Designing for dynamic diversity: Representing various senior citizens in digital information sources

Abstract

This article discusses how we can ensure that various senior citizens (women and men, living alone or together, full of vitality or in fragile health, coming from different cultural backgrounds) can identify with images representing themselves so they continue to have access to information sources in our digitising information society. First, the role of two discourse coalitions, the eternally youthful seniors towards and the frail needy seniors in the Netherlands will be discussed. Then, a case study of the websites of the three senior citizens’ organisations in the Netherlands which will be used to answer the question to what extent these organisations represent their various members in their use of images of eternally youthful or frail needy seniors and if they are represented as a homogeneous or diverse group. Finally, the article will answer the question how creative use can be made of the various images of senior citizens - following the principle of ‘designing for dynamic diversity’ - to achieve an accessible homepage.