Landscapes of Cross-Generational Engagement

Project Dates: From April 2010 to December 2010

Staff: Prof. Peter Wright (PI), Dr. Cas Ladha, Dr. Stephen Lindsay, Dan Jackson

Sponsors: ESRC

 

This project is concerned with ways of enhancing people's experiences of growing older. It will investigate how interactive technologies can promote older people's engagement with their physical and social environments, and encourage new forms of interaction with younger people. Designers and cross-generational participants will co-design novel interactive devices and situations will be created that challenge age-based stereotyping and encourage younger participants to reflect on ageing. Detailed analysis of participant's experiences with the devices and systems will provide a rich source of information for the design of future innovative technologies and services and also help specify best practice for involving older people in design.

In the past, most of the research in the area digital support for ageing has focused on older people living in their own homes whereas this project explores communal forms of living for older people. To this we have been working closely with older people living in two sites, A Nunnery, and a Residential Care Home. Through an extended series of engagements between residents, researchers and designers using innovative experience-centred design methods, we have developed new forms of digital technology which respond to the specific cultures and sites of each group of older people.

Collaborators: Goldsmiths Interaction Research Studio, Prof. Mark Blythe (Northumbria University)