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The Value of the Life Course Perspective in the Design of Mobile Technologies for Older Adults

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Mobile Communication and the Family

Abstract

In gerontology and geriatrics, the life course perspective is a well-established and fruitful approach to the study of older adults. In this chapter, a case is made for the inclusion of the life course perspective in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) for older adults. A quadrant analysis on the axes of age and wellness was conducted. This resulted in the creation of a Gerotech clock depicting four phases of older adults as users of mobile computers – maintaining, compensating, coping and caring. Each of these phases was examined for ways in which the life course perspective could inform the study of older adults.

Three potential research areas were uncovered. Firstly, the transition from older adults being relatively mobile to having impairments was identified as a rich space for the identification of choice points in which older adults adapt their use of mobile technologies. Secondly, caregivers of older adults were identified as a poorly understood user group that offered a critical challenge to the long-standing HCI concepts of user and primary user. Thirdly, with the use of demographic and epidemiological data in Singapore, the complex of challenges that family caregivers of older adults face was explained. Informed by the life course perspective, a research agenda that seeks to understand the technological needs of older adults and their caregivers within the site of the family is proposed.

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Acknowledgement

For their feedback on early versions of the Gerotech clock: Dr. Lydia Seong and Alice Chin of the Agency for Integrated Care, A/P Sun Sun Lim, Prof. Shengdong Zhao and my colleagues at the NUS HCI Lab and, finally, attendees at the Mobile HCI 2014 Workshop on Interfaces for Older Adults, where the Gerotech clock was first presented.

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  1. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Pin Sym Foong

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  1. Pin Sym Foong
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Correspondence to Pin Sym Foong .

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  1. Dept of Communications and New Medi, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Sun Sun Lim

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Foong, P.S. (2016). The Value of the Life Course Perspective in the Design of Mobile Technologies for Older Adults. In: Lim, S. (eds) Mobile Communication and the Family. Mobile Communication in Asia: Local Insights, Global Implications. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7441-3_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7441-3_10

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