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，但针对晚年生活的技术设计的研究往往没有完全认识到这种多样性，通常将65岁及以上的成年人视为一个单独的群体。考虑到这一领域的研究相对匮乏，这或许并不令人惊讶；然而，忽视这种多样性可能会导致技术的发展，而这些技术对任何人都没有好处。因此，这项研究计划的首要目标是建立新的技术，以识别和解释后来生活中的多样化经历。在接下来的五年里，该计划将重点关注三个关键项目，每个项目都是为了调查针对不同人群的社交通信技术的发展。第一个项目将侧重于解决那些过渡到退休的人的需要。由于这一群体相对年轻、健康和精通技术，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一个人与技术的关系，并渴望成为不断连接和可用的社会技术文化的一部分。设定界限和管理预期的机制可能会占据主导地位，如何最好地适应几代人之间相互冲突的预期的问题也是如此。第二个项目将作为第一个项目的对立面，转而侧重于那些患有一种或多种慢性健康状况的人寻求就地老龄化的社会需求。这一群体的年龄将会更大，技术经验可能也会更少。因此，在这里，更重要的是将重点放在可负担性、可用的基础设施(例如高速Wi-Fi)、技术能力以及身体、感觉和认知能力等因素上。该项目的挑战将是在不需要充分采用现有工具的情况下提供促进参与的新机制。第三个项目将调查如何针对日益恶化的健康状况(例如早期痴呆症)进行设计。在这里，挑战将是适应不断变化的需求，设计出在疾病发展的每个阶段保持最大作用的设计。该项目中的设计将需要采取更长期的视角，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。将这些项目捆绑在一起是社交互动的重点。虽然每个项目针对的是晚年生活的不同亚人群，但它们将共同促进更好地了解所遇到的一系列经验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.