I do not think I qualified for such an invitation, but did gratefully accept.
The conference started with an Introduction by Dr Anna Dickinson and Joy Goodman, followed by an "Icebreaker" designed to get the attending group to know one another. This met with a measure of success.
We then had a very good and extensive presentation by Professor Alan Newell, stressing the need for designers to produce computers with the older user in mind.
There was an interactive 'Workshop' in which all participated, followed by an assessment and investigation of the resulting designs presented, again with ease of use and suitability being paramount, being for the use of all groups. This was quite enlightening and highlighted the pressure on "Design" to cover all aspects.
After lunch, two representatives of the older generation gave an individual talk on how computers appeared to them, again stressing design inclusion.
The resulting discussion concentrated again on the 'design' aspects and the awareness to allow for the older generation as forecasts emphasise a greater increase in the older group.
A generalisation of the one day workshop was that it did clearly stress the need for design application to the older group, but there was little to report on action as to what is to be implemented.
I would like if the design people would stop designing units more suitable for their own use and to design a unit more suitable for general use by all classes of computer ability.
What I have in mind is a unit that has all the bells and whistles of the latest application covering all the latest innovations that the design people can produce BUT the same unit has the ability to be used by all computer users. To me this could be achieved by what is in common use in the games field, that is a keypad would select the LEVEL at which the unit would operate. If this was available then anyone could use the unit at the level selected by themselves and would be able to progress to higher levels in the same way as they do in games, by practice and increased ability the technology appears to be there so why not use it?
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