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Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

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Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#101

Post by BeetleB »

grues-dinner wrote: post #65
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #17

We should NOT have touch screen interfaces in cars. Full stop. If the driver has to divert their gaze from the road to operate e.g. the heating/AC[0], that is a failure of UX sufficiently egregious to keep the car off the road. It is not a toy, it is not a fashion statement, it is a thousand pound chunk of steel that will indiscriminately kill and maim if not operated with care and diligence. [0] This is the complain…

My car has a little sub menu area on the dash board behind the steering wheel with panels for media, phone, navigation and something else. These can be navigated with the steering wheel buttons. The climate controls cannot be controlled that way. Really annoying and dangerous to have to tap about on a touchscreen to just turn the fan up or down. Sometimes I'll try to use the voice thing but it rarely works even when…

> The climate controls cannot be controlled that way. Really annoying and dangerous to have to tap about on a touchscreen to just turn the fan up or down.

Other than Tesla, which car manufacturer is stupid enough to put climate control behind a touchscreen?

Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#102

Post by BeetleB »

jedberg wrote: post #55
jeffbee wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We shouldn't have 89-year-old drivers in cars, either. Full stop. In my city we've had three pedestrian fatalities in less than a year and all the drivers were aged 79 or older.

Previously it was a political 3rd rail to even suggest a maximum driving age. "You can't take my freedom to travel!!". But now, with Uber/Lyft/Waymo and all the other options, it seems much more reasonable to implement such a thing. Why do we have to wait for someone to cause an accident before we take their license?

> But now, with Uber/Lyft/Waymo and all the other options, it seems much more reasonable to implement such a thing.

Most octagenarians cannot afford to use these on a daily basis.

Heck, most of the country cannot afford to use these on a daily basis.

Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#103

Post by jeffbee »

BeetleB wrote: post #102
jedberg wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Previously it was a political 3rd rail to even suggest a maximum driving age. "You can't take my freedom to travel!!". But now, with Uber/Lyft/Waymo and all the other options, it seems much more reasonable to implement such a thing. Why do we have to wait for someone to cause an accident before we take their license?

> But now, with Uber/Lyft/Waymo and all the other options, it seems much more reasonable to implement such a thing. Most octagenarians cannot afford to use these on a daily basis. Heck, most of the country cannot afford to use these on a daily basis.

They shouldn't have to. They had their entire adult lives to build a society where you don't need a car, a society welcoming and useful to the old, the young, the disabled, and the poor. And they blew it!

Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#104

Post by Xiol32 »

rightbyte wrote: post #15
iwanttocomment wrote: post #3

This seems to be an real and important problem with capacitive touch screens. My elderly mother is often unable to make a touch register on recent Apple devices when a touch appears to have clearly happened and with reasonable force. She blames it on her fingers being "numb" but there genuinely seems to be a problem unrelated to her actions. (I've used the devices in question, and they appear to be fine. This is not…

I get the same problem when I work in the garden digging a lot. The skin gets thick and dry and touch screens start behaving strange. Not that I can't use them, but like the centre of the tap has an offset.

I have a similar problem and I honestly only notice it on Apple devices.

Android and other random touchscreens seem fine, but my iPad can be a nightmare. I have to touch things multiple times for it to register. The fingerprint reader on there also hates me.

Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#105

Post by RhysU »

01100011 wrote: post #24
iwanttocomment wrote: post #3

This seems to be an real and important problem with capacitive touch screens. My elderly mother is often unable to make a touch register on recent Apple devices when a touch appears to have clearly happened and with reasonable force. She blames it on her fingers being "numb" but there genuinely seems to be a problem unrelated to her actions. (I've used the devices in question, and they appear to be fine. This is not…

Mom is almost 82. Just bought her an iPad to try because the computer was getting difficult to use with her essential tremor. Setting it up was a nightmare because I didn't spend the money for a model with face id. She had to keep touching(but not clicking!) the fingerprint reading button on the side. Training her fingerprint was also a nightmare because of Apple's surprisingly bad decision to require you to click a…

I am glad that she's still managing okay despite her ET. Kudos to you for helping her navigate which interfaces she can use now.

My father's ET makes me terrified of gradually losing my own ability to interact with any technology as I become his age and as interfaces "progress".

I am always surprised the extent to which "accessibility" does not include people with poor fine motor control.

Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#106

Post by _yb2s »

Lammy wrote: post #77
_yb2s wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be fine for non-critical entertainment systems which nowadays also take voice control, but never critical vehicle functions. Things like hazard lights and HVAC should be illegal to be on touch screens.

> Might be fine for non-critical entertainment systems which nowadays also take voice control As someone who uses a lot of greasy sunscreen lotion during long sunny-day drives: no, they still aren't. I don't want to talk to my car in the first place, and it probably couldn't hear me anyway with the music loud and the windows down.

I drive a convertible with the top almost always down, and have an unusually deep voice, and also hate talking to phones/cars. With my voice, I could never get Alexa or similar things to work at all- until the last few months when Apple's Siri started working perfectly at recognizing everything I say.

I don't love it, but I have to begrudgingly emit it works, and is safer to use. It works even with the top down on the freeway, and music is auto paused while it listens. I have it on a button so I have to press it first for it to listen, and basically only use it for selecting navigation destinations and music.

Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#107

Post by jedberg »

BeetleB wrote: post #102
jedberg wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Previously it was a political 3rd rail to even suggest a maximum driving age. "You can't take my freedom to travel!!". But now, with Uber/Lyft/Waymo and all the other options, it seems much more reasonable to implement such a thing. Why do we have to wait for someone to cause an accident before we take their license?

> But now, with Uber/Lyft/Waymo and all the other options, it seems much more reasonable to implement such a thing. Most octagenarians cannot afford to use these on a daily basis. Heck, most of the country cannot afford to use these on a daily basis.

A lot of cities are subsidizing ride share for the elderly, because it's still cheaper than running shuttles for the elderly, which is what they used to do.

Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#108

Post by dmckeon »

ballenf wrote: post #51
jeffbee wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We shouldn't have 89-year-old drivers in cars, either. Full stop. In my city we've had three pedestrian fatalities in less than a year and all the drivers were aged 79 or older.

Mandatory regular (every 5-10 years) driving tests seem like a no-brainer regardless of age. Also seems like the driving tests should be more stringent.

We could ease into more driver testing by requiring retesting after certain types of incidents - vehicle goes off roadway for no apparent reason, collision in a manner suggesting impairment - but that might rely too much on the discretion of a responding law enforcement officer. Perhaps better to let insurance companies do a carrot/stick approach: discounts for periodic driver retraining/testings, required retesting after an older driver is at-fault in a claim. Disclaimer: am older driver by TFA standards.

Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#109

Post by BeetleB »

jeffbee wrote: post #103
BeetleB wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But now, with Uber/Lyft/Waymo and all the other options, it seems much more reasonable to implement such a thing. Most octagenarians cannot afford to use these on a daily basis. Heck, most of the country cannot afford to use these on a daily basis.

They shouldn't have to. They had their entire adult lives to build a society where you don't need a car, a society welcoming and useful to the old, the young, the disabled, and the poor. And they blew it!

> They had their entire adult lives to build a society where you don't need a car, a society welcoming and useful to the old, the young, the disabled, and the poor. And they blew it!

And ... you won't?

Re: Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)

#110

Post by bloopernova »

margalabargala wrote: post #26
bloopernova wrote: post #8

Also those damnable single button interfaces to earbuds, vapes, etc. Older people can have trouble double clicking, it's even more difficult for them to "click 5 times rapidly", and to remember exactly where they are in a UI that has almost no outputs. Hopefully as Gen-X ages, we'll see more thought put into this problem.

Not defending the interfaces here, they do suck, but the elderly definitely aren't the target market for vapes. It's not unsurprising that they're not designed with them in mind.

I know a couple of older people who smoke marijuana for pain/relaxation.

You are correct though, they're not the target market. I would like to see some of the more modern conveniences redesigned though. Perhaps I can win the lottery and start a business for that need. Kind of like the bras and shirts with magnetic clasps for people with limited mobility.

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