The Importance of User Involvement: A Systematic Review of Involving Older Users in Technology Design

Abstract

Background and Objectives There is a lack of understanding of how older adults’ involvement and participation matters in actual design practice. This systematic literature review investigates existing empirical studies involving older users during the design of technologies and explores the nature and consequences of involving older people. Research Design and Methods Our literature review is informed by the guidelines of the PRISMA statement. We examined the included studies by means of thematic content analysis to identify the nature of older users’ involvement and existing evidence on what consequences it has. Results In total, 40 empirical studies published in the period 2014–2018 are included in the review. Most empirical studies involve older people from local networks, with underlying stereotypical images and at lower levels of participation. The results reveal three main consequences of involving older users: learning, adjusted design, and an increased sense of participation. Furthermore, we found that user involvement is a structured process whose outcomes are contingent on a range of premises. Discussion and Implications Synthesizing the results, we develop the concept of user involvement and present an analytical framework. Our results have implications for researchers and policy makers, since they throw into question the widely held assumption that involving older people inevitably yields beneficial outcomes.

Technology Used to Recognize Activities of Daily Living in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

“…This may include an element of routine monitoring alongside specific ADL recognition, as deviations from the routine can highlight changes in cognitive function often missed by the traditional measures, and therefore could provide a greater insight into the individual’s functional decline [ 39 , 43 ]. The involvement of key stakeholders, such as older adults and healthcare workers, should be prevalent within any future work [ 75 , 76 , 77 ] to ensure that the systems are both functional and usable; there is little point in developing a system capable of highly detailed ADL recognition if those it is designed to help are unable or unwilling to use it. This will help to ensure that any future developments are accepted by those whom it is intended to help, and that advancements are being made because they are needed, not simply because they can be.…”

The Alexafication of Adult Social Care: Virtual Assistants and the Changing Role of Local Government in England

“…Similarly, the use of ready-made consumer technologies seems to run counter to the growing awareness of the importance of practices of co-production, co-design, user-centred design, or participatory design, in the development of care technologies [ 23 ]. Despite the ubiquitous rhetoric of co-production in ASC discourse among LAs in England, it is unclear whether an approach that uses Alexa involves substantive participatory co-production on the part of older end users or other stakeholders, because they are dealing with a finished commercialised product, and the co-production of new Skills, (if it happens at all, given the complexity and data governance issues involved), can only take place within the development environment provided by Amazon.…”

Content Creation in Later Life

“…By involving older adults in the early-stage design of a local service, they highlighted the value of older adults as active consumers and indeed, designers of their own systems [12]. Since then, the need to move from 'designing for older adults' as a homogenous user group has shifted even further looking not only at benefits of involving older adults in the design of products and public services [16], but also addressing their active citizenship. Assuming a 'situated community' approach and taking into account the "dynamic and mutually-shaping relationship between technologies and their everyday practices" [32], acknowledges the involvement of older adults and their (digital) civic contribution as a valuable part of society.…”