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Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Markowski, Arja Marianne (2016) Designing online social interaction for and with older people. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/18943/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. 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See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy Designing online social interaction for and with older people A thesis submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Marianne Markowski School of Media & Performing Arts Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University (UK) December 2014 Abstract This thesis describes my explorations and reflections regarding the design of online social interaction for and with older people. In 2008 when I started my doctoral investigation only a third of people over 65 years in the UK were using the Internet. This number has now increased to half of the population of 65-75 year-olds being connected to the Internet. From 2000 onwards EU wide directives increasingly encouraged research in the development of online technologies to manage the needs of an ageing population in the EU. Alongside health-related risks, the issue of social isolation is of particular interest to be tackled, considering there is a rapid development of new forms of communication and interaction media based on online technologies that could help in maintaining contact between people. A beneficial design strategy is to involve older people in the design process to ensure that technological developments are welcomed and actually used. However, engaging older people, who are not necessarily familiar with digital technologies, is not without challenges for the design researcher. My research focuses both on design practice (the development of artefacts) and the design process for online social interaction involving older people. The thesis describes practice-led research, for which I built the Teletalker (TT) and Telewalker (TW) systems as prototypes for experimentation and design research interventions. The TT can be described as a simple TV like online audio-video presence system connecting two locations. The TW is based on the same concept has been built specifically for vulnerable older people living in a care home. The work described involves embodied real-world interventions with contemporary approaches to designing with people. In particular I explore the delicate nature of the researcher/participant relationship. The research is reported as four sequential journeys. The first design journey started from a user-centred iterative design perspective and resulted in the construction of a wireframe for a website for older users. The second journey focused on building the TT and investigated its use in the real world by people with varied computer experience. The third journey involved designing the TW system specifically for elderly people in a care home. The fourth journey employed a co-design approach, with invited stakeholders, to reflect on the physical artefacts, discuss narratives of the previous design journeys and to co-create new online social technologies for the future. 2 In summary, my PhD thesis contributes to design theory by providing: a reflected rationale for the choices of design approaches, documented examples of design research for social interaction and a novel approach to research with older people (the extended showroom). It further offers insights into people's online social interaction and proposes guidelines for conducting empirical research with older and vulnerable older people. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisory team, in particular to Magnus Moar and Mark Springett: Magnus for holding loose reigns while keeping me on track and Mark for enlarging my focus on the fields productively. I further would like to express my gratitude to: members of KIT (Jeremy Morris) and Age UK Barnet (Lisa Dubow), Enfield Age 55 Forum, Barnet’s Friendship Federation Centre, Contact-the-Elderly (Marie Holdt), Sarah Read, Shailey Minocha, Gordon Rugg, John Miles, my co-design workshop participants and interviewees, the Kolding School for Design & Aarhus School of Architecture (Ann-Louise Bang, Mie Noorgard and Thomas Markussen), my research helpers Patrick Gilmore and Nick Pearson, all the technical assistants at design department at MDX and in the 3D workshop. A very special thanks goes to Nick Weldin for physical computing expertise and Roy Thompson for being invaluable in the software development of the TT’s app. I would also like to thank my family, in particular my husband Simon, my daughter Hannah and my mother Ingeborg for being patient, understanding and throughout supportive in this learning journey. This thesis is dedicated to my father Heinz Günther Johannes Markowski 4 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 LIST OF FIGURES 13 LIST OF TABLES 15 CHAPTER 1 16 1 INTRODUCTION 16 1.1 BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION 16 1.2 MY PHD DESIGN RESEARCH PROCESS 17 1.3 MY DEFINITION OF OLDER PEOPLE 20 1.4 MY DEFINITION OF ONLINE SOCIAL INTERACTION 21 1.5 MY DEFINITION OF ‘DESIGN’ 21 1.6 MY DEFINITION OF ‘CO-DESIGN’ 23 1.7 MY RESEARCH QUESTIONS 24 1.8 BOUNDARIES OF THE RESEARCH 26 1.9 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS’S STRUCTURE 28 1.10 CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE 30 CHAPTER 2 33 2 LITERATURE REVIEW: OVERVIEW 33 2.1 RESEARCH FIELDS AND SOURCES ADDRESSING OLDER PEOPLE AND DESIGN 33 2.1.1 DISCOVERING OLDER PEOPLE AS SUBJECT FOR DESIGN RESEARCH 35 2.1.2 THE DIFFICULTIES IN CONDUCTING EMPIRICAL RESEARCH WITH VULNERABLE PEOPLE 36 2.1.3 THE TREND FOR MULTI-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH 37 2.1.4 CONCLUSIONS 38 2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW: WHO ARE OLDER PEOPLE? 40 2.2.1 WHO ARE OLDER PEOPLE? 40 2.2.2 WHAT CHANGES PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY WHEN WE GET OLDER? 42 2.2.3 VULNERABLE OLDER PEOPLE, LIFE TRANSITIONS AND ACTIVE AGEING 43 2.2.4 SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES ON AGEING 45 5 2.2.5 CONCLUSIONS 46 2.3 LITERATURE REVIEW: WHAT IS ONLINE SOCIAL INTERACTION? 48 2.3.1 WHAT IS SOCIAL INTERACTION? 48 2.3.2 WHAT FORMS OF ONLINE SOCIAL INTERACTION EXIST? 50 2.3.3 THE WORLD WIDE WEB AS A SOCIAL PLACE 50 2.3.4 WHO ARE THE USERS OF ONLINE SOCIAL INTERACTION? 52 2.3.5 WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS FOR OLDER PEOPLE TO GO ONLINE? 54 2.3.6 CAN SOCIAL CONNECTION BE ACHIEVED THROUGH ONLINE SOCIAL INTERACTION? 55 2.3.7 CONCLUSIONS 56 CHAPTER 3 58 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 58 3.1 WHAT IS RESEARCH? 58 3.2 WHAT IS DESIGN RESEARCH? 59 3.3 EXEMPLARY DESIGN RESEARCH 62 3.4 CONSTRUCTIVE DESIGN RESEARCH – A META-METHODOLOGY 63 3.4.1 DESIGN EXPERIMENTS, EXPLORATION OR INTERVENTIONS 66 3.4.2 CDR CONTRIBUTIONS AND PLACES OF RESEARCH 67 3.4.3 THE LAB AS A PLACE OF RESEARCH 67 3.4.4 THE FIELD AS A PLACE OF RESEARCH 68 3.4.5 THE SHOWROOM AS A PLACE OF RESEARCH 68 3.5 CRITIQUE OF CDR 69 3.5.1 CONCLUSIONS 71 CHAPTER 4 72 4 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES IN MY DESIGN JOURNEYS 72 4.1 APPROACH FOR 1. DESIGN JOURNEY: WEBSITE 74 4.1.1 THE ANTICIPATED DESIGN PROCESS 74 4.1.2 AN EMPATHETIC APPROACH FOR INFORMATION GATHERING 75 4.1.3 EMPOWERING OLDER USERS 77 4.1.4 ON-GOING REFLECTIONS AND TIME FOR REFLECTION 78 4.2 APPROACH FOR 2. DESIGN JOURNEY: THE TT 80 4.2.1 THE DESIGN PROCESS REVISITED 80 4.2.2 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN RESEARCH 81 4.2.3 PLACING THE TT IN-THE-WILD 83 4.2.4 ‘IN-THE-WILD’ AS A POTENTIAL MIXTURE OF FIELD AND SHOWROOM 83 6 4.2.5 COLLECTING RETURNS RATHER THAN FACTS 85 4.2.6 PRESENCE OF THE DESIGN RESEARCHER DURING INTERVENTIONS 89 4.3 APPROACH FOR 3. DESIGN JOURNEY: THE TW 92 4.3.1 THE STARTING POINT 92 4.3.2 THE CONTEXT 93 4.3.3 THE DESIGN PROCESS 93 4.4 APPROACH FOR 4. DESIGN JOURNEY: CO-DESIGN WORKSHOP 95 4.4.1 THE DESIGN PROCESS REFLECTED THROUGH CO-DESIGN 95 4.4.2 WHAT IS CO-CREATION? 96 4.4.3 MAKING AS MEANS FOR REFLECTION 96 4.4.4 GENERATIVE TOOLS 97 4.4.5 COMPOSING THE MAKE TOOLKIT 98 4.4.6 INSPIRATIONS FOR THE GENERATIVE DESIGN TOOLKIT 99 CHAPTER 5 101 5 DESIGN JOURNEY 1: EXPLORING A WEBSITE SOLUTION 101 5.1 SUMMARIES OF THE EARLY RESEARCH