as articulate
about their requirements as younger IT users, but with less jargon. They display irritation with
their physical competencies in using the technology, but equal irritation with the technology
for not accommodating their inadequacies. Using these participants to generate ‘pastiche scenarios’
about smartcards has tapped a rich vein of experience and humour. The interim results from the
project have provided the smartcard developers with a great deal of useful feedback.
Download paper (Word document)