| The over sixty age group is the fastest growing in our country, yet it is the least recognized in product design, training and usability. Instead of designing the product to assist the human, we design the product and hope training will correct any problems with use of the product. In most cases, with tomorrow's technology, this will not be the case. By combining the geriatric literature, information processing and ergonomics research a method is developed to assist product designers, trainers and potentially, family members enhance the elderly living environment. An algorithm for interpreting the changes to vision, hearing and tactile senses as we age, combined with changes in attention capacity and method of mapping new data to memory has been developed. This algorithm can be used to calculate the increased time to perform tasks when using products or when learning a new task. The premise is through the use of an algorithm developed as part of this study, cognitive aides to train and design for the elderly can be developed. The objective is to provide a model of input modalities, attention and memory. The output of the model, when added to the time required by someone under the age of fifty to perform a task, provides the increased time to perform by the elderly. In the future the algorithm will be refined and used as input to established computer models for the study of effects of human cognitive aging on product design. Future studies to clarify this model are presented with reference and bibliography provided. |
