Envisioning Future Technologies for Ageing-in-Place: A Participatory Design Fiction Workshop

Background: Worldwide, populations are ageing. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the proportion of people aged 60 years and older will increase from 12% in 2015 to 22% in 2050. As the share of older adults grows, demand for health care will rise, even though current healthcare systems are already under pressure. To establish a balance between demand and limited resources, it is essential to promote approaches that help older adults maintain their health for longer and postpone institutionalization.

 

One approach that has gained attention over the past two decades is “ageing-in-place”: enabling older adults to live relatively independently in their current home or in appropriate housing. In this context, technology plays a key role in promoting healthy habits, ensuring safety, and enabling remote care, among other functions. However, harnessing its benefits requires technology to be designed in line with older adults’ preferences and needs. To this end, participatory design and design fiction offer valuable opportunities for older adults and those closely involved in their lives to experience near-future technologies, envision how these might integrate into their daily routines, and reflect on the potential consequences of such integration before they are finalized and implemented.

Building on this potential, we invite older adults, their formal and informal caregivers, and researchers to participate in a participatory design fiction workshop featuring a specific ageing-in-place technology currently under development: Fizzy, the Robotic Ball.¹

 

Approach: This 90-minute workshop will begin with a brief introduction to the participatory design fiction methodology, Fizzy the Robotic Ball, and the planned hands-on activities (10 minutes). Participants will then interact with a Fizzy prototype to explore its current capabilities and limitations and envision how it might evolve in everyday home life (10 minutes). In groups, participants will design their own future version of Fizzy using simple materials such as foam, clay, fabric, glue, tape, and craft supplies (20 minutes).

 

They will also write a short narrative describing their creation, explaining what it is used for, how, where, and with whom it would be used (20 minutes). Afterwards, participants will present their creations and narratives, and join a plenary discussion on these envisioned technologies, their implementation, and implications for ageing-in-place (25 minutes). The workshop will conclude with a short wrap-up and closing remarks by the facilitators (5 minutes).

 

Audience. Technology development should take an ecological approach to have a real-life impact. For this reason, we will engage a diverse group of stakeholders, including older adults, (informal) caregivers, researchers and technology developers. We welcome participants from different countries and cultural backgrounds to ensure that the resulting insights are inclusive, context-sensitive, and applicable across diverse care environments.

 

Outcomes: The workshop will inform the design and future development of ageing-in-place and healthcare technologies. It will also create awareness of the importance of stakeholder participation in technology development and provide practical tips for fostering it. Finally, it will advocate for a mindset of “people as partners in health and care.”

¹https://fizzyball.org/