I was thrilled to hear today's design review, which was a redux of Jakub Franc's World Usability Day talk in Prague. I found it particularly interesting that the personas developed by Jakub's team of graduate students at the Czech Technical University were very similar to the ones that I developed with two classmates, to prototype a "smart" pill dispenser, for a graduate class :)
The college from which I received my graduate degree ran an annual 2-day conference called "Aging by Design" for three years (2004 - 2006). I am fortunate to have been able to attend in 2005 and 2006. Designing for aging populations has been an area of research and design interest for me, since seeing my father's cognitive decline and subsequent interment in a nursing home, before his death in 2005.
If you are interested in reading more on the challenges of how to create good designs for older adults, you can start with the small book, Designing for Older Adults. Other interesting books include The Handbook of Aging and Cognition, Cognitive Aging, and Handbook of the Psychology of Aging.