Understanding Users Beyond Stereotypes
How Demographic Assumptions Are Quietly Bleeding Revenue
Welcome to age/proof design, the newsletter for forward-thinking product and design professionals who are reconsidering everything they thought they knew about older users.
In the first two parts of this series, we’ve uncovered the $22 trillion blind spot hiding in plain sight and showed why age-inclusive design isn’t just ethical — it’s a competitive advantage.
But here’s the problem…
Even if you fix your digital experiences, you’re still building for imaginary users.
Most personas in product decks are stuck in 2008 — defined by demographics, not real-world behavior. They talk about “tech-challenged retirees” and “digital natives” as if those categories still mean anything.
They don’t.
Because your 62-year-old user might be an angel investor toggling between three fintech apps. And your 35-year-old user? They might be the one Googling “how to share a PDF on Android.”
If you’re still designing for age brackets, you’re not just behind. You’re invisible to the people who could become your most loyal, high-value users.
This is the where we fix that.
Let’s start by looking at how these outdated assumptions quietly creep into product strategies and design — and why they’re costing companies their most valuable users.
The Hidden Cost of Stereotypes in Product Design
If you’ve shipped a product during the past two years in a sector heavily impacted by longevity economy shifts, you’ve likely seen the following scenario.
Flawless usability tests, but engagement flatlines in the 50+ demographic — the users with the highest lifetime value.
The executive-level conversation that follows is predictable.
Leadership wants to know why teams are “failing to execute” when the real problem is executing perfectly... for users who don’t exist.
The gap isn’t really execution — it’s flawed assumptions.
MIT AgeLab research exposes the brutal truth. Most digital products fail with older users not because of usability barriers, but because the fundamental assumptions baked into personas are wrong¹.
Teams aren’t building for users who struggle with technology. They’re actively designing out users who expect competence-respecting interfaces.
I’ll never forget the moment during one user testing session when a 66-year-old participant looked at our “senior-friendly” prototype and said, “This feels like you’re designing for my mother who’s 88, not me.”
That comment changed how I approach personas forever.
The most successful teams bring this insight to stakeholder conversations. Every persona that starts with an age range signals a revenue opportunity waiting to be tapped.
And the design teams quietly capturing market share among the 50+ cohort have already thrown out their demographic personas.
Life Stage vs. Birth Year
This pattern is repeated across product and design teams…
Leadership asks why well-designed products aren’t converting older users, and the go-to response is “maybe we need bigger fonts.”
That’s the sound of demographic thinking hitting business reality.
Remember: life stage trumps birth year.
The data destroys conventional wisdom. Stanford Center on Longevity research proves what leading product teams discovered through painful trial and error. Digital behavior correlates with current life activities, not birth certificate dates².
The 58-year-old launching a consulting practice shares more behavioral patterns with a 32-year-old entrepreneur than with someone managing chronic illness.
Consider what this means for user research.
Recent Kauffman Foundation data shows entrepreneurship rates remain highest among people aged 55-64³ — people launching new businesses, not winding down. Suddenly the “retiree exploring hobbies” persona looks like a million-dollar mistake.
The teams getting this right aren’t just improving user experience — they’re identifying entirely new market segments. Segments that Pew Research and AARP studies show often have higher digital fluency than younger users⁴.
Segments we are missing because we are still designing for stereotypes that stopped being true a decade ago.
The Behavior-First Persona Framework
This is the framework that gets buy-in from the C-suite because it connects user research directly to revenue. No more defending personas that don’t convert.
Here’s how to build ones that drive business results…
1. Goals
Instead of: Retired user exploring online investment tools
Use: Self-directed investor optimizing retirement savings with mobile-first dashboards
Instead of: Senior citizen learning to shop online
Use: Value-conscious shopper comparing products across multiple platforms
2. Context
Instead of: User over 60 exploring online learning
Use: Career re-launcher balancing caregiving duties and part-time coursework on a tablet during late-night hours
Instead of: Elderly person trying to stay connected with family
Use: Multi-generational family coordinator managing schedules, sharing updates, and organizing events across three households
3. Digital Fluency Spectrum
Instead of: Older adult with limited tech skills
Use:
Highly fluent early adopter — uses multiple apps, compares features across platforms, expects seamless integrations
Functional user — prefers guided workflows and clear language, values reliability over cutting-edge features
Reluctant user — motivated by necessity (e.g., telehealth), needs visible guardrails and obvious next steps
Implementing This Persona Framework
Simply spend 10 minutes conducting a persona audit to reveal the competitive opportunities. That’s it.
Pull up your current persona deck and replace every demographic descriptor with a behavioral one. For example, instead of “65-year-old retiree,” write something like “experienced professional transitioning to consulting work.”
Be sure to use the framework to intentionally think this through: Goals, Context, and Digital Fluency Spectrum.
Then watch how this changes feature priorities.
Nielsen Norman Group’s study on user segmentation confirms that behavior-based personas predict user success with 73% greater accuracy than demographic profiles⁵.
That’s not just better UX — that’s measurable business impact.
The Business Case for Abandoning Age Labels
The insight that transforms teams from tactical executors to strategic drivers is the realization that age-based targeting is leaving money on the table.
The numbers are staggering.
AARP’s 2023 analysis shows the 50+ market accounts for over $8.3 trillion in annual economic activity in the U.S. alone⁶, but most companies systematically underserve this segment through persona assumptions that would embarrass a behavioral psychology student.
The psychological mechanism driving this revenue loss is specific and fixable.
Studies on stereotypes, including Becca Levy’s work on aging beliefs, shows that when digital experiences signal incompetence, older users don’t struggle — they abandon entirely⁷. It is not because they can’t use a product, but because design choices suggest they shouldn’t.
The flip side creates a competitive advantage.
When teams design for competence rather than age, they unlock what AARP’s 2023 research calls the “loyalty multiplier effect” — higher retention, lower acquisition costs, and significantly higher lifetime value⁸.
Remember the curb-cut effect? When cities added wheelchair ramps, they accidentally improved accessibility for everyone⁹. Behavior-first personas work the same way.
When you design for what users are actually doing rather than how old they are, you solve problems for far more segments than you initially targeted.
What Happens Next Could Be Career Defining
Understanding your users is only the beginning. Insight without execution is just another report gathering dust in your stakeholder deck.
In Part 4, “Designing Products for Empowerment, Not Infantilization” we will take what you’ve learned about auditing for respect and rebuilding personas around behavior, not stereotypes — and translate it into product design choices that turn respect into measurable results.
You'll discover:
How subtle design patterns can reinforce autonomy — or quietly signal dependency
Why “helpful” language often alienates your most capable users, and what to say instead
The UI and readability decisions that cut friction for older adults and improve usability for everyone
How to design content patterns and calls-to-action that treat users as skilled, not struggling
The companies winning in the longevity economy aren’t just removing friction.
They’re building confidence and competence into every interaction — because when you empower users instead of managing them, you don’t just keep them.
You unlock loyalty that competitors can’t touch.
Until next time,
References
¹ Joseph F. Coughlin, The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World's Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market (PublicAffairs, 2017); AARP Research, Longevity Economy Outlook (AARP, 2023).
² Stanford Center on Longevity, The New Map of Life: 100 Year Living (Stanford University, 2021).
³ Kauffman Foundation, Indicators of Entrepreneurship: Demographics of Business Founders (Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2023).
⁴ Pew Research Center, Tech Adoption Climbs Among Older Adults (Pew Research Center, 2022); AARP Research, 2024 Tech Trends Report (AARP, 2024).
Nielsen Norman Group, Persona Research and User Segmentation (NN/g, 2023).
⁶ AARP Research, Longevity Economy Outlook: $8.3 Trillion in Annual Economic Activity (AARP, 2023).
⁷ Becca R. Levy, Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long and Well You Live (William Morrow, 2022); Mind Matters: Cognitive and Physical Effects of Aging Self-Stereotypes (The Journals of Gerontology, 2003).
⁸ AARP Research, Brand Loyalty in the 50+ Market (AARP Foundation, 2023).
⁹ Angela Blackwood, The Curb-Cut Effect (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2010).
Join the Movement
The longevity economy isn’t coming — it’s here.
And the window for first-mover advantage is closing.
The question is whether you’ll lead this transformation — or watch competitors capture the opportunity while you catch up.
Join other product and design professionals who are already rethinking their approach. Subscribe to get each part of this essential series delivered directly to your inbox.
This isn’t about designing for “older users.”
It’s about designing smarter, for everyone.
Because the future belongs to companies that understand this simple truth:
When you design for longevity, everyone wins.
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