skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Older Adults as Makers of Custom Electronics: Iterating on Craftec
Researchers have designed technologies for and with older adults to help them age in place, but there is an opportunity to support older adults in creating customized smart devices for themselves through electronic toolkits. We developed a plan for iterating on Craftec - one of the first electronic toolkits designed for older adults - informed by the results of a participatory design workshop and user evaluation. We focused on supporting older adults to create exemplar artifacts, such as medication adherence systems. We contribute the exemplars and the current plan for components of the Craftec system as a way to support older adults to design technology for themselves.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1814725
PAR ID:
10093450
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
CHI EA '19 Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1 to 6
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the 14th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare)
    null (Ed.)
    As the worldwide population ages, HCI researchers are designing technologies to better support older adults. We investigated how older adult crafters would customize technologies using electronics by building on their crafting skills. This supported them to explore customizing devices for themselves and advance the design of pervasive health technologies for older adults. We first conducted a survey of 42 older adult crafters to learn more about their crafting habits and gauge interest in technology and health tracking. We then conducted a participatory design workshop with 10 older adult crafters, focused on mutual learning to support them in prototyping how they would customize technology with maker electronics. They brainstormed customized devices around health, games, and safety, as well as aesthetically enhanced artifacts integrating electronics. We discuss how promoting older adult crafters to design and build customized pervasive health technologies impacts future research, and we provide guidelines on how to do so. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare (PervasiveHealth ’20))
    As the worldwide population ages, HCI researchers are designing technologies to better support older adults. We investigated how older adult crafters would customize technologies using electronics by building on their crafting skills. This supported them to explore customizing devices for themselves and advance the design of per- vasive health technologies for older adults. We first conducted a survey of 42 older adult crafters to learn more about their crafting habits and gauge interest in technology and health tracking. We then conducted a participatory design workshop with 10 older adult crafters, focused on mutual learning to support them in prototyp- ing how they would customize technology with maker electronics. They brainstormed customized devices around health, games, and safety, as well as aesthetically enhanced artifacts integrating elec- tronics. We discuss how promoting older adult crafters to design and build customized pervasive health technologies impacts future research, and we provide guidelines on how to do so. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; (, TEI '19 Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction)
    We present Craftec, an extendable toolkit system focused on engaging older adults in maker technology by supporting their use of common crafting skills. Craftec is comprised of LilyPad Arduino-based toolkits to promote easier crafting with hard and soft mediums. We describe the system's design, a pilot test with 8 students, and 2 two-hour single session workshop evaluations by 17 older adults. We found Craftec facilitated the efficient integration of circuits within crafted items, including fewer short circuits as compared to a basic LilyPad Arduino kit. We discuss insights into creating an older adult toolkit focused on building and prototyping rather than facilitating STEM education. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; (, Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness)
    ABSTRACT Objective: This study investigated how the effectiveness of household emergency plans during tornadoes was associated with family discussions, and the attributes of the plan for different age groups. Methods: A telephone survey was conducted in 2014, one year after two 2013 Enhanced Fujita 4/5 tornadoes. The working sample included 223 respondents who reported having a household emergency plan before the tornadoes. The latent class analysis was used to identify the patterns of the plans and develop a typology based on their content. Logistic regression was used to examine predictors for plan effectiveness. Results: Two classes of plans were identified: quality plans that were rich in content and limited plans that had lower levels of content richness. Older adults were less likely to have quality plans and less likely to have family discussions. Quality of the plan and discussions with family members increased plan effectiveness among older adults, but not younger adults. Conclusions: Better emergency planning could be more important for older than for younger adults. The findings were discussed from a gerontological perspective that focuses on older adults’ unique needs, vulnerabilities, and resilience factors. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, A Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Quadrennial Paper)
    null (Ed.)
    Technology has the opportunity to assist older adults as they age in place, coordinate caregiving resources, and meet unmet needs through access to resources. Currently, older adults use consumer technologies to support everyday life, however these technologies are not always accessible or as useful as they can be. Indeed, industry has attempted to create smart home technologies (e.g., Microsoft HomeOS, Intel CareNet) with older adults as a target user group, however these solutions are oftenmore focused on the technical aspects and are short lived. In this paper, we advocate for older adults being involved in the design process - from initial ideation to product development to deployment. We encourage federally funded researchers and industry to create compensated, diverse older adult advisory boards to address stereotypes about aging while ensuring their needs are considered. We envision artificial intelligence (AI) systems that augment resources instead of replacing them - especially in under-resourced communities. Older adults rely on their caregiver networks and community organizations for social, emotional, and physical support; thus, AI should be used to coordinate resources better and lower the burden of connecting with these resources. Although sociotechnical smart systems can help identify needs of older adults, the lack of affordable research infrastructure and translation of findings into consumer technology perpetuates inequities in designing for diverse older adults. In addition, there is a disconnect between the creation of smart sensing systems and creating understandable, actionable data for older adults and caregivers to utilize. We ultimately advocate for a well-coordinated research effort across the United States that connects older adults, caregivers, community organizations, and researchers together to catalyze innovative and practical research for all stakeholders. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email