A Custom Computer for Older People by David Frohlich

A custom computer for older people David Frohlich & Sarah Woods Digital World Research Centre 19th July 2010 www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Last week’s news www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Motivation: Digital exclusion of the over 65s “There are 9.9 million adults aged 65 and over in the UK of whom 6.4 million (64%) have never used the internet. This is the largest single cohort amongst the 10.2 million individuals earlier identified as being digitally excluded, comprising 62% of the total.” The economic case for digital inclusion. PricewaterhouseCoopers, Oct 2009, p16 www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Economic benefits of digital inclusion ...for the elderly “We have examined four main areas of potential economic benefit from enhanced digital inclusion: improved education and employment outcomes, for example as individuals enhance their qualifications and this improves their earnings and/or their probability of finding employment; improved health and well being outcomes, for example through access to improved health information and health services; efficiency savings for public service providers enabled by greater use of online information and transactional services; and potential benefits for consumers able to purchase a wider range of products at lower prices. PricewaterhouseCoopers, Oct 2009, p3 www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Sus-IT: Sustaining IT use by older people to promote autonomy and independence This project aims to look at the relationship between the dynamics of ageing and the dynamics of digital ICTs, in order to better understand how ICT can support or enrich quality of life and autonomy of older people as they age. The research aims to provide strong evidence, learning and approaches which will enhance the design of future policies, products and research into older people and ICTs. This will be developed through five main strands of work: 1. creating a network of groups and panels of older people.. 2. identifying and tracking characteristics and attitudes over time.. 3. facilitating a series of ‘Sandpit’ discussions and participatory design exercises on emerging technologies.. 4. developing adaptive interface and customisation techniques.. 5. identify appropriate and effective learning, training and support mechanisms http://sus-it.lboro.ac.uk/latestnews.html www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Sus-IT: Sustaining IT use by older people to promote autonomy and independence This project aims to look at the relationship between the dynamics of ageing and the dynamics of digital ICTs, in order to better understand how ICT can support or enrich quality of life and autonomy of older people as they age. The research aims to provide strong evidence, learning and approaches which will enhance the design of future policies, products and research into older people and ICTs. This will be developed through five main strands of work: 1. creating a network of groups and panels of older people.. 2. identifying and tracking characteristics and attitudes over time.. 3. facilitating a series of ‘Sandpit’ discussions and participatory design exercises on emerging technologies.. 4. developing adaptive interface and customisation techniques 5. identify appropriate and effective learning, training and support mechanisms http://sus-it.lboro.ac.uk/latestnews.html www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Inspiration: Minitel 1, built 1982 www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Key research questions • Interest in a simple, managed, customised computer (‘CC’)? • Key applications? • Preferred input/output and form factor? • Interest in adaptive versus manual help features? E.G. – Font enlargement – Restriction of functionality – Agent helper www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Methods 1. Design envisionment through demo and drama 2. One day ‘Sandpit’ workshops for feedback on envisionment (morning) and creative re-design (afternoon) 3. Two groups of 16 Non-PC users and 16 PC users of retirement age, run on different days: • Wednesday 30th Sept, Non-PC users • Thursday 1st November, PC users www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Design envisionment – early concepts www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Design envisionment – final concept www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Design envisionment – theatre set www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Design envisionment – ‘InfoLink’ screen www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Scenario 1 – Main concept, slider use and automatic highlighting www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Reactions of Non-PC users Main concept “It’s a fantastic machine actually for those people like the actress if you were to become widowed or living on your own. It’s like someone is living in the house with you. You can contact someone.” “It’s helping people to stay in their own home rather than go into shelter or even care.” “Your personal robot” “What if you have several people in the house? [Discussion of face recognition for personal identification, set-up and on-line registration…] www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Reactions of Non-PC users Bus times P: “Very impressive” I: “What was impressive about it?” P: “How simple it was” Telecare P: “Brilliant” I: “What was brilliant about it?” P: “Help coming to you. Allaying the fears of the person injured” Purchasing “You’ve got an income. Can’t afford to spend it anyway so you can afford all this”. “Someone would have to come in and explain it” [Willing to pay the price of a low end PC (£300) or a modest broadband internet subscription (£15 a month)] www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Reactions of PC users Main concept “This could be targeted at people who don’t have computers now” “For me this is fulfilling different functions at different times” “This is too advanced for me” (in age) P: “Tell me, what is the expected life of a computer anyway? I would think it is 8-10 years maximum” I: “Probably more like 3-5” P: “This means that during a lifetime you are faced with buying several computers..” www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Reactions of PC users Slider “Instead of pressing drag on a computer that slider sticking out quite obviously could be very very useful. That’s not a stupid idea; that’s beautiful. Ye can nee miss that” Voice output “I’m hard of hearing so I suggest that is put on the local loop” Web cards “That saves remembering the URL” To do list “Excellent. It’s like a memory isn’t it? Could it be linked in with a clock?” Telecare www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk “Too good to be true!”

Reactions of PC users SECURITY CONCERNS “Is there any way to ensure the community network isn’t hacked into?” “I think the mature person is less trustful than say a younger person. For instance I use the internet a lot but I would never dream of internet banking..” “This thing is not new. During the war we couldn’t trust the telephone network and were worried about that being hacked into” “No matter how secure you make a network there is always somebody who can get into it” www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Reaction of both groups to adaptive interface features “If it tells you, corrects you, then that’s a good thing” “Adjusting the size of the text was good. How does the machine know that?” “Would we be getting messages from Specsavers saying ‘You need some new glasses’?” “Would the computer tell on you to anyone else?” “A computer doesn’t tell you what to do. A computer tells you what it’s doing” “It’s like when the paperclip pops up (in Word) and says ‘Can I help you?’ – and I shout at it!” www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Participants own (re-) designs ROOM (6) X FORM (12) X FUNCTION (20) www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Non-PC user re-design – Group A www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Non-PC user re-design – Group B www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

PC user re-design – Group C www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

PC user re-design – Group D www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Conclusions • The idea of a custom computer is attractive to at least 16 of the 6.4 million UK non-PC users over 65 • Popular applications would be messaging & conferencing, local information, e-shopping, reminders and telecare. • Many interface and interaction features of our envisionment were valued by PC users, suggesting an opportunity for more radical hardware and software innovation for all computers Minitel 1. 1982 Ordissimo tactile 2009 Apple iPad 2010 ? www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

Acknowledgements Planning advice - Risto Sarvas, Sue Venn Technical input – Amr Ahmed, David Sloan, Colin Machin, Matthew Atkinson Workshop organisation – Paula Forbes, Lorna Gibson Scriptwriting & direction – Maggie Morgan Actors – Iain Wotherspoon, Jane Nelson Peebles Facilitation – Maggie Morgan Film production – David Goodall Thanks also for encouragement and advice from other colleagues on the SUS-IT project from the Universities of Loughborough, Anglia Ruskin, Lincoln, Dundee and Nottingham Trent. http://sus-it.lboro.ac.uk/latestnews.html www.dwrc.surrey.ac.uk

A Custom Computer for Older People by David Frohlich

by British Sociological Association on Aug 23, 2010

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A Custom Computer for Older People by David Frohlich — Presentation Transcript