Nothing clutters an older mind like a cluttered user interface, and while AI may reduce the cognitive load associated with navigating complex interfaces it won’t come soon enough for me.
Like neurodiverse users, elderly people can face misunderstandings about their cognitive abilities. When ANY user is presented with more information or tasks than they can process, the result is difficulty in concentration and decision-making.
This is not necessarily cognitive decline, and to suggest it is when we’re faced with user interfaces that are basically bulls___ is offensive. In fact, older people have more experience, more diverse perspectives, greater empathy, and tend to hyper-focus on usability (they’ve got no time for games!).
Aging comes with wisdom and knowledge, but it also means older adults — those between 60 and 85 years of age — process and store too much information in their brains, “creating cluttered memory” that comes entangled with no-longer-relevant facts, knowledge acquired years ago and lots of distractions…
But this “overloaded” memory can also have some surprising benefits… there can be treasure in the clutter depending on the kind of tasks that you’re engaged in..
Brain ‘clutter’ can impact memory: How to keep your mind sharper, , A.Pawlowski, TODAY
I believe the explosion of new services and new technology such as AI has not yet impacted the user interface in any meaningful way; in fact, in many cases it’s been just the opposite. AI may eventually help to provide a more intuitive and conversational user interface that actually reduces cognitive overload, but I’m not sure I’ll be one who benefits from it.
In the meantime, I know a lousy UI when I see one…
…I’m going for a walk.