Abstract
This paper reports on the findings of Delivering Inclusive Access to Disabled and Elderly Members of the community (DIADEM), a 3-year project, funded by the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme, to assist older adults when accessing, completing, and submitting online forms, by developing web-based assistive technologies that adapt the online form according to users’ needs. A user-centred approach is adopted to gain insights into the challenges faced by 80 older adults in three European countries as they interact with a representative sample of public service-based online forms. A thematic analysis is then carried out on the data, which revealed five over-arching themes that relate to the challenges faced by users: assistance, trust, layout, the technology paradigm, and language. From these themes, 23 online form design guidelines are derived, which provide valuable guidance for the development of the DIADEM application and for e-Government online form design for an ageing population in general.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Commission, E.: Eurostat—population data. Available from: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1996,45323734&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&screen=welcomeref&open=/&product=REF_TB_population&depth=2 (2009). Cited 06 Feb 2009
Grundy, E.: The epidemiology of aging. In: Tallis, R.C., Fillit, H.M. (eds.) Brocklehurst’s Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. Churchill Livingstone, London (2003)
Lines, L., Ikechi, O., Hone,K.S.: Accessing e-Government services: design requirements for the older user. In: Constantine S. (ed.) Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction. Applications and Services, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4868, pp. 932–940. Springer, Berlin (2007)
Peterson, R.C., et al.: Aging, memory, and mild cognitive impairment. Int. Psychogeriatr. 9(1), 65–69 (1997)
Christensen, H.: What cognitive changes can be expected with normal ageing? Aust. N. Z. J. Psychiatry 35, 768–775 (2001)
Mioshi, E., Dawson, K., Mitchell, J.: The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R): a brief cognitive test battery for dimentia screening. Int. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 21(11), 1078–1085 (2006)
Smith, G.E., Petersen, R.C., Parisi, J.E.: Definition, course, and outcome of mild cognitive impairment. Aging Neuropsychol. Cogn. 3, 141–147 (1996)
Czaja, S.J., Lee, C.C.: Information technology and older adults. In: Sears, A., Jacko, J.A. (eds.) The Human Computer Interaction Handbook, pp. 777–792. Lawrence Erlbaum, London (2008)
Commission, E.: Eurostat—science and technology data. Available from: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=0,1136250,0_45572555&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL (2009). Cited 06 Feb 2009
Morrell, R.W., Mayhorn, C.B., Bennett, J.: A survey of World Wide Web in middle-aged and older adults. Hum. Factors 42(2), 175–182 (2000)
W3C.: Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Available from: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ (2008). Cited 09 Sep 2009
Administration, U.S.G.S.: Section 508 standards. Available from: http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=content&ID=12 (1998). Cited 02 Sep 2008
Hawthorn, D.: Possible implications of aging for interface designers. Interact. Comput. 12(5), 507–528 (2000)
Echt, K.V.: Designing web-based health information for older adults: visual considerations and design directives. In: Morrell, R.W. (ed.) Older Adults, Health Information, and the World Wide Web. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc, Hillsdale (2001)
Morrell, R.W., et al.: Older Adults and Information Technology: A Compendium of Scientific Research and Web Site Accessibility Guidelines. National Institute on Aging and National Library of Medicine, Bethesda (2002)
Morrell, R.W.: The process of construction and revision in the development of a model web site for use by older adults. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 4(1), 24–38 (2005). http://www.nihseniorhealth.gov
Kurniawan, S., Zaphiris, P.: Research-derived web design guidelines for older people. In: 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ACM Press, pp. 129–135. (2005)
Nielsen, J., Norman, D.: Web usability for senior citizens: 46 design guidelines based on usability studies with people age 65 and older. Nielsen Norman Group (2002)
Sayago, S., Blat, J.: Some aspects of designing accessible online forms for the young elderly. In: Third International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, pp. 13–18. INSTICC Press, Barcelona (2007)
Arch, A.: Web accessibility for older users: a literature review. Available from: http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-age-literature/ (2008). Cited 10 Aug 2008
Lines, L., Patel, Y., Hone, K.S.: Online form design: older adults’ access to housing and welfare services. In: HCI and the Older Population Workshop. HCI, Leeds (2004)
Badre, A.N.: Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context. Addison Wesley, Boston (2002)
Folstein, M.F., Folstein, S.E., McHugh, P.R.: Mini-mental state. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J. Psychiatr. Res. 12(3), 189–198 (1975)
Crum, R.M., Anthony, J.C., Basset, S.S., Folstein, M.F.: Population-based norms for the Mini-Mental State Examination by age and educational level. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 269(18), 2386–2391 (1993)
Folstein, M.F., Folstein, S.E., McHugh, P.R., Fanjiang, G.: Mini-Mental State Examination: User’s Guide. Psychological Assessment Resources, Lutz (2001)
Miller, S., Jarrett, C.: Should I use a drop down? Four steps for choosing form elements on the Web, vol. 1–9. Effortmark Ltd. URL: http://www.formsthatwork.com/ftp/dropdown.pdf (2001). Accessed Oct 2006
Money, A.G., Elliman, A.D., Fernando, S., Lines, L.: Online form complexity assessment for developing assistive technologies. In: 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems. Toronto, Canada (accepted)
Sheffield-City-Council.: Tell us you’ve moved. Available from: http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/council-tax/if-you-move-home/tell-us-you-have-moved (2009). Cited 20 Feb 2009
More.: Safety alarm application form. Available from: https://www.more.no/more/wizard/wizard.jsp?wizardid=2517 (2009). Cited 24 Feb 2009
City-of-Turin.: Self-certification of the civil status of people form. Available from: http://www.comune.torino.it/autocertificazione/auto.htm (2009). Cited 18 Feb 2009
Boyatzis, R.E.: Transforming Qualitative Information: Thematic Analysis and Code Development. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (1998)
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R.: Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: The Search for Meanings. Wiley, New York (1984)
Silverman, D.: Doing Qualitative Research. Sage Publications, London (2005)
Joffe, H., Yardley, L.: Content and thematic analysis. In: Marks, D.F., Yardley, L. (eds.) Research Methods for Clinical and Health Psychology. Sage Publications, London (2004)
Dey, I.: Qualitative Data Analysis: A User-Friendly Guide for Social Scientists. Routledge, London (1993)
Jones, J., Hunter, D.: Qualitative research: consensus methods for medical and health services research. Br. Med. J. 7001(311), 376–380 (1995)
Black, N., et al.: Consensus development methods: a review of best practice in creating clinical guidelines. J. Health Serv. Res. Policy 4(4), 236–248 (1999)
Braun, V., Clarke, V.: Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual. Res. Psychol. 3, 77–101 (2006)
Thompson, W., Hickey, J.: Society in Focus, 6th edn. Pearson, Boston (2007)
Rapcsak, S.Z., Arthur, S.A., Blicklen, D.A., Rubens, A.: Lexical agraphia in Alzheimers disease. Arch. Neurol. 46(1), 65–68 (1989)
Hughes, J.C., Graham, N., Patterson, K., Hodges, J.R.: Dysgraphia in mild mementia of Alzheimer’s type. Neuropsychologia 34(4), 533–545 (1996)
BBC.: Court case data CD’s lost in post. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7204399.stm (2009). Accessed Sept 2009
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Money, A.G., Lines, L., Fernando, S. et al. e-Government online forms: design guidelines for older adults in Europe. Univ Access Inf Soc 10, 1–16 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-010-0191-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-010-0191-y