Photo/media opportunity 1.45pm Monday 11 November, Baxter conference suite, Tower Building, University of Dundee
An eighty year old grandmother will tell business people on Monday that if they want to target a market where there is plenty of liquid cash - they'd better sell to her.
Mrs Isobel Lindsay from Kinross who describes herself as a member of the dark-grey economy will say : "I'm at the time of my life when I am concentrating on spending all of my money instead of saving it."
Isobel will be speaking at a meeting at the University of Dundee on Monday 11 November for people in the IT business to make them more aware of the elderly market and how websites should be designed considering the spending potential of the "grey pound" and elderly people's ability to access their sites.
Professor Newell, the head of the UTOPIA project - usable technology for older people: inclusive and appropriate - hopes that Dundee businesses can be made more aware of the importance of including older people in their marketing and development plans. "Older people can feel very excluded from new technologies like e-commerce web sites and that shouldn't be acceptable. Developers have a social and legal obligation to design well for older people. By excluding this group they miss out on a huge potential market. We want to bring this to their attention and share our expertise in designing software and websites that everyone can use."
While older people have been slower to take to the internet than other groups, computer groups for the over 50s and various charity initiatives means that older people are increasingly using computers and the internet. Age Concern recently released statistics on older people and internet use. While 55% of the population as a whole use the internet, 40% of people 55-64 and only12% of people over 65 are internet users. 34% of these older users manage their bank accounts online, 67% use it to research flights and holidays.
Speakers at the UTOPIA workshop on Monday 11 November will include the usability expert Chris Rourke from User Vision, the Scottish-based web design company which developed Intelligent Finance's hugely successful website; Mrs Isobel Lindsay, speaking as an older user of computers; David Sloan from the Digital Media Access Group; and Lesley Paterson from Thorntons Solicitors who will talk on the legal issues surrounding accessible website design.
The workshops will take place in the Baxter conference suite on the 1st floor of the Tower Building at the University of Dundee between 2 and 5pm. Anyone who would like more information or to attend the workshops should email info-utopia@computing.dundee.ac.uk, register online at http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/UTOPIA/workshops.asp or telephone Dr Anna Dickinson on 01382 344787.
Led by Dundee University, The UTOPIA project is a consortium of the Universities of Glasgow, Abertay, Dundee and Napier. The project plans to foster research links between mainstream researchers and specialists who develop IT for the support older and disabled people with the aim of developing of novel Human Computer Interaction, Software engineering and User Centred Design methodologies appropriate to older people.
Contact: Anna Dickinson, the UTOPIA Project, Applied Computing, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN, tel. 01382 344787, email adickinson@computing.dundee.ac.uk
By Jenny Marra, Press Officer 01382 344910 j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk