Improving Messenger Accessibility for Elderly Users using User Centered Design (UCD) Methods (Study Case: WhatsApp)

In Indonesia, the definition of elderly is a person who has reached the age of 60 years and over. In addition to increasing age, the elderly also experience a decrease in perceptual, cognitive, and psychomotor functions. Most of the existing applications are designed for young users, not old users, one of which is the WhatsApp mobile application. The elderly use the WhatsApp mobile application to communicate with family and friends. This application is considered quite familiar to use. However, there are several difficulties experienced by an elderly group in using the WhatsApp application. The difficulties experienced by the elderly cause the elderly to often need help using the WhatsApp application and it is felt that this application is not accessible. By using the User-Centered Design method, a user interface design is built based on the guidelines that have been researched by previous researchers that can increase the accessibility of elderly users to the WhatsApp application so that it can be more accessible. The results show an increase in accessibility based on the user-based evaluation carried out. This research provides useful information regarding the right design solution to be used to improve the accessibility of the messenger application to elderly users.