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The role of tea parties to elicit technology requirements to support the mobility of older adults

Published: 06 June 2012 Publication History

Abstract

Mobility is fundamental to aging well, maintaining independence and quality of life. Physical mobility is a fundamental component of overall mobility. This paper presents our "technology tea party" methodology. We have used this method to explore older adults' reaction to utilizing different technologies to maintain their mobility, in particular, games consoles to promote exercise at home. At our tea party, participants experienced problems with initially getting started with the console but with minimal support were able to interact with the system and start to explore the benefits they could gain from using such a system. They saw the benefits not only as exercise but also as promoting social interaction. We are now using this method in the design process for an "intelligent" walking aid to improve the ability of older adults to walk around shopping centres. In this paper we advocate the involvement of older adults throughout the design process and we present tea parties as a potential method to use in early stages to elicit requirements.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Mobility Aid Design for the Elderly (MADE): a design thinking approach using a smart walker as a case studyHumanities and Social Sciences Communications10.1057/s41599-024-04007-z11:1Online publication date: 5-Nov-2024
  • (2016)Mobile Technology for Older Adults: Protector, Motivator or Threat?Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Design for Aging10.1007/978-3-319-39943-0_41(424-434)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2016
  • (2015)An Appraisal-Based Approach to the Stigma of Walker-UseProceedings, Part I, of the First International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Design for Aging - Volume 919310.1007/978-3-319-20892-3_25(250-261)Online publication date: 2-Aug-2015
  • Show More Cited By

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cover image ACM Other conferences
PETRA '12: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments
June 2012
307 pages
ISBN:9781450313001
DOI:10.1145/2413097
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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  • U of Tex at Arlington: U of Tex at Arlington

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Published: 06 June 2012

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  1. methods
  2. older adults
  3. user-centred design

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Mobility Aid Design for the Elderly (MADE): a design thinking approach using a smart walker as a case studyHumanities and Social Sciences Communications10.1057/s41599-024-04007-z11:1Online publication date: 5-Nov-2024
  • (2016)Mobile Technology for Older Adults: Protector, Motivator or Threat?Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Design for Aging10.1007/978-3-319-39943-0_41(424-434)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2016
  • (2015)An Appraisal-Based Approach to the Stigma of Walker-UseProceedings, Part I, of the First International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Design for Aging - Volume 919310.1007/978-3-319-20892-3_25(250-261)Online publication date: 2-Aug-2015
  • (2013)Assistive technology for older adultsProceedings of the 6th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments10.1145/2504335.2504344(1-4)Online publication date: 29-May-2013

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