Dr Alex Carmichael
What is an 'average' user?
Alex Carmichael's Presentation - Powerpoint Slides (2.4MB)
Alex will give an overview of the age-related changes older people experience which can impact on their ability to deal with interfaces to interactive services. The presentation will also indicate that these changes do not make older people a distinct user group, but rather that they are illustrative of the wide diversity of the needs and wants of the mainstream user population and that addressing this diversity will produce more usable interfaces for more people in a wider range of situations.
Download
Style Guide for the Design of Interactive Television Services for Elderly Viewers (1MB)
Dr Alex Carmichael - biography
Alex Carmichael, BA (Psychology), PhD, is a leading researcher in Applied Cognitive Ageing Research with a particular interest in user interface issues for older people with an emphasis on Digital Television. Between 1991 and 2002 he was based at the Age and Cognitive Performance Research Centre, University of Manchester, accepting the appointment of ITC Research Fellow in 1997.
His research into various aspects of elderly users of interactive television, culminated in the Style Guide for the Design of Interactive Television Services for Elderly Viewers (published by ITC). This examined the usability of interfaces involved in a technical pilot scheme for interactive TV, using a variety of qualitative and quantitative experimental methodologies. This research and an extensive literature review formed the basis of the Style Guide.
Alex has been involved in other major research projects which have addressed the requirements of older people. One example was the EC funded AUDETEL project which developed technology to support audio description of television broadcasts. More recently he has been involved in DTI funded projects for example DICTION which developed methods of improving the clarity of television broadcast sound for those with age related hearing loss. The VISTA project developed a speech based interface to a digital television electronic programme guide, which although primarily aimed at blind and visually impaired users, has potential benefits for older people too. Toward the end of 2002 Alex moved to the Division of Applied Computing at Dundee University, where he became part of the UTOPIA project and the Queen Mother Research Centre for IT to support older people.