Co-designing technology and aging in a service setting: Developing an interpretive framework of how to interact with older age users

Background: Engaging older users in co-design processes has become increasingly desirable in the approach to develop and test technologies suitable for them and according to their needs. This analysis draws on the involvement of older adults aged 65 and over in Israel in co-design activities while developing a smartphone and smart-television application (App) called ‘Age TechCare' designed to record and prevent falls. Objective: This article builds upon conceptual and theoretical work regarding codesign and the co-constitution of aging and technology (CAT-model) and value co-creation (Service-Dominant Logic) to offer an interpretive framework that contributes to our understanding of the dynamic relations between aging and technology that come about during co-design interactions. Based on the interdisciplinary approach, we propose an interpretive framework for understanding the context in which older users discuss, use, and imagine technology as well as their needs and routines: understanding the context of the problem and then re-contextualizing and de-contextualizing it as an interpretive framework that enables co-designing a valuable App for users within their service network. Method: The research was conducted using discussions in four focus groups: three focus groups with older users aged 62 years and over (n=36), and one focus group with health care professionals who are Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) from the users' service network (n=8). Through group interactions and discussions, we were able to underline the interactive and shared experience of falls as a contextualized experience. Results: These interactions have empirical and theoretical importance, specifically in the ways by which older users make sense of their lived experiences and the aging process while using and designing technology. When designing innovations for older adult users, it is not sufficient to assess only their expressed problems and needs in co-design procedures and workshops. These assume that aging problems and needs exist in advance, with no relation to the technology being discussed in the workshop. It is also important to enable the users to rediscover their new (real or imagined) roles as older people. This means that users rediscover their aging process as well as technology while interacting in a co-design process. Taking a phenomenological and anthropological perspective, while talking with older users in co-design processes, the processes of aging, technology, and their interrelations come about and innovate. Conclusion: This analysis draws on focus group dynamics carried out while identifying the context and then re- and de-contextualizing as design methods.