2021 will usher in the app to adapt to aging, and the elderly can easily learn WeChat by themselves

On the 24th of last month, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Notice on the Implementation Plan for Practically Solving the Difficulties of the Elderly in Using Intelligent Technology", which is intended to help the elderly with various services.

Immediately afterwards, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also recently issued the "Special Action Plan for Internet Application Adaptation and Accessibility Improvement", and decided to organize a one-year special Internet application adaptation and accessibility improvement project starting from January 2021. The action aims to solve the difficulties encountered by special groups such as the elderly and the disabled in using intelligent technologies such as the Internet.

The plan clearly states:

At present, China’s public service websites and mobile Internet applications (app) have a low accessibility penetration rate, and the level of aging needs to be improved. Most of them have problems such as complex interface interaction and unfriendly operation , making the elderly afraid to use or not to use it. , Unusable; The widespread problems of lack of text description in pictures, difficulty in operation of verification codes , and incompatibility of related functions and equipment have caused people with disabilities and other groups to encounter many obstacles in using the Internet and face the "digital divide."

Arrangements were made based on the above situation. The scope of the transformation was mainly concentrated on Internet websites and mobile Internet applications (apps), including a total of 115 websites and 43 apps, involving news and information, social communications, life shopping, financial services, medical and health, etc. field.

For the elderly, more products with features such as large fonts, large icons, and high-contrast text will be introduced . Encourage more companies to introduce simple and easy- to- operate interface modes to achieve multiple barrier-free functions such as one-key operation and text input prompts . Improve the ability of dialect recognition to facilitate the use of smart devices by the elderly who do not speak Mandarin.

In addition, in view of the problem that there are many mandatory advertisements in current Internet applications, which are easy to mislead the elderly, after the completion of the transformation of Internet websites and mobile apps, the old version, the care version, and the accessible version will no longer have ad plug-ins , especially payment There will be no inductive buttons for such operations, so that various special groups can use it conveniently and safely.

As soon as the plan was announced, it caused intense discussions among netizens, all of whom held a positive attitude of support. The focus of the discussion was also on the aspect of advertising chaos, and the elderly are easily deceived.

Open some mainstream apps, all kinds of false advertisements emerge in an endless stream, and there are many trap links, accidentally clicked to jump to other websites. In this situation, many young people are actually deceived, not to mention the elderly who lack the ability to identify information on the Internet. Suddenly the page jumps to an unknown place. Before they can respond, they may fall into it. Into the abyss of false advertising.

The chaos has existed for a long time, which requires each app to control the threshold of advertising. In fact, it is not only that the old version of the app cannot have such advertisements, but all versions should eliminate false/fraud advertisements.

The launch of this program is a good start, adding a layer of security to the elderly when they use mobile applications.

This plan also includes suggestions for the special needs of people with vision/hearing/physical impairment, which is undoubtedly a good thing to be happy with. In my opinion, this is a more urgent function than the "teenage model", but until Today, it was put on the agenda.

Teaching the elderly to use high technology is still a problem

As early as 2014, there was a post on the Internet, which was about an office worker who used WeChat for his godparents, specifically in the form of comics, to explain the usage and purpose of each function.

This move was reposted and praised by major V, and later such news was reported almost once a year.

The mobile Internet is changing with each passing day, and new apps are born every day. Old people who are accustomed to face-to-face communication with the real world cannot get used to the new things like mobile phones for a while, and every time an app is changed, another set of interaction logic is required. It is equivalent to having to learn how to use it again, and over time it will produce "learning-weariness."

It's just like when we encountered problems in class.

The difference is that when we encounter problems in school, we can still find classmates and teachers to discuss and practice repeatedly. Parents whose children work outside, where can we find teachers to teach ourselves to use mobile phones?

So when I saw this aging retrofit plan, I believe many people are as happy as I am.

As for the transformation of the software to adapt to aging, perhaps you can refer to the example in the physical design.

Design needs to be in place

There is a design principle called information accessibility, which means that anyone can obtain information under any circumstances. From public guidelines, home appliances, furniture, small cups, and sticky notes, this design principle should be followed.

The ageing of this plan is one aspect of information accessibility.

As people grow older, they will leave many marks on the human body: poor eyesight, weaker photosensitivity, slow movement, hearing/olfactory no longer sensitive, memory deterioration, so when designing products for the elderly, more Consider the impact of human factors.

Let’s start with the design of a large house. Bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, every corner of the home needs to be customized.

For example, in the bedroom, the activity space is designed to be larger than the conventional room. In addition to convenient activities, it is also prepared for escorts, wheelchairs or emergency situations; the windows should be large to ensure sufficient sunshine and ventilation; the floor should be non-slip and soft ( Prevent falls and injuries), floor heating, scratch resistance (often moving animal parts such as wheelchairs are prone to scratches) and other characteristics.

There are too many examples, so I won't go into it.

Under the same roof, there are young people in prime of life, children, and elderly people. Everyone has different needs for houses. Of course, they need to make corresponding adjustments and designs.

Is it very much like us in the same digital world? Young people have created today's vibrant mobile Internet, but what grows from this soil is not just a lot of fruits, but also some poisons with gorgeous appearances. So in order to protect the next generation, a youth model was created. Now, in order to let the lagging old people keep up, the state intervened and urged companies to introduce designs suitable for aging.

In fact, some people in the technology circle have long tried to launch products of specific categories for the elderly, such as mobile phones for the elderly, smart watches for the elderly, etc. However, if the category is further subdivided, it is not as good as adding a design that meets the habits of the elderly in the original product form. Let elderly users embrace the Internet at a lower cost.

If it can be done in one step, why bother to do so.

To be universal, but also to be customized

Having said so much, let’s finally take a look at where the software is suitable for aging. I am not a design background, so I have to ask for help from the Internet and friends around me, and summarize a few points. If there are any additions and corrections, please leave a message in the comment area. Explore.

According to the "Recommendations for Mobile Internet Product Information Accessibility Testing" put forward by the "Information Accessibility Research Association", it can be learned from "perceivability", "operability", "understandability" and "robustness". Several improvements have been made.

According to the above set of rules, look at a circle of mainstream apps, including most Ali products and Tencent products. The label bar has icons and text. The corresponding function of each button is very clear. The words are not oblique and clear at a glance. The status (based on time) such as network failure to load and app pull-down loading is also explained through the display of pictures and text.

But for time-based media (audio, video), not all content has alternative ways to receive information.

In addition, in some e-commerce apps, it is true that the foreground/background of the picture is difficult to distinguish, and the information in the picture is too complicated and it is not conducive to the reading of the elderly.

It can be seen that the aging design is not only as simple as enlarging font icons, but also needs to regulate the distance between the key trigger area and provide more interactive methods . For the elderly in the dialect area, if the app they use can provide the ability to recognize multiple dialects, it can undoubtedly significantly reduce their learning costs and make them more willing to use social software to communicate with friends and children.

I hope that in January next year, we can see the first batch of apps that have undergone aging-appropriate transformation become more friendly to the elderly. Then we will come to another comparison article to see the results.

The crowd is easy to move, and all parties work together for easy results

When the state takes action and the whole society begins to adapt to the aging process, the older generation should also embrace this technological society more actively. Only by understanding and cooperating with each other can the two sides achieve the desired results.

I can pay in cash, why do I need to scan the code with my mobile phone?

Many people have heard similar things from the elders around them. In their concept, the existence of physical media items is more intimacy or easier to understand; while paying with mobile phones, where does the money come from? Who has it? Why can you pay for a black-and-white picture with a cell phone camera?

Helping them to change their ideas is also an obstacle to adapting to aging. For this kind of old man, what we can do is to teach patiently, no matter how many times he says "Why do I learn this thing, you can help me get it", we all have to laugh and teach again, and then take them to use it again. . Maybe they are just afraid of learning badly and being laughed at.

When they have mastered a new skill, their inner strong sense of accomplishment will make this learning behavior form a positive flywheel, driving them to try more new things.

If you still need to give your parents some positive examples of their peers playing new technologies very well to enrich your argument, I will also include a few examples here. For example, on station B, which is well-loved by young people, there are many "old UPs", such as "Teacher Dai Jianye" and "Sculpture Time of Lu Zhengyi"; Zheng Yuanjie, who frequently appears on Weibo hot searches; and former US President special Lamp, in order to win the hearts of young voters, he not only learned all kinds of social software, but also cultivated the skills of "Twitter governing the country." His elderly people posted more "circles of friends" than many young people in a day.

It is inevitable that the body will get old, but at least we can still have a youthful mindset; coupled with the society's more and more tolerant of the elderly, two-way joint efforts can make the whole society's ageing progress smoother.

Source of title map: Sina Technology

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