Interactive Social Technologies for Diverse Experiences of Later Life

世界人口结构正在发生变化，导致社会急剧老龄化。虽然老龄化长期以来一直与多样化和不断变化的需求联系在一起，但对老年生活技术设计的研究往往没有充分认识到这种多样性，通常将65岁及以上的成年人视为一个单一群体。考虑到这一领域的研究相对匮乏，这或许不足为奇；然而，忽视这种多样性，就有可能开发出不为任何人服务的技术。因此，这项研究计划的首要目标是建立新的技术，以识别和解释晚年生活经历的多样性。在接下来的五年里，这个计划将集中在三个关键项目上，每个项目都被选中来调查不同亚人口统计的社会通信技术的发展。******第一个项目将侧重于解决那些过渡到退休的人的需求。由于这个群体相对年轻、健康、精通技术，这里的重点不是弥合数字鸿沟或满足辅助需求，而是了解如何适应不断变化的生活方式，这些生活方式可能会影响人们与技术的关系，并渴望成为社会技术文化的一部分，保持联系和可用性。设定界限和管理期望的机制可能占主导地位，如何最好地适应几代人之间相互冲突的期望的问题也是如此。******第二个项目将作为第一个项目的对应物，将重点放在那些有一种或多种慢性健康状况的人的社会需求上。这一群体年龄较大，可能缺乏技术经验。因此，在这里，重要的是要更多地强调诸如可负担性、可用的基础设施（例如，高速Wi-Fi）、技术能力以及物理、感官和认知能力等因素。这个项目的挑战将是提供新的机制，使人们能够在不需要充分采用现有工具的情况下参与。******第三个项目将调查如何针对不断恶化的健康状况（例如早期痴呆）进行设计。在这里，挑战将是适应不断变化的需求与设计的发展，在疾病进展的每个阶段保持最大的机构。本项目的设计需要从长远的角度考虑，并考虑如何利用早期的能力和能力，以便在健康状况下降时继续使用。******将这些项目结合在一起是对社会互动的关注。虽然每个项目都针对不同的老年人口，但它们将有助于更好地理解所遇到的各种经历如何影响技术设计的长期目标。

***The structure of the world's population is shifting, leading to a dramatically aging society. While aging has long been associated with diverse and changing needs, research into the design of technology for later life has not often fully recognized this diversity, typically considering adults 65 and over as a single group. This is perhaps unsurprising given the relative scarcity of research in this area; however, ignoring this diversity risks the development of technologies that serve no one. The overarching goal of this research program is thus to build new technologies that recognize and account for the diversity of experiences in later life. Over the next five years, this program will focus on three key projects, each selected to investigate the development of social communication technologies for a different sub-demographic. ******The first project will focus on addressing the needs of those transitioning to retirement. As this group is relatively young, healthy, and technologically savvy, the focus here will not be on bridging a digital divide or accommodating assistive needs, but rather on understanding how to accommodate shifting lifestyles that might influence one's relationship with technology and desire to be part of a socio-technical culture of constant connectivity and availability. Mechanisms for setting boundaries and managing expectations are likely to dominate, as are questions of how to best accommodate conflicting expectations across generations. ******The second project will serve as a counterpoint to the first, focusing instead on the social needs of those with one or more chronic health conditions seeking to age in place. This group will be older, and likely less technologically experienced. Thus here, it will be important to place more emphasis on factors such as affordability, available infrastructure (e.g., of high-speed Wi-Fi), technical competency, and physical, sensory, and cognitive capabilities. The challenge in this project will be to provide novel mechanisms for enabling participation without requiring the full adoption of current tools. ******The third project will investigate how to design for deteriorating health conditions (e.g., early-stage dementia). Here, the challenge will be to accommodate changing needs with the development of designs that maintain maximal agency at each stage in the disease progression. Designs in this project will need to take a longer-term perspective and consider how to leverage earlier capabilities and competencies for continued use as health declines. ******Tying these projects together is the focus on social interaction. While each project targets a different sub-demographic of later life, together they will contribute to the long-term objective of better understanding how the range of experiences encountered impacts the design of technology.