Are you still reeling from the season finale of Scandal last week? Us, too! We are also recovering from eating too many Reese’s Easter eggs yesterday. Finally! We all gave them up for 40 long days during Lent. Even Sammie, the senior care content mascot, is whipped today from chasing too many little Easter basket hunters. Ok…enough belly aching (pun inteneded). On to this week’s blog topic. Today, we wanted to take a minute to share a quick overview of tips for creating a senior living website that is friendly for older adults.
We often share information in the form of a blog article that is really an answer to a question we’ve received from one or more of our assisted living and home care clients. We’ve found that if a question pops up more than once or twice, it is typically something more of our clients are wondering about, too. One that has been popping up more than usual over the past few months is how to create a website that is friendly to older adults. You’ve no doubt read the Pew Research stats on older adults and the internet. But just in case you haven’t, here is a quick run down…
Internet Usage Among Older Adults
- 87% of Younger Boomers (47 – 56)
- 79% of Older Boomers (57 – 65)
- 67% of the Silent Generation (66 – 74)
- 40% of the GI Generation (75+)
We know these age groups contain both the adult child decision maker and those older adults looking for active senior living communities or in-home care to help them stay independent.
To help give our clients and readers some insight on how to put together a senior living website that supports older eyes and fewer tech skills, we spoke with a variety of designers who work with aging services providers exclusively and read what aging experts had to say. They ranged from ad agencies we write for to the National Institute on Aging.
Making Your Senior Living Website Friendly for Older Adults
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when your target audience is over 45:
- Break information in to shorter sentences and use headlines and bullets. That is true for all online readers but especially for seniors. People scan and skim online. Make it easy for them to stay tuned in by breaking up the copy. Like we’ve done here. Did ya notice? We use titles, subtitles and bullets to keep copy from overwhelming readers, especially all you “second screeners” who are reading or researching online while you are watching television or “listening” to your daughter’s violin practice.
- Use 12 or 14 point type. An added bonus if your target audience is seniors is to give them the ability to increase text size.
- Avoid “reversed out” white copy. It is very tough on older eyes.
- Keep scrolling requirements to a minimum.
- Have a shallow but broad site hierarchy. That allows older adults to navigate the site more easily.
- Ask and answer questions. Its creates a good user experience and its great for SEO.
- Use positive language. Here’s a quick example. Instead of saying, “Don’t forget to take your medicine” use “Remember to take your medicine.”
- Avoid all of the jargon the senior living and home care industries are so fond of using. Most seniors and adult children don’t know who ED is or DON. Say Executive Director or Director of Nursing instead. I know its tough. For most of us, these acronyms are burned in to our vernacular. One suggestions is to have someone in your target audience who is not familiar with senior care read your copy and provide feedback.
- Use a sans serif typeface. Most everyone has Arial. Two others that were developed specifically for use online were Tahoma and Verdana.
- Never use all CAPS. No…not because it is the equivalent of screaming. Its just plain hard on the eyeballs. Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, just like you learned in elementary school.
- Avoid designing pages that are all different shades of the same color such as dark blue text on a light blue background. Use high contrast instead. Dark blue on a pale yellow background or black type on a white background.
- Use large buttons and put white space in between so it is easy for arthritic hands to easily click on each one.
- Finally, make sure your site is mobile responsive. We know older adults are likely to be checking you out online on their iPad or other tablet device.
You know where to find us if you have more questions. We’ll be here trying to work off all those Reese’s Easter eggs. We’ve switched out our office chairs and replaced them with exercise balls this week. We’ll let you know how that goes —and how long it lasts!
As always, if you need help ghostwriting blogs or revamping the content on your website drop us a note. We’d love to be considered for the job… If you aren’t familiar with how uniquely qualified to fill that position we are, check out our credentials.