Type and old users

Fabio Santos

HI
I am currently involved in a project that involves designing an interface for old users. 
I am looking for some guidance on the best practices on selecting typefaces for this kind of demographics.
 I found some nice articles and some typefaces but I would love to know what you guys thing might be a nice approach.

Best regards
Fabio Santos

Chris Lozos

At 71, I am an old user but I don't think I am any different than the  average person.

James Puckett

Big x-height, relatively low contrast, loose spacing. The easiest way to see what works is to go to a library and look at magazines for retirees—you won’t see much 8pt Helvetica Light printed in fifty percent gray!

Deleted Account

I designed one somewhere around here. My brief, no point sizes below 56, all sans. 70/30 ratio of black to white. Don't mess around, we are old and just need the facts jack. 

Chris Lozos

Glad Jack Webb stopped by to clear this up ;-)

Russell McGorman

What sort of old users? People come from all kinds of different demographic groups until they get old. Then they're just old.  

Nick Shinn

Ask an optometrist to prepare some eyeglasses for you that simulate the effect of being old, and use these when assessing the merit of your interface prototypes. (That is, if you yourself are not old.)

Andrew Wood

We become less sensitive to green as we get older, so view your designs through orange glasses. 

Andrew Wood

Here's an article for the food industry I wrote years ago: http://www.asiafoodjournal.com/article/why-older-consumers-need-new-tricks/2460

kupfers

That’s a great article and great tips! Thanks for sharing.