‘Worth’ and mental contents in designing for ageing citizens’ form of life
J Leikas, P. Saariluoma
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AbstractIn designing technologies for older people, it is essential to understand their form of life, how they mentally represent it and its relations to technology. We can use content-based psychological research to investigate mental contents of people, who employ this knowledge to solve important psychological issues such as problems of human-technology interaction. In this particular study, we have focused on the contents of the concept of worth, as this notion opens up an important perspective to the motives of the users of technology. A user study where around 400 older citizens expressed their subjective opinions about significant areas of life was carried out. These areas of life constitute their individual form of life. There were two basic questions in our investigation. Firstly, we wanted to find those areas of life for which older people prefer and expect new products and services to be developed. Secondly, we investigated ageing persons’ subjective opinions of the most important product qualities for these products. In conclusion, the paper presents the relevant ‘worths’ that ageing citizens perceive in technology. Understanding the contents of product worth related to users’ form of life opens up new perspectives on the road to more focused design of successful and desired products and services for the ageing population.Keywords: older people; worth; values; mental contents; form of life
J Leikas, P. Saariluoma (2008). ‘Worth’ and mental contents in designing for ageing citizens’ form of life. Gerontechnology, 7(3), 305-318
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2008.07.03.005.00