Neil Charness

Sara J. Czaja

Joseph Sharit

Arthur D. Fisk

Wendy A. Rogers

As life expectancy increases, older workers and the retired form a large and growing proportion of the world’s population. Professionals working to develop systems and environments need to better accommodate the user needs of the older adult. This new guide provides a practical introduction to human factors and the older adult. It considers the subject primarily from an engineering psychology perspective, heavily grounded in today’s scientific knowledge. The authors show how current understanding of age-related issues of perception, cognition, and movement control can be applied in practice. They also provide a reference source with guidelines and advice for design issues ranging from lighting, computer input device selection, and web site design, to training program development and work task design. The text draws on research-oriented work and presents this in a form that can be used by the broad audience of product designers, health care practitioners, managers, and others who need answers to problems and require sound recommendations for design.

Principles and Creative Human Factors Approaches

Designing for Older Adults

Current and emerging trends in the domains of health management and the work sector, the abundance of new consumer products pervading the marketplace, and the desires of many older adults to undertake new learning experiences means that older adults, like their younger counterparts, will need to continually engage in new learning and training. Thus

Designing Training and Instructional Programs for Older Adults

Dan Fisk

This new guide explores the subject of human factors and the older adult primarily from an engineering psychology perspective, heavily grounded in today's scientific knowledge. A compilation of the authors' knowledge, research, and experience, the book shows readers how current understanding of age-related issues of perception, cognition, and movement control can be applied. It provides guidelines for design issues ranging from lighting, computer input device selection, and Web site design, to training program development, and work task design. Designing for Older Adults draws on research-oriented work and presents this in a form that can be used by a broad audience.

The first edition of Designing for Older Adults: Principles and Creative Human Factors Approaches broke ground as an easily accessible source of information, a primer on designing for older adults. In this second edition, the authors, as any good human factors practitioner would, have considered comments from readers. They have revised and updated

Principles and Creative Human Factors Approaches, Second Edition

Jacquelyn B. James

This timely volume provides an up-to-date and comprehensive summary about what is known about aging and work and addresses the challenges and opportunities confronting older workers and organizations. The authors describe current and emerging topics related to work and aging adults such as working in teams, the increasing diversity of the labor force, work and caregiving, the implications of technology for an aging workforce, and health and wellness issues. The authorship is international; the authors are renowned for their respective work in the topical areas and represent a broad range of disciplines within academia, as well as offer perspectives from government and policy. Jobs, organizations, the labor market, and the workforce are experiencing dramatic change. Workers of all ages, including older workers, need to interact with the wide variety of ubiquitous technologies that are reshaping work processes, job content, work settings, communication strategies, and the delivery of training, and this book aims to update readers on the particular issues facing today’s aging adults in the workplace. The chapters’ broad and inclusive scope encompasses: Workplace aging and jobs in the 21st century The retirement income security outlook for older workers Population aging, age discrimination, and age discrimination protections Older workers and the contemporary labor market The role of aging, age diversity, and age heterogeneity within teams The intersection of family caregiving and work Current and Emerging Trends in Aging and Work is relevant to a broad audience of academic researchers, practitioners, and students in psychology, sociology, management, engineering (industrial and human factors), the health sciences, gerontology/geriatrics, and public health. It is also a useful resource for government and policy leaders, as well as workers and managers in the public and private sectors.

Current and Emerging Trends in Aging and Work

Current and emerging trends in the domains of health management and the work sector, the abundance of new consumer products pervading the marketplace, and the desires of many older adults to undertake new learning experiences means that older adults, like their younger counterparts, will need to continually engage in new learning and training. Thus, understanding the challenges that older people face when confronted with new learning and training programs and developing potential strategies to overcome them is imperative. A comprehensive state-of-the-science review, Designing Training and Instructional Programs for Older Adults explores a broad range of issues, from the implications of theories of learning for designing instruction for older adults to adapting current perspectives on methods of instructional design to accommodate the capabilities and limitations of older learners. The authors provide an understanding of today’s older adults—their demographics, their needs, the challenges facing them, and a realistic appraisal of their abilities and limitations—as a basis for how current knowledge about training and instructional design should be shaped and applied to best accommodate this population of learners. They discuss topics such as retention and transfer of training, sequencing the order of instruction, e-learning, multimedia training formats, and the assessment and evaluation of training programs from the perspective of issues relevant to older learners. They also highlight the challenges presented by this very heterogeneous group that varies tremendously in backgrounds, skills, knowledge, and abilities. Focusing on how learning occurs, the authors’ balanced coverage makes the book readable and enlightening across a wide spectrum of professionals and academics, including human factors/ergonomics specialists, gerontologists, managers, educators, undergraduate and graduate students, and the design community. The book supplies concise recommendations that will have direct impact on the design of instructional programs and for those individuals who are responsible for the training and performance of older people.

Joseph Sharit

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