A presentation by David Frochlich at the BSA Futures of Ageing Conference, 19 July 2010.

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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

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

9. 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

10. 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

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

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

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

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

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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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!”

20. 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

21. 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

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

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

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

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

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

27. 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

28. 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