The AgeTech Revolution by Keren Etkin

Author:Keren Etkin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NewDegreePress
Published: 2021-12-07T19:24:48+00:00

Don’t Compromise Usability to Make Things Look Pretty

In earlier chapters, we discussed the not-so-appealing design of some of the tech-enabled solutions that were available to older adults in the past, like PERS. These days, most companies put a lot of effort into making their devices look good. This is in part thanks to Apple’s influence on tech makers. Apple is known for making beautiful devices that make their owners feel proud to wear and use. They’ve also, however, traded-off some usability in favor of “pretty.”

Don Norman is a world-renowned authority on user-centered design of digital products, the author of Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design, a former VP at Apple, and Apple’s user experience architect from 1993 to 1996.

At Apple, Norman established a small, high-level group called the User Experience Architect’s Office, which worked across the company to make Apple products easier to use (Winograd, 1996). Norman worked with Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini, who was Apple’s sixty-sixth employee and the writer of its first human interface guidelines. Norman was also founding chair of the Cognitive Science Department and founder and director of the Design Lab at University of California, San Diego, as well as co-founder and Principal Emeritus of Nielsen Norman Group— an American computer user interface and user experience consulting firm, founded in 1998 by Norman and Jakob Nielsen. He has a wide background in electrical engineering, psychology, cognitive science, computer science, and design, and he’s also an adviser for Intuition Robotics—maker of companion robot ElliQ. Norman was born in 1935, which means he’s well into his eighties at the time of writing (jnd.org).

Norman published a series of articles in Fast Company that I have read and contemplated on over the years. During the research for this book, two in particular caught my attention: “I Wrote the Book on User-Friendly Design. What I See Today Horrifies Me” (2019) and “How Apple Is Giving Design A Bad Name” (2015), so I decided to reach out to Norman and have an open conversation about his thoughts on the topic of older adults and technology. More specifically, I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of what went wrong. How did Apple, which is considered a world leader when it comes to design of user interfaces and is one of the most profitable tech companies in the world, change from “designing easy-to-use, easy-to-understand products” to a company that designs products that “no longer follow the well-known, well-established principles of design that Apple developed several decades ago” (Norman, 2015)?

Many of you reading these lines might not understand where this is coming from. After all, Apple’s products are considered to be some of the most beautifully designed and coveted gadgets in existence. Many companies try to imitate their sleek designs and perceived ease of use. We’ve all seen media coverage of lines outside the Apple store when a new iPhone is released to the public. I’m sure that just like myself, many of you know older adults who have never used a computer or struggled

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