The Instituto de Biomecánica (Biomechanics Institute -IBV) has taken part in the BANK4ELDER European project in order to design friendly banking ATM, mobile, TV and web interfaces, boosting the access of senior citizens to these services.
As the Innovation Director at IBV, Miguel López, says "the key to success is that we have designed interfaces with the participation of the own users in all phases of project development: defining the needs when interacting with these products and during the pilot which evaluated the proposed solutions in actual conditions of use. This work was completed with the use of advanced methodologies that have analyzed the emotional response and behavior of the older people in assessing, for example, interaction with mobile or internet when making a bank transaction. "
17% of the European population is over 65 years. This percentage will increase in 2060 to 30%. Currently, most of older population go to the branch and usually do not feel safe when using online banking or ATM. For example, only 33% of senior citizens use ATMs compared to 86% of the rest of the population. Current interfaces do not adapt to their needs and abilities: issues related to the font size on the screen, the size of the buttons and understand what steps can be taken to withdraw money or complete a transfer arise. "For these reasons it is necessary to change to a banking model with easy-to-use online services as we have shown in Bank4Elder" added Miguel López.
At present, both the ATM and e-banking are the most used methods and require a redesign thinking in the needs and capabilities of older population.
However, trends indicate that in the future will also be increasingly important access to banking services through mobile or television. In order to resolve this situation, BANK4ELDER designed user-friendly interfaces for senior citizens to access these banking services.
Design and validation with older people
The project has developed and validated with senior citizens 4 interfaces (TV, web, mobile and ATM) to access various banking services taking into account that there are two groups of users: high tech and low tech (people who have never used a computer neither a smartphone).
The involvement of older population (users in Spain and Portugal) throughout the entire project has been the key to success, including field tests in their homes.
Their support has totally changed the focus from traditional banking, especially the e banking, where the endless options menus are left in exchange for presenting information more easily and graphically.
Validation included usability testing of the new design with a very high degree of satisfaction, although low-tech people still need some assistance to perform certain tasks, especially to interact with the web interface.
Specifically, over 90% of users who have participated in the project can perform successfully the services of all interfaces. Furthermore, both the satisfaction and performance success increases with the frequency of use, reaching 100% in many cases.
The ATM was the best evaluated. In fact, users, who never used and did not see the benefits, claim that they would use more often an ATM designed a the Bank4elder interface.
Definitely, we have created an easy to use environment for senior citizens, multimodal, ubiquitous and customizable, explains Innovation Director at the IBV, Miguel López, "we think of easy solutions that encourage greater access to banking services through new technologies, which is not yet widespread in this population since they find it difficult to interact with them."
"We talk about tailored solutions to the needs of functionality, accessibility, usability and aesthetics that older people are demanding. Furthermore, the characteristics of these environments allow adaptation to each user, customizing according to their characteristics and needs "says Miguel López.
The project Bank4Elder with the reference AAL-2010-3-039, has received funding from the AAL Joint Programme co-funded by the European Commission and the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.
Coordinated by Vector, Spanish software and technology developer consulting enterprise, also with the participation of three European companies (Nuromedia, Digintel and NewAmuser) that complement the more technical aspects of development. Besides the Institute of Biomechanics, also collaborate with this initiative, the Provincial Federation of Pensioners and Retired Democratic UDP Valencia, and the Portuguese association of senior citizens Rutis.
