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: Situated Participatory Design: A Method for In Situ Design of Robotic Interaction with Older Adults
We present a participatory design method to design human-robot interactions with older adults and its application through a case study of designing an assistive robot for a senior living facility. The method, called Situated Participatory Design (sPD), was designed considering the challenges of working with older adults and involves three phases that enable designing and testing use scenarios through realistic, iterative interactions with the robot. In design sessions with nine residents and three caregivers, we uncovered a number of insights about sPD that help us understand its benefits and limitations. For example, we observed how designs evolved through iterative interactions and how early exposure to the robot helped participants consider using the robot in their daily life. With sPD, we aim to help future researchers to increase and deepen the participation of older adults in designing assistive technologies.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1925043
PAR ID:
10446625
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1 to 15
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; (, Proceedings of the 2021 Future of Information and Communication Conference (FICC))
    Arai, K. (Ed.)
    Robotics is an industry that has disrupted the health field in different areas, including older adult care. Robotic companions for older adults have proved to produce many benefits, including decreasing loneliness, anxiety, stress, depression, agitation, and contributing to the improvement of social relationships, to mention a few. Currently, there are different options in the market of robotic pets for the older adult population. Among them is the Joy for All line of products. In December of 2015, Hasbro released the Joy for All - Robotic Cat to the market. While the product has been successfully adopted by the older adult population, there are opportunities to improve the nature of advanced human-robot interaction. The class, Technologies to Extend Life, taught in the Master of Design program at the University of Cincinnati, focused on designing the next generation of Joy for All robotic intelligence that could provide psycho-social support for older adults. With this project, the class had two primary objectives: 1) Understand the real challenges older adults face in activities of daily living; and 2) Develop innovative hardware and software tools that can meet some of the identified daily challenges. The class had a co-design approach in the many phases that included different participants (older adults and caregivers), utilizing a variety of tools to assess, analyze, develop, design, implement, and evaluate the interventions with older adults and communities. The significance of this project is to use a participatory approach to assess and analyze the challenges older adults face in activities of daily living that robotic companions may help alleviate, thus having an empathic perspective to the creation of assistive technologies. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; (, MoRobAE - Mobile Robot Assistants for the Elderly A workshop at ICRA 2019)
    This work proposes the development of a robot to perform appropriate tasks to assist low income older adults based on the merging of two previous studies, one which focused on task investigation and deployment of mobile robots in elder care facilities and the other on design investigation for a socially assistive robot using low-cost and modular hardware and software design. We identified that hydration, walking and socialization were tasks appropriate for the robot and most impactful to the older adults. Another outcome was the level of importance of the HRI component in the implementation of these tasks, thus merging both studies to initially investigate preferences in service robots for elder care is proposed. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; (, CHI EA '19 Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
    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
  4. ; ; ; ; ; (, 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
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Wearable Technologies)
    Abstract An active lifestyle can mitigate physical decline and cognitive impairment in older adults. Regular walking exercises for older individuals result in enhanced balance and reduced risk of falling. In this article, we present a study on gait monitoring for older adults during walking using an integrated system encompassing an assistive robot and wearable sensors. The system fuses data from the robot onboard Red Green Blue plus Depth (RGB-D) sensor with inertial and pressure sensors embedded in shoe insoles, and estimates spatiotemporal gait parameters and dynamic margin of stability in real-time. Data collected with 24 participants at a community center reveal associations between gait parameters, physical performance (evaluated with the Short Physical Performance Battery), and cognitive ability (measured with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment). The results validate the feasibility of using such a portable system in out-of-the-lab conditions and will be helpful for designing future technology-enhanced exercise interventions to improve balance, mobility, and strength and potentially reduce falls in older adults. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email