The Design of New Technologies Addressing Independence, Social Participation & Wellness for Older People Domicile in Residential Homes

This paper reports on human factors research concerning the development of new technology enabling older people to lead meaningful and independent lives in a residential home and/or assisted living community. A key goal of the technology is to support a vision of care where older people are socially engaged and have continuity in living experience. This research adopts a stakeholder evaluation/participatory approach to requirements elicitation and user interface design. The emphasis is on understanding the context and meaning of experience and associated technology need. Specifically, the technology is defined from the perspective of addressing and achieving key stakeholder states/benefits associated with well-being, successful ageing, and relationship centred care. Primarily, the focus of this paper is on reporting field research findings relating to resident need and the technology solution.