Presbyopia is often called farsightedness. Starting at age 40, the eyes lose the ability to focus on objects that are nearby. This is because the lens of the eye starts to harden. Presbyopia starts sometime after 40 and gets worse until about age 65 when it stays, but stabilizes.
If you’re under 40, it’s hard to imagine what this is really like. But if you know people over 40, you’ve probably noticed that they start holding anything they’re trying to read farther and farther away.
Presbyopia can be corrected with glasses. People with other vision problems who already have glasses often end up getting bi or trifocal glasses after forty.
Presbyopia often remains a problem, however, for people who are using screens. To help those with presbyopia, let them make the text larger on their own. If they can’t, and if your application or product is for people over age 40, consider using at least a 16-point font size.
Note
According to the International Centre for Eyecare Education in South Africa, more than 1 billion people globally have presbyopia.
Takeaways
- When you can, let people enlarge the text when they’re viewing your product.
- When you’re designing a product primarily for people over age 40, consider using what will seem like a very large font to you (if you’re under 40), for example, a16-point font size.
- Test your product on people with presbyopia to make sure they can see and read what they need to.