Design principles specifically for senior citizen users:
· Use large font sizes
· Assume 800x600 screen resolution
· Use a sans-serif font
· Avoid using similar hues or colors in the blue-green range
· Keep bulk of website text black on a white background (high contract regardless)
· Present visual information using predictable and simply structured formats
· Keep the navigation, functionality, and design consistent across the application
I also pulled from my collection of guidelines and heuristics for usable web design:
· Jakob Nielson's: http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html
· Bruce Tognazzini's: http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html
Other design principles:
· No use of frames within the SCP
· Light-weight graphics and optimized data calls for acceptable download times for patients using dialup modems
· We just recently managed to make the SCP work on all newer versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape for both PC and Mac operating systems.
· We didn't shoot for a specific reading level, but we did try to keep it at a low level and tried to make all language "patient friendly" instead of "medicalese" ("no Latin" is a system requirement) unless the design team felt that a specific term should be learned by patients (such as "contraindications"). There is contextual help throughout the app that defines terms and phrases users encounter in the interface.
· I used Edward Tufte's principle of information visualization: try to shoot for high information resolution; don't make people dig into multiple layers/pages to see lots of information.
· One design requirement that came from clinicians: present snapshots of current information for this patient, not historical info.
· Design first and foremost a useful self-management tool for patients, NOT an EMR/clinician record
