A Study on The User Interface of Weblogs Tools for People at Middle Age Based on Their Social Lifestyles

• Main Authors: Chung-Yue Lo, 羅中岳
• Other Authors: Li-Chieh Chen
• Format: Others
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/qsad4s

碩士 === 大同大學 === 工業設計學系(所) === 95 === Aging society is a common phenomenon as well as a tendency in developed nations. Physical deterioration and spiritual emptiness could make people at middle age feel marginalized and frustrated. If interactive platforms can be designed in line with their needs, these people may be able to socialize with more ease. In blogs, a growing popular trend on the Internet, software interfaces are used for website management to enable people to share their daily logs, photos and films with others. However, in spite of the great number of blog sites on the Internet, their design has neglected the social needs of people at middle age and difficulties in use. This study first conducted a survey on the social lifestyles of the target group of people at middle age to investigate how they shared photos, confided to each other and contacted old friends. The questionnaire included questions to elicit the participants’ opinions and expectations of blog software. Based on the results of the survey, two blog platforms suitable for people at middle age were developed – the Elog had the appearance of most communications software available today and an easy-to-identify comment list, whereas the Pholog showed an old-time telephone dial and gave middle-aged users a sense of familiarity. According to the experiment results, actual interviews and observations, the following suggestions for blog design for people at middle age were concluded: 1.The click buttons for main function options should be made larger and arranged in a linear pattern. 2.The Send button should be larger than all the other buttons and having complementary animated effects would be a plus. 3.The display panel for text writing and the font size should be as large as possible. 4.The recording function should be accompanied with a voice-to-text conversion device to avoid misunderstandings from unclear speech. 5.The overall front page design should be integrated and the click buttons should be organized in accordance with functions. When commonly used functions are placed too far apart, some of them may be neglected by the user. The two blogs designed for this study for people at middle age are simple, easy-to-learning, easy-to-use and pleasant-looking. They also include the suggestive design concept and the new recording function. Hopefully, this experience can be reference material for designers and engineers when they build websites of this nature in the future.