In 2020, the U.S. Census reported that 16% of the U.S. population are over 65. It has also predicted that 1 in 5 people in the U.S will be over 65 by 2030 (2018). Are designers aware of these demographics, or has America’s obsession with youth shielded them from the frustrations and fears of America’s elderly?
Seniors, like many others, are struggling to adjust to cybersecurity procedures such as multifactor authentication. Older adults have specialized risk perceptions and may be skeptical about reaching roadblocks with technology.
Capsi et al. measured seniors’ subjective (felt) ages before and after using technology they are familiar with versus technology they are not familiar with (2019). The researchers found seniors felt the youngest before using any technology and most old when they used technology they were unfamiliar with. Golla et al. tested prompts for users to opt in to multi-factor authentication and low adoption rates when it is optional, finding opting out more common in older adults, citing Google data (2021). Older adults have low rates of adoption of password managers because they fear hidden costs and added complexity and opportunities for things to break. Yet many new features of cybersecurity are mandated by institutions–healthcare providers, insurance and benefit providers, governments, stores–often with no analog alternatives.
Seniors have unique needs designers can sensitize themselves to in testing phases. This might involve the design and use of personas of older adults as standard practice. Designers can also work to address accessibility problems by recruiting seniors as user testers and participants in focus groups on passcodes and authentication methods. Groups or businesses of seniors might represent themselves and create financial opportunities by pooling together to create research participant databases where designers and researchers could go to recruit older adults.
Senior centers and libraries offer senior digital literacy classes focusing on password management, biometrics, risks and fundamentals of protecting identities online. Given the rising median age in the U.S. and the growth of populations of older adults, along with the complexities of identity theft and AI scamming schemes, funding in instructional technology and cyber security for older adults is funding well spent.*~
References
Caplan, Zoe. U.S. Older Population Grew From 2010 to 2020 at Fastest Rate Since 1880 to 1890. Census.gov. 25 May, 2023. Accessed 12 June, 2026.
Golla, M., Ho, G., Lohmus, M., Pulluri, M., & Redmiles, E. M. (2021). Driving {2FA} adoption at scale: Optimizing {Two-Factor} authentication notification design patterns. In 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21) (pp. 109-126). https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity21/presentation/golla
Pettersson, B., Bajraktari, S., Skelton, D. A., Zingmark, M., Rosendahl, E., Lundin-Olsson, L., & Sandlund, M. (2022). Recruitment strategies and reach of a digital fall-prevention intervention for community-dwelling older adults. Digital health, 8.
Ray, H., Wolf, F., Kuber, R., & Aviv, A. J. (2021). Why older adults (Don’t) use password managers. In 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21). https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity21/presentation/ray
US Census Bureau. (2018). Older People Projected to Outnumber Children for First Time in U.S. History. (13 March 2018). Retrieved March 28, 2019. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/cb18-41-population-projections.html
C. S. Weir, G. Douglas, M. Carruthers, and M. Jack. User perceptions of security, convenience and usability for e-banking authentication tokens. Computers & Security, 28(1), 2009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2008.09.008