Restaurant owners: What You Should Know About Eyes of Baby Boomers

Have you ever thought about your eyes or the eyes of the people around you?  An article in the Star Tribune earlier this week caught my eye.  It was about the difficulty baby boomers are having reading restaurant menus.  It describes baby boomers who struggle to read menus in small font or in restaurants with low lighting.  Some have had to have their spouse or the waiter read the menu to them.  It tells of certain restaurants that have had to stock cheaters and mini flashlights to give to customers who can’t read the menu.  Is this good customer service?  It certainly isn’t good ergonomics!

My first thought was why restaurants don’t just increase the size of the font.  I understand keeping the lighting at a certain level in order to maintain a certain ambiance but why resist changing the font size?  After all, why would restaurants want to make their customers blatantly feel their old age creeping up on them?  People resist getting glasses or bifocals precisely because they don’t want to admit they are getting older. 

It is a fact that as people age the eyes lose their flexibility and can’t accommodate near objects.  It is also a fact that ergonomics is about fitting the job, environment, space to the person.  In this case, the restaurant owners are obviously denying these to facts.  With the population of baby boomers set to explode it doesn’t make any sense to alienate or make things difficult for the populations that makes up or will make up the majority of your customers.

I understand that restaurants want to be their personality and design into everything outside and inside the restaurant.  That being said, I’d highly recommend that you observe and listen to your customers.  This maybe isn’t you today but time stops for no man as one day you too will be needing bifocals and more light!