ABSTRACT
Robotic technologies have now reached a level of sophistication that makes deployment in the home feasible. Conceiving of the aging experience as a set of interrelated independencies within an ecological system is a critical first step for designing robotic products suitable for elders. Our ecological framework exposes the many important contingencies that exist in designing products to provide a good quality of life for elders and those who provide care for them.Later, we use our data to suggest guidelines for the design of appropriate robotic products for elders in their homes. Our guidelines are necessarily broad and preliminary. Technology development is rapid. Our description of the experience of aging is not frozen in time. The experience of aging, and technologies, will certainly change in the next decade. Although we can describe the changes and dependencies we witnessed in the ecology of today’s elders, we
cannot confidently project those needs 5 to 10 years into the future. We believe, however, that our design guidelines can serve as initial “rules of thumb” for addressing design goals for robotic product development for elders in the home.In the future, robotic product design might become as common as consumer product design. As we learn more about this new area of product development, we will generate more specific principles and begin to populate the landscape with detailed case studies of robotic products that chart the course for future research and design.Our research, and that of those in the technical research community (Kawamura, Pack, Bishay, & Iskarous, 1996; Schraft, Schaeffer, & May, 1998), has begun to identify specific needs and values future robotic technologies might support for this population. Some of these include support in managing the home; maintaining personal and household supply; monitoring and providing ambulatory support; and most important, providing communication and social interaction. Our ethnography revealed needs ranging from making meals to having mail read. Although these are good starting points for generating product ideas, we also advocate taking a holistic approach and thinking about how future robotic technology might impact the elder ecology as a whole. A robotic product has the potential to be a powerful technology-en-gaging with it will have different, unexpected, and potentially negative results. The following guidelines begin to chart a course for successfully integrating new products into the lives of elders. 4.1. Design Guidelines Robotic Products Must Fit the Ecology as Part of a System
Robotic products designed for an elder ecology must be conceived of as part of a larger system of existing products and environments that serve elders and others in the ecology. When designing, first-order effects (such as fit) and second-order effects (such as social and cultural implications) must be considered. Familiar product forms with augmented product functionality will fit the system and maximize early product adoption.As part of a larger system, future robotic products need to offer diverse interactions to many different groups of people. One of the most formidable tasks for designers is to conceive of and construct the interactions that will take place between elders, future robotic products, and others in the elder ecology. We will not be able to predict how the social situations and surrounding physical context will respond to, and create unanticipated uses of, future robotic products within an elder ecology. For example, an elder might use a robotic product to communicate with her daughter, primary physician, physical ther
apist, and even pharmacist. Rather than a product that is used by one person, such a product offers opportunities for interaction among all members of the elder ecology. These products should maximize fit by allowing the elder to experience the same power, control, and agency as others in the elder ecology.Part of the designer’s task is to understand how these products situate within the ecology and what kinds of second-order effects will occur. For example, refrigerators were designed to keep things cool, but have also informally become a vertical communication space through the use of refrigerator magnets for notes, artwork, cartoons, and family communications. Similarly, we observed a robot designed to deliver medicines in a hospital. The robot was repeatedly decorated with flowers and stickers by hospital patients as it made its rounds. In thinking about product function and aesthetics, it will be important to consider what intended and unintended opportunities for communication, sharing, and new experiences future robotic products will offer. Robotic Products Must Support the Changing Values of Those Within the Ecology
Robotic products designed for an elder ecology should uphold the important values of independence and dignity. They should also allow for different prioritization of these values. When designing product functionality, allow for basic needs as well as higher needs to be addressed. Combining appropriate and accessible functionality along with aesthetic considerations will support values and sustain product use.Our description of the experience of aging has shown that change is inevitable for elders-change in their physical and mental abilities, and change in the local environment in which they live. These changes account for endless shifts in values, individual prioritizations of values, and endless differences in the elders we interviewed. Robotic products need to support these shifts in values by responding to different decisions and actions in any given situation.Interactions with these products should not detract from the elder’s independence and dignity. They should allow elders to do as much as possible, by enabling people, instead of the system, to initiate most of the interactions with the product. To help the elder feel comfortable using new technologies, future robotic products should allow for flexible and accessible use. All interactions should be designed to support use and maintain the values of the widest variety of people. The Universal Design Principles (2002) developed in the last decade have ensured that product functionality serves the widest group of human needs. It is essential that products also serve the widest group of human values by supporting the many forms of independence and agency within the ecology.
