Designing Acceptable Assisted Living Services for Elderly Users

Abstract

With today’s technology, elderly users could be supported in living independently in their own homes for a prolonged period of time. Commercially available products enable remote monitoring of the state of the user, enhance social networks, and even support elderly citizens in their everyday routines. Whereas technology seems to be in place to support elderly users, one might question the value of present solutions in terms of solving real user problems such as loneliness and self-efficacy. Furthermore, products tend to be complex in use and do not relate to the reference framework of elderly users. Consequently, acceptability of many present solutions tends to be low. This paper presents a design vision of assisted living solutions that elderly love to use. Based on earlier work, five concrete design goals have been identified that are specific to assisted living services for elderly users. The vision is illustrated by three examples of ongoing work; these cases present the design process of prototypes that are being tested in the field with elderly users. Even though the example cases are limited in terms of number of participants and quantitative data, the qualitative feedback and design experiences can serve as inspiration for designers of assisted living services.