Easy-to-use TV guide for older people

The increasing number of the older people is a global phenomenon, and this challenge is also seen in Finland. With the vast development of web-based services, the older people have faced a need to adapt new services as the traditional ‘at-desk’ services are getting rarer and less available. Due to their special needs compared to younger generations, the older people have more challenges to learn and use the modern services available to them. This situation has produced additional requirements to be noted when designing new solutions for the increasing amount of older user groups. The current paper presents an example of such a targeted solution with building a web-based solution for the older people to see what is shown on TV. The solution consists of a mobile application, and special attention was paid on the requirements related to the older people and their age-related restrictions. The output is a prototype, which was built by applying design science research. The age-related requirements for the solution were based on a literature review, and the prototype was planned to be used by the older people watching TV, having enough skills to use a mobile phone, and a television device that was controlled by a remote device.