1 Introduction

This paper introduces the motivation, design process, and evaluation outcomes of an interactive device that supports effortless and nonintrusive communications between aged parents and their adult children. According to the U.S. Census Bureau [1], as a consequence of the post-World War II Baby Boom (1946–1964) the proportion of old people aged 65 and over will nearly double to 20 % in 2030, from 14 % in 2012. The fastest-growing group in the United States mirrors that in many other countries. Many elderly people are living apart from their adult children, which increases demand for long-term care.

As an example, a survey conducted across England, Scotland, and Wales shows that almost three-quarters of people over 75 live alone. One in three of them wish to see their children at least weekly; however, almost half of these elders are visited just once every two to six months [2]. It is challenging for seniors to maintain connections with their children, and emotionally it is even more difficult. We want to develop a system that can reinforce the emotional bond between aged parents and their adult children.

Although advanced mobile technology has greatly reconstructed our daily lives, many elderly people find it difficult to use mobile devices because of their decreasing motor and cognitive skills [3, 4]. Failing to “catch up with” their children, the aged parents are often stuck with the traditional telephone communication format, unable to receive updated and enriched information from their children. In the long run, many feel isolated and lonely [5].

Bearing these problems in mind, we want to develop a solution that can facilitate the connections between aged parents and their children by combining new technology with a product that seniors will have no problem adopting and using. Our design process includes semistructured interviewing, observing, brainstorming, low-fidelity and high fidelity prototyping, storyboarding, and usability testing.

2 Related Work

The rapid aging of society brings many challenges and serious problems worldwide. Many projects focus on how to connect elderly people with their children over long distances. The Telepathy Lamp [6] is among pioneer projects dealing with emotional communication between elderly parents and children. The authors designed two lamps with colorful LEDs for parents and children. By turning a lamp on or off, users are able to feel the presence of other family members. Researchers in University College London Interaction Centre (UCLIC) designed a device called Silka [7] to support a remote presence by sending “smiles” and “handprints” to enable nonintrusive communication between the households. With the use of poetic communication, an interactive carpet was proposed to display awareness and emotions through sensing and actuation [8]. With technologies including durability, natural movement of tufts, and inaudible hardware, two remote carpets can be connected to create a sense of sharing and copresence through aesthetic interactions.

Previous researches demonstrated that the involvement of elderly end users could contribute to the design process [9, 10]. By means of participatory design sessions, valuable concepts and responses were generated in the conceptual design process [11]. Some researchers explored the collaboration of elderly and children users in two different design stages – the contextual user research and the evaluation of concepts [12]. They stated that a combination of the two user groups played an important role in generating insights into the design process. Researchers should gather information, inspiration, and empathy while working with elderly and children.

Some research measured the usability for elderly and children with digital devices. For example, a study presented that the elderly and children performed better with the tasks of dragging, rotating, and scaling than normal adults did [13]. Another investigation compared two versions of the same Web mail system – linear vs. hypertextual navigation – and found that elderly users obtained better performance results with linear navigation [14]. Some researchers have identified and summarized the major issues when developing technologies for the elderly [15]. Designers should take into consideration the physical and cognitive specificities of this age group and develop adaptive applications that leverage their abilities and views.

3 User Needs – an Investigative Research

To identify our design space, we assessed the aged parents’ needs by conducting semistructured interviews with 20 residents in three residential care homes. They were all seniors over 75 whose children were living far away. Our investigation explored patterns of communications, living circumstances, favorable products, and attitudes toward technology. We gained some major insights into the user needs.

  • Design for Intimacy at a Distance was Preferable. Seniors shared similar life patterns broadly, such as having been retired for many years and living alone. Their children had moved away and established their own families. Children living independently outside are unable to contact parents on a daily basis, which leads to seniors’ feelings of loneliness and depression. The feeling between parents and children is naturally intimate and full of love. Design for intimacy at a distance could be preferable for aged parents.

  • Don’t Want to Disturb Children. During the interviews, we were touched by learning that most seniors don’t want to disturb their children. Elderly people were willing to dedicate time to converse with their children on the phone or text them. However, they thought this kind of contact was intrusive. One participant said, “I don’t want to contact my sons a lot since they are now quite busy. I don’t want them to say, ‘Oh, God. It’s my mother again!’” They just wanted to silently pay attention to their children instead of calling them frequently. Another resident said she felt uncomfortable when calling her children because she felt like there was nothing interesting to tell them and she was interrupting their time. This unwillingness to “interrupt” or “disturb” was in part tied up with a desire not to become a burden to the children.

  • Fear of New Technology. Nearly 80% of the interviewees had no smartphone. They knew nothing about WIFI. Privacy was very important to them. They were afraid to use new technologies. One participant said, “I usually take longer to learn something new. I don’t have an iPhone. I’m scared of new technology because things always go wrong. Actually, it’s a love-hate relationship.” Memory is among the most frequently mentioned challenges for the elderly. They need instructions for using a new device and forget them quickly. Elderly people may take longer to learn how to use a smartphone or a computer. But we did find that swiping images with fingers on the touch screen was very easy for them.

  • The Way to be Involved in Children’s Lives is Through Pictures. Many interviewees mentioned that the common way to be involved in their children’s lives is through pictures. Almost all had their children’s and grandchildren’s pictures in picture frames. They looked at them frequently and showed them to others. Our findings revealed that elderly people preferred using images to communicate over long distances instead of by e-mail and phone calls. One resident said that she used to receive a new picture of her grandchildren every year at Christmas. Pictures allow them to closely follow children’s growth and enhance their communication over distances.

  • Special Feelings for Leather Products. Seniors were especially interested in items that carry stories, e.g., those given by their spouses or purchased on a memorable trip. They preferred a well-crafted product that had value. We found that seniors had special thoughts for their own leather products that had soft and intimate feelings. Participants expressed that they didn’t want to change their old wallets. A leather wallet can keep all the valuables inside a zippered compartment. Leather wallets for elderly people are extremely elegant and stylish, and leather is soft and supple, aging well and slowly under daily wear and tear of regular use.

4 Design Process

Based on user studies, we brainstormed intuitive and simple ways for elderly people to get closer with their children. With this in mind, we started to sketch design ideas wildly and presented these initial designs to 20 potential users to collect their eventual feedbacks.

4.1 A Smartbelt to Monitor the Well-Being of Senior Adults

The smartbelt concept enables automated and noninvasive monitoring of elderly people with sensors (Fig. 1). It helps children or caregivers maintain a close watch of their parents. The system uses a combination of wireless accelerometer sensors on the belt to monitor the body temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate of elderly people. An open-source electronics Arduino board [16] is able to process the data and transfer the data via Internet to children’s smartphones. A smartphone will upload values to the server and display elderly people’s vital status via graphs in real time. If one health vital’s datum, such as blood glucose, blood pressure, or heart rate, exceeds a predefined threshold, the app will send an alert to a child’s smartphone informing that his/her parents may be in danger. In the meantime, the belt buckle will flash and display the elder’s health status with an emergency sign.

Fig. 1.
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A smartbelt to monitor the well-being of senior adults

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The smartbelt received positive feedback from our participants. People considered using it to monitor body data. However, we cannot determine how to track blood pressure data with a remote sensor. If the data are inaccurate, the tool becomes useless. Furthermore, it is inconvenient for senior users to wear one constantly and lower their heads to read the data.

4.2 A Leather Shoe Sole with GPS Tracking to Help Find Missing Elderly People

Normal aging is associated with a decline in various memory abilities in many cognitive tasks. One key concern of seniors we interviewed is the experience of memory loss, especially because it is known to be one of the hallmark symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Apart from diseases, getting lost is another big concern for senior citizens with declining memory. We propose the design of a shoe sole with an embedded global positioning system (GPS) to help senior citizens who are at risk of becoming lost (Fig. 2). A GPS chip is hidden inside the shoe sole. The GPS unit and antenna are on the back of the sole and covered by leather. The antenna picks up signals from satellites necessary for directions. When an elderly person becomes lost, he or she needs only to click on the back of the shoe sole (the heel), and family members or caregivers will receive an alert on a smartphone to show the wearer’s location. Family members can also determine a GPS-equipped shoe’s location by calling it. The shoe responds by sending a Google map that pinpoints the location. They can then map the location and call emergency help if needed.

Fig. 2.
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A leather shoe sole with GPS tracking to help find missing elderly people

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Many senior users dislike the idea of placing their intimate objects under the feet and having to move the shoe sole from one shoe to another every time they change shoes. So this leather shoe sole concept was also discarded.

4.3 A Smartwallet to Update and Display Pictures

During our interview, we found that elderly people like to see value-added products and services with new technologies to help them easily connect with their families over long distances. They also love to view their grandchildren’s pictures, basically every day. These desires inspired us to design a smartwallet that allows a projection of images to support social interaction (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3.
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A smart wallet to update and display pictures

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As discussed, elderly people lack the experience of using digital devices. This deficiency inspired us to search for another “smart” way for them to communicate with family members. There is often a space in wallets to put photo IDs. Seniors we interviewed usually fill it with photos of their children or grandchildren. We started to consider digitalizing this element. With Arduino and Wi-Fi, the wallet can directly receive pictures. The wallet-sized screen will update and display pictures in real time. When a new photo arrives, it will serve as a pleasant morning surprise for senior adults. The interface is simple and requires elderly persons to do nothing. Thus they can see their grandchildren’s new pictures every day without waiting for holidays.

The leather wallet concept received positive feedbacks from potential users, who were excited about receiving their children’s pictures this way.

4.4 A Tangible Sofa to Communicate Touch Over Distance

Living apart and maintaining connection can be a challenge. We wildly brainstormed to push the limits of user experience. Here we propose a tangible leather sofa concept for elderly parents with the intention of bringing on the copresence and allowing parents and children to feel one another’s touch. All sofas in a family are connected with the Internet. When an elderly parent sits on the sofa, the body part that touches it will be warmed up if another family member is also sitting on a smart sofa at his or her home (Fig. 4). The touched interface on the sofa will emit a soft heat by infrared rays. The two users will create a bond, and the heat transmitted to the hands increases the duration of the interaction. The technology is already available in the field of infrared heating and offers several integration possibilities. The system will work by a reflection of far-infrared waves that directly heat furniture and human bodies.

Fig. 4.
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A tangible sofa to communicate touch over distance

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Some potential users like the connection with two products, but hesitate about the real experience of soft heat. This technology part is also a huge issue that creates obstacles to our further exploration.

5 Storyboards and Scenarios

Based on our research findings, we used our personas to create storyboards and scenarios to illustrate how LINK would be used to help elderly people improve communication over distances (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5.
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Storyboards and scenarios of LINK

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6 Low-Fidelity Prototype and Usability Testing

We created a wallet-sized digital screen for the parent end and a mobile application for their adult children (Fig. 6a). Children can use the app to upload pictures to the photo album and send them to LINK (Fig. 6b). The interface of the LINK product is similar to the interface of the LINK app. An album button is on the upper left corner to display the number of left images. On the upper right corner is a text message icon. Aged parents can also listen to the voice message.

Fig. 6.
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(a): Low-fidelity of the LINK digital screen. (b): Low-fidelity of the LINK, mobile application.

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We conducted a usability testing study to gain insight into needed design improvements and to identify usability problems for refinement. There are two tasks for the elderly, viewing an image and viewing a video, and three tasks for the children – selecting, uploading, and sending an image. We recruited 5 users to think aloud while performing these tasks. At the same time, we observed and recorded the process to understand their behaviors. The main findings are as follows.

  • It was easy to figure out how to swipe images with fingers.

  • The album interface was complicated and confused users.

  • The font size of album and album numbers was unreadable.

  • The paragraph spacing was too small.

  • Users would like to see recent images first.

  • Users preferred to view images either horizontally or vertically as they rotated the wallet.

  • Users would like to reset the leather wallet or freeze it to go to sleep.

  • Users had no idea of how to charge the device.

These findings showed several crucial usability problems and guided us to refine the interface design. We improved the legibility of the interface with bigger pictures and fewer words. We simplified the functions, and the only interaction for elderly people is to use their fingers to swipe pictures. During our interview, we found that users regarded their own old leather wallets as valuable items. Elderly people don’t want to change their old wallets. The interface should be quite simple and require elderly people to do nothing.

7 High-Fidelity Prototype

We observed the leather wallet market, and found the windows to display pictures or identification cards in the wallet have the same size (originally to show the photo IDs). Designing one electrical card will fit almost all of them. This concerns the digital and physical platforms where the communication takes place and the technologies are used for LINK (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7.
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Product interaction explanation of digital media and physical media.

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7.1 Digital Media

We created a mobile application for the children’s end. The interface is simple and easy to use. Children need to find the unique machine ID of the LINK product and add their parents to the contacts. Then choose images or videos from the photo album and send them to the parent end. Moreover, children can add a text message or a voice message with the image to explain the contents or more greeting sentences.

7.2 Physical Media

Leather wallets have great in varieties. As personal items, they deliver messages about people’s personality. However, these artifacts cannot convey rich textual information, since they lack the physical storage of storytelling. Thus LINK bridges between the tangible leather wallet and image-based communication (Fig. 7). Considering physical and cognitive abilities of the elderly, LINK has only the input from children and no input from parents, thus reducing the cognitive challenge for the elderly.

LINK receives pictures with text or voice messages and videos from the children’s end. The screen will display the incoming images or play videos automatically when the user opens it. Aged parents may receive a delightful surprise when opening the wallet in an early morning. LINK can resize images and crop a horizontal image into a vertical one, or vice versa. Because of age-related vision problems, LINK will read out incoming text messages instead of letting the user read them. LINK uses different icons to differentiate voice texting and text messaging. On the upper left corner of the screen, the icon will show the number of unread pictures. On the upper right corner of the screen, the icon represents the time of voice messaging. The only activity users need to do is finger swiping – swipe left or right to switch from one image to another. The recent one is always on the top of all the other images.

At the back of LINK are the solar panel and the reset button (Fig. 8). Users need to slide LINK out of the wallet and put it under the sunlight or light to charge it, which encourages the elderly to go outside (Fig. 8). A user can reset LINK after tapping the reset button.

Fig. 8.
figure 8

Product design details of LINK and further explanation of key features.

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7.3 Technologies

LINK is basically a simplified smartphone that only keeps several necessary functions. With a processor, semiconductor memory, LCD, SSD, solar panel, or 4G modem, a digital product is feasible. One of the basic technologies of LINK is the ability to store more pictures. It can connect to a secure cloud server and store a large amount of pictures. A strong and unique password for each device will make personal data more secure.

Another technological aspect of LINK is supporting gestures and touch interactions. With the optical tangible technology, the touch screen will be pressure-sensitive and recognize the swiping method.

8 Evaluation

We created a high-fidelity prototype and conducted a usability testing with LINK. We recruited 20 elderly people (the same group in the beginning stage of the user study) and 10 adults who have aged parents or grandparents. We asked them to complete four tasks separately and encouraged them to think aloud during the process.

There were four tasks for aged parents (Fig. 9, left):

Fig. 9.
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Left: User interface (UI) tasks of the application for the elderly. Right: UI tasks of the leather wallet for children

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  • Use LINK in the leather wallet to view an image or a video.

  • Find the icon of text messages and voice messages.

  • View previous images and open unread ones.

  • Charge the leather wallet and reset the device.

There were four tasks for the children (Fig. 9, right):

  • Find the unique machine ID of the LINK product and add parents to the contact.

  • Upload and send images and videos to parents.

  • Add a text message to the image.

  • Add a voice message to the image.

We asked participants to answer post-task questionnaires with a Likert scale after the experiments. The questionnaire was based on five usability metrics: ease of use, comprehension, efficiency, clarity of fonts and icons, and satisfaction. The main findings were as follows.

  • All adult participants completed all the tasks. Ninety percent of the elderly finished all usability tasks. Only one failed the task of finding the icon of voice messages.

  • The two sides both rated the overall tasks easy. Users comprehended each task and were satisfied with the LINK product and its app.

  • Aged parents would like to respond to their children through pictures.

  • Users would like to see alternative ways to charge the LINK instead of removing it from the leather wallet.

These users are presented from the beginning of the design to the end of the evaluation. They liked communicating with their children through digital pictures in the leather wallet. We may consider their suggestions to add a message-response function to LINK, something we had not considered originally. We also found a new way to charge the leather wallet. By adding a clear thin layer of crystal glass to the screen, users can make the wallet solar powered automatically. However, given the technical difficulty and production costs, we need to conduct research for validation in the next stage.

9 Conclusion

As human beings, we naturally dislike being lonely and want to relate with others, especially our loved ones. As an accessory to the leather wallet, the small LINK screen adds new digital values to the old leather material. It further strengthens family values and happiness. Driven by investigative research, our iterative design process makes the manufacturing practice possible. An application of this system will not only produce a high impact on improving elderly’s health and wellness and family bonding, but also on many benefits to communities and society.