Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Elderly Life Inquiry Toolkit: Empathy Expanding in Elder-Friendly Technology Design

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Cross-Cultural Design. Applications in Business, Communication, Health, Well-being, and Inclusiveness (HCII 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13313))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

ICTs have become deeply ingrained in social life. Design for elder-friendly technology is gaining traction in China to reduce obstacles for older people’s access to smart gadgets and services. Designers must increase their awareness of heterogeneous images of the old and elder technology usage in everyday life to create technological solutions that are meaningful to the aging population. Young designers encounter empathetic difficulties in design practice due to a lack of experience with aging, qualitative research abilities, and training. This research proposed a human-centered Elderly Life Inquiry toolkit to bridge this gap. The toolkit establishes a qualitative research framework of ‘Exploration-Interaction-Reflection,’ together with thematic guidelines, to assist young designers in engaging with the elderly utilizing various empathy techniques. It enhances designers’ empathy for older adults in everyday life, develops qualitative research abilities, and incorporates insights into designs. According to a series of empirical experiments and prototyping involving young student designers and older participants, the qualitative research method of face-to-face intergenerational communication is more suited to Chinese elders’ social preferences. This research demonstrated the process of developing the toolkit and the potential of the research techniques during the COVID-19 outbreak. At last, we emphasize the importance of supporting young designers to engage with diverse older adults, valuing the creativity of multidisciplinary participants, and focusing on the relationship between older life and technology for empathy in technology design.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Peng, D., Wenting, H.: Internet and life of older adults: challenges and opportunities. Popul. Res. 45(03), 3–16 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  2. EU: Overview of the European strategy in ICT for Ageing Well (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Jiane, S., Zhixiong, Z.: Research on ‘internet plus’ based aged service model and its development path. J. Soc. Sci. Hunan Normal Univ. 48(03), 46–53 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Meng, W.: The positioning, deficiencies and development measures of Smart Senior Care in China. Theory J. (03), 143–149 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  5. WHO.: Active ageing: a policy framework. World Health Organization (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Lak, A., Rashidghalam, P., Myint, P.K., Baradaran, H.R.: Comprehensive 5P framework for active aging using the ecological approach: an iterative systematic review. BMC Public Health 20, 33 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Giaccardi, E., Kuijer, L., Neven, L.: Design for resourceful ageing: intervening in the ethics of gerontechnology. In: 2016 Design Research Society Conference (DRS 2016), Brighton, UK, 27–30 June 2016 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Harrington, C.N., Koon, L.M., Rogers, W.A.: Design of health information and communication technologies for older adults. In: Sethumadhavan, A., Sasangohar, F. (eds.) Design for Health, pp. 341–363. Academic Press (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Carlo, S., Bonifacio, F.: Elderly, ICTs and qualitative research: some methodological reflections. In: Gao, Q., Zhou, J. (eds.) HCII 2021. LNCS, vol. 12786, pp. 3–20. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78108-8_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Ostrowski, A.K., Harrington, C.N., Breazeal, C., Park, H.W.: Personal narratives in technology design: the value of sharing older adults’ stories in the design of social robots. Front. Robot. AI 8, 716581 (2021)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. McDonagh-Philp, D., Denton, H.G.: User-centred design and the focus group: developing the student designer’s empathic horizons (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  12. McDonagh, D., Osmond, J.: Developing empathy for older users in undergraduate design students. Des. Technol. Educ. Int. J. 23, 24–39 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Woodcock, A., McDonagh, D., Magee, P., Ball, T., Iqbal, S.: Eexpanding horizons: engaging students with empathic thinking (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Endter, C.: Design for elderly–a meeting point for ethnography and usability. i-com 15, 17–26 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  15. General Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China: Solutions to effectively address older people’s difficulties in using smart technology. http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2020/content_5567747.htm. Accessed 31 Dec 2021

  16. Li, C., Qin, L., Qingqing, Q.: Research on the construction of the wisdom community endowment service system. Popul. J. 38(03), 67–73 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Wahl, H.W., Fänge, A., Oswald, F., Gitlin, L.N., Iwarsson, S.: The home environment and disability-related outcomes in aging individuals: what is the empirical evidence? Gerontologist 49, 355–367 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Righi, V., Sayago, S., Blat, J.: When we talk about older people in HCI, who are we talking about? Towards a ‘turn to community’ in the design of technologies for a growing ageing population. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 108, 15–31 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Subasi, O., Malmborg, L.: Ageing as design culture. Nordes 1 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  20. De Angeli, A., Jovanovic, M., McNeill, A., Coventry, L.: Desires for active ageing technology. Int. J. Hum Comput Stud. 138, 102412 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Ping, Z., Xiaomin, D.: Research on interaction design of intelligent products for the elderly under compensatory mechanism. J. Graph. 39(04), 700–705 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Lin, L., Fangyu, L., Zheng, L.: Development trend and oriented design of intelligent kitchen under the background of active aging. Packging Eng. 1–19 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Jinhua, D., Jingyan, Q.: Senior-friendly design of smart health care products and research methods for elderly users. Packging Eng. 42(06), 62–68 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  24. The Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Tengyun, and Research Centre for National Survey and Big Data: Research Report on the Internet Life of the Middle Aged (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Seïler, N.R., Craig, P.: Empathetic technology. In: Tettegah, S.Y., Noble, S.U. (eds.) Emotions, Technology, and Design, pp. 55–81. Academic Press, San Diego (2016)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  26. Kouprie, M., Visser, F.S.: A framework for empathy in design: stepping into and out of the user’s life. J. Eng. Des. 20, 437–448 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. McDonagh, D.: Empathic research approaches to support the designer: a supra-qualitative research for designing model. Design Issues (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Newell, A.F., Gregor, P., Morgan, M., Pullin, G., Macaulay, C.: User-sensitive inclusive design. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 10, 235–243 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-010-0203-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Dishman, E.: Designing for the new old: asking, observing, and performing future elders, design. In: Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, pp. 41–48. The MIT Press, Cambridge (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Gaver, W., Dunne, A., Pacenti, E.: Design: cultural probes. Interactions 6, 21–29 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Nassir, S., Leong, T.W.: Conducting qualitative fieldwork with ageing saudis: a visual diary. In: Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference, Hong Kong, China, pp. 427–439. Association for Computing Machinery (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Battarbee, K.: Co-experience: understanding user experiences in interaction. Aalto University (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Martingano, A.J., Hererra, F., Konrath, S.: Virtual reality improves emotional but not cognitive empathy: A meta-analysis. Technol. Mind Behav. (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Tracy, S.J.: Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis Communication Impact. Wiley, Hoboken (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  35. McIntyre, A.: Participatory Action Research. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  36. McKinnon, H., Sade, G.: Exploring the home environment: fusing rubbish and design to encourage participant agency and self-reflection. Des. Stud. 63, 155–180 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Yuqiong, Z.: The digital divide and pre-figurative: a quantitative study of the ‘silent revolution’ within the family. Mod. Commun. (J. Commun. Univ. China) 36(02), 117–123 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Institute of Tsinghua University as part of the ‘Design of an inclusive service system for the elderly in the Post-Pandemic Era’ (Research number is 20203080033) under the Open Collaboration for International Research Cooperation Spring Wind Foundation. We want to thank all the participants in this study, especially the older participants, community workers, and young students who used toolkits. We are particularly grateful to the teaching teams of Professor Qian Xiaobo from Jiangnan University and Professor Zhang Jun from Hunan University for their strong support for this research, who participated in the co-curriculum program. We are thankful to the China-Italy Design Innovation Hub at Tsinghua University for doing the project known to a broader audience.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tsinghua University, Beijing, 10084, China

    Yi Liu & Fang Zhong

Authors
  1. Yi Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fang Zhong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fang Zhong .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Pei-Luen Patrick Rau

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Liu, Y., Zhong, F. (2022). Elderly Life Inquiry Toolkit: Empathy Expanding in Elder-Friendly Technology Design. In: Rau, PL.P. (eds) Cross-Cultural Design. Applications in Business, Communication, Health, Well-being, and Inclusiveness. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13313. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06050-2_25

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06050-2_25

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06049-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06050-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation