Designing with older car drivers: seeking out aspirations and needs

Abstract

Older adults are increasingly being recognised as an important and growing consumer market, however they appear reticent in adopting new technologies. One contributing factor is that their needs are poorly understood by designers and products are thus poorly specified. Within the context of driving as a socially valuable skilled behaviour we applied a participatory design approach to engage with older people as valued partners in the design process.This article examines different strategies for involving older people as experts in their own domain, developing a better understanding of their needs and aspirations and empowering them within the design process. This research took account of new developments in car design and opportunities for intelligent driver assistance systems to support driver safety. The study found that older car drivers responded well to the opportunity to identify their needs and to evaluate prototypes and novel technologies. Their appraisal of these novel technologies particularly supported an improved understanding of the skilled behaviours of older drivers and of the mismatch between these and the technologies. When incorporated into the early stages of the design process, these evaluation activities offer important opportunities to enhance understanding of latent and implicit needs of older adults. In turn this can inform and refine design requirements.