Human-Centered design is all about designing for whom and in which context, and in this paper we develop and explore cognitive ergonomic approaches to unpack such empathetic, contextual and imaginistic design thinking. By applying a future time perspective and a contextual reality perspective, we conducted a series of design workshops for thirty-eight young entrepreneurs to speculate traditional and future technologies for their future selves and the current elderly. We report their idea generation processes and design proposals, followed by a discussion on practical guidelines and conceptual resources for researchers and practitioners. Our goal is to expose and engage the younger generation in building an empathetic aging society with various traditional and future technologies.
Cognitive ergonomics as a holistic component of human-centered design
practices did not appear magically from our ancestors of Stone Age, but the story
was romanticized through an industrial designer how a thirsty caveman found
his inspiration when he \instinctively dipped his cupped hands into a pool and
drank. Some of the water leaked through his ngers. In time he fashioned a bowl
from soft clay, let it harden, and drank from it; attached a handle and made
a cup; pinched the rim at one point to make a spout, creating a pitcher." [
As lifelong learners and guerrilla researchers in design innovation, we see cognitive ergonomics as a discipline that prioritizes addressing and learning about human needs and well-beings over generating and populating industrial solutions and digital designs. Designing for people has everything to do with how we are born, how we live and even how we die. With science and technology extending and altering human life, a new generation of cognitive ergonomists are also required to possess knowledge of more than physical objects and structures and to understand the interaction between the physical, non-tangible products and the ever-changing human minds. We should not only care for a heritage of people's e ciency and comfort but also attend to an adaptive living system of people's struggles in the evolution of society.
Therefore, designing for whom and in which context indicates an inclusive consideration and speculation of individuals in every stages of life and the relationships and interactions among them in an ecosystem of community(Fig. 1). Our goal, in this paper, is to expose and engage the younger generation in building an empathetic aging society with various technologies. By applying a future time perspective and a contextual reality perspective as the major cognitive ergonomic approaches, we conducted a series of design workshops for young entrepreneurs to speculate traditional and future technologies for their future selves and the current elderly. We report their idea generation processes and design proposals and discuss practical guidelines and conceptual resources for researchers and practitioners. 1.1
It is estimated that from 2013 to 2050, the aging population (persons aged 60
years and over) in the world is expected to more than double its number, reaching
2 billion and at some point exceed the number of children [
Loneliness is an umbrella term that refers to both objective and
subjective isolation due to a lack of social relationships and supports [
Both Cognitive Ergonomics and Human-Computer Interaction have long
been actively designing technological solutions for ageing in di erent contexts,
mostly with a focus on speci c problems and needs of the current elderly. And
regarding the topic of loneliness and isolation, previous research has explored
into building a social network and companionship [
Recently, speculative design has received rising attention in designing with
future technologies [
In this paper, we recognize young people's double roles, empathetic caregivers to the current elderly and inevitable future elderly themselves, and seek to speculate alternative technology designs in combining a future time perspective and a contextual reality perspective, as well as to promote the inter-generational engagement in building the aging society. In the following sections, we describe our case study of a 6-week long design workshop conducted with young entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds. Participants started by imagining their future selves as elderly and empathizing diverse aspects of loneliness, and then relating to loneliness of the current elderly in various life contexts, and nally speculating design ideas with traditional and future technologies.
To align with the evolution of Cognitive Ergonomics in its broader scope of analysis, we attempt to answer the following research questions. Firstly, how do the current younger generation perceive aging in both the current and future perspectives? Secondly, what are critical design considerations related to traditional and future technologies? Thirdly, what are complexities of designing for loneliness of diverse dimensions? In discussing these concerns with the younger end of the young-old continuum, our intention is not to present the nal technology design outcomes, but to highlight our design thinking approaches that elicit and sca old participants' experience, thoughts and solutions around the loneliness issue, and how these can serve as a cognitive foundation for future technology design. 2
A total of 38 young entrepreneurs aged between 22 and 35, took part in the design workshop for elective university course credits,including 23 women, 15 men. Participants represented a diverse set of educational backgrounds (at Bachelor, Masters level) and professional experiences including business administration, marketing, nance and banking. All of them participated in the co-design activities across six workshops over six weeks, each lasted approximately 3 hours. From the third week, participants were divided into 14 groups according to their proposed design ideas. 2.1
Six workshops were divided into three stages of activity. At stage 1 (workshop 1), participants were involved in scoping, imagining and empathizing loneliness of their future selves. At stage 2 (workshop 2-3), participants were involved in observing, relating and telling stories about loneliness of other elderly in various real life contexts. At stage 3 (workshop 4-6), participants were involved in exploring, criticizing and designing traditional or future technologies to tackle the loneliness and aging issue. 2.2 3 3.1
Workshop recordings and participants' written reports of 6 weeks were transcribed and analyzed using open coding. Transcripts were coded in an iterative manner to capture recurring themes and contrasts among participants.
Stage One (Workshop 1): Scoping and Imagining The Future
Self
Participants were asked to imagine themselves as a 75-year old in the future
time and to empathizing various aspects and consequences of loneliness and
isolation. To sca old this activity, we initiated a warm-up conversation adapted
from a \who are you?" dialogue between the Caterpillar and Alice [
How do you imagine yourself getting old in loneliness and isolation?
Participants stereotyped. Most participants reported problems with moving and
carrying without support, chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease,
arthritis without care. And they were able to relate their experience to future
conditions as the elderly. For example, one participant who loved playing
basketball described: \I would be very sad if cannot play basketball with my friends
when I'm getting very old... I want to stay safe and active on the court."
Another participant portrayed herself as a passive victim of the aging process: \It's
inevitable to get all kinds of chronic diseases, particularly, I fear for su ering
dementia when I become an old lady... I wish to live in a well-equipped place
surrounded myself with family and friends." Loneliness can be seen as two sided.
More than half of the participants expected to rely on support from friends and
neighbors, which conformed with the actual experiences highly reported by the
current elderly people [
Stage Two (Workshop 2-3): Observing and Telling Stories
about Other Elderly
In a \where is Wally the elderly" activity adapted from [
Many popular perceptions associating old age with illness and isolation were found in participants' observations and interviews. Additionally, those who paid special attention to the surroundings reported novel impressions of elderly in unlikely places and at unusual times. For example, \a well-dressed elegant old lady who was reading a novel on the bus," \an old gentleman who drank co ee at McDonald's after midnight," \a retired policeman who volunteered to do gardening on campus," \a grandma played a mobile game on the smart phone with her grandchild on the subway." They reported feeling di erent types and levels of loneliness if they themselves were in the similar situations, and such loneliness was also two sided, as observed from stage one.
Interviews and stories further revealed emotions and experiences behind the scenes of loneliness, which implied various design opportunities. For examples, curiosities and yet skeptics towards VR/AR in health and entertainment (84and 80-year old couple, at the train station, hike weekly) and self-driving cars (78-year-old retired engineer, love traveling); worries and disappointment from con icts between likings and inadequacies (a 78-year-old retired engineer, live alone: \love traveling but su er from leg injuries "), content with copings and compromises (\watch popular TV shows or Net ix series about traveling as life routine"); openness and excitement from being connected by new technologies such as \using social media and social networking service like Facebook in sharing interests ", \using smartphone to share life pictures "; comfortableness with keeping life routines(\writing diaries ", \watching TV series "), remaining in their own neighborhood and community, constant contact with friends and family, especially the younger generations. 3.5
Stage Three (Workshop 4-6): Designing Better With Di erent
Perspectives
Participants were introduced with the tools and digital technologies into the past
and future 60 years along the reality-virtuality spectrum [
Group E1 E2 C1 S1 E3 S2 F1 H1 T1 C3 C4 H2 E4 T2 Design Concepts Generated During the Final Stage \TO BE CONTINUED": To pursue unrealized dreams through a personalized VR system. \PreBOT": A personalized robot companion. \INVISIBLE MediTAG": Real-time physiological monitoring system to display daily health info and signal emergency care. \GO! GO! SHOPPING!": An immersive VR shopping environment. \!ME!": A virtual platform to personalize continuous learning environments. \FREE SPACE": A multi-user shopping platform allowing real-time interaction with product experts and friends. \A MOVABLE FEAST" Service: An outdoor farm-to-table group dining experience for the elderly people. \AGE-FRIENDLY" Health Village: To support community living with group entertainment facilities. \SUPER ElderlyAgent": A customizable wheelchair for the elderly people in hospital settings and health facilities . \FITNESS TOGETHER" Service: Group transportation service for connecting the elderly people with sport facilities. \LLNA(LIVE LONG NOT ALONE)" Service: An Oxygen Incubator enhanced by VR and AR to heal body and mind at home. \SILVER HAIR GARDEN OF EDEN" Housing Project: Locationbased social networks connect the elderly people in physical settings. \UP!": An location-based APP for organizing elderly group meetup events. \FLYING CHAIR": A customized door-to-door chair to promote independence in everyday mobility. thinking and stimulate sharing and further discussions. In the nal workshop, 14 teams presented their design concepts respectively. 3.6
Findings From Stage Three 14 teams showed wide interests in a variety of traditional and future technologies, and generated solutions to tackle loneliness and aging across a broad spectrum of domain areas (Table. 1). Their solutions can be further analyzed into ve theme categories, including materialistic or physical, social, active, independent and spiritual. As they narrowed down and speci ed their problem scopes, many participants developed critical thinking about loneliness and isolation and started to see it as a risk factor rather than the problem itself.
Interestingly, young participants' adoption of either a \current elderly" perspective or a \future self" perspective a ected their design focus on either traditional technologies or future technologies (Fig. 2). Speci cally, participants taking the lens of current elderly people tended to develop alternative uses of traditional and more familiar technologies for physical well-being and fundamental living needs; while those with their own future needs and problems in mind tended to explore new and future technologies for psychological well-being needs featuring entertainment, learning and communication. Additionally, a few of them also expressed concerns with imposing digital technologies everywhere, posing critical questions such as whether advanced technology is necessary or appropriate in di erent use scenarios and if such technology would bring drawbacks or harms. 4
In this study, we have focused on the dynamic roles of a user during the process of generating design ideas. It helps deepen our understanding of how young people perceive aging and loneliness from the lens of their future selves and the current elderly. These young participants tended to think critically about the loneliness issue as well as generated design ideas within the domains of traditional or future technologies by adopting the current or future perspectives. Apart from ctional storytelling, we have also discovered the importance of combining a future time perspective and a contextual reality perspective in sca olding speculative design, and proposed innovative uses of self-reported survey items compiled from previous research literature to engage young people with detailed conditions regarding loneliness and aging, as well as activity narratives such as Alice in Wonderland and Where is Wally? to engage participants. Future research is required to further understand the time perspective adoption among diverse populations in idea generation and design context, and how to systematically scope complex multi-dimensional society issues like \loneliness and aging" and facilitate speculation with both traditional and future technologies on collaborative and crowd-sourcing platforms.