A Preliminary Analysis of Older Adults' Reactions to Design Concepts for Physical Activity Support

Abstract

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Although older adults are motivated to engage in physical activity, their routines are often disrupted by a multitude of interrelated barriers, which are not addressed by current physical activity promoting technologies. To explore how technology might be better designed to promote physical activity in older adults living alone, we developed 15 design concepts envisioning digital and non-digital tools for supporting older adults in maintaining physical activity routines and then interviewed 15 participants on their preferences and reactions to the concepts. In this poster, we share preliminary findings on our participants’ reactions to the designs. While generally positive towards all concepts, participants identified most with a design aimed at providing alternative exercises in response to a health-related routine disruption and least with two concepts, which both involved sharing activity logs with others. As social accountability is a common feature of commercial tools, our findings help shed light on why existing physical activity promoting technologies have been critiqued by older adults as poorly aligned with their needs, further reinforcing calls for considering their unique needs for physical activity support.