Abstract
Health and social care are moving increasingly towards digital platforms and greater knowledge of people’s lifestyles and habits through numbers (Sharon 2016, 2017; Sharon & Zandbergen 2017; Rooksby et al. 2014; Swan 2013). However, among ageing populations, digital devices often enter households just to be forgotten in cupboards due to their lack of “usefulness” (Kim et al. 2022; Spann and Stewart 2018). Research shows that people aged 65 and older tend to use fewer technologies and to do so less frequently than younger individuals (Smith 2014). How can we empathise with the lived experience of ageing populations, designing devices that respond to their hopes and fears? How can we translate older individuals’ embodied experiences of changing affects and physical sensations into useful digital device interventions? To address these questions, I use a mixed methods approach in this research, co-creating a collection of “narratives of usefulness” through cultural probes (Gaver 1999), sonic and video ethnography (Ferrarini 2020), and highlighting interactions between a local ageing community and prototypical digital devices. Central to the study is the role of empathy in product and service design and the notion of agency – one made of new affordances resulting from the interaction between humans and technologies and a returning agency that patients claim for themselves through self-care and engagement with self-monitoring devices. Through an expanded empathy framework for intergenerational inclusive design and codesign, this study aims to inform decision-making practices amongst design development teams to devise a technology that promotes self-care and independence. This project fits the IASDR2023 conference theme ‘Life-Changing Design’ for multiple reasons. First, with the advent of Covid-19 and the various lockdowns, older adults had to transition to mHealth and telecare (Hardey 2022; Moore et al. 2021; Spann and Stewart 2018; Lupton 2013; Vines et al. 2013). Hence, they had to learn how to use new devices, reshape their habits, and revisit ideas of privacy, independence, and ageing at home. Design can contribute to this changing context by creating new meanings, understandings, and practices. Secondly, together with changes in cellular and molecular tissues, ageing is a time of social, economic, and personal transitions. Co-creating, prototyping, and experimenting with the ageing population are foundational to exploring new ways of living, connecting communities, services, and products, and ultimately supporting individuals in their physical, mental, and socio-economic health. Finally, as a medical anthropologist exploring and engaging with design research, I consider meeting docs and postdocs from across the world and learning from them an invaluable academic experience and an opportunity to create a network for cooperating across countries and research centres. I am also eager to receive feedback from international experts, challenging ideas, and approaches to research in design while contributing with my anthropological perspective to devise future research strategies resulting from a creative, critical, and innovative educational process.
Keywords
Craft sustainability, participatory design, rural areas, multi-sited approach
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.816
Citation
Cardamone, E.(2023) Co-Creating Narratives of Usefulness, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.816
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
doctoralpapers
Included in
Co-Creating Narratives of Usefulness
Health and social care are moving increasingly towards digital platforms and greater knowledge of people’s lifestyles and habits through numbers (Sharon 2016, 2017; Sharon & Zandbergen 2017; Rooksby et al. 2014; Swan 2013). However, among ageing populations, digital devices often enter households just to be forgotten in cupboards due to their lack of “usefulness” (Kim et al. 2022; Spann and Stewart 2018). Research shows that people aged 65 and older tend to use fewer technologies and to do so less frequently than younger individuals (Smith 2014). How can we empathise with the lived experience of ageing populations, designing devices that respond to their hopes and fears? How can we translate older individuals’ embodied experiences of changing affects and physical sensations into useful digital device interventions? To address these questions, I use a mixed methods approach in this research, co-creating a collection of “narratives of usefulness” through cultural probes (Gaver 1999), sonic and video ethnography (Ferrarini 2020), and highlighting interactions between a local ageing community and prototypical digital devices. Central to the study is the role of empathy in product and service design and the notion of agency – one made of new affordances resulting from the interaction between humans and technologies and a returning agency that patients claim for themselves through self-care and engagement with self-monitoring devices. Through an expanded empathy framework for intergenerational inclusive design and codesign, this study aims to inform decision-making practices amongst design development teams to devise a technology that promotes self-care and independence. This project fits the IASDR2023 conference theme ‘Life-Changing Design’ for multiple reasons. First, with the advent of Covid-19 and the various lockdowns, older adults had to transition to mHealth and telecare (Hardey 2022; Moore et al. 2021; Spann and Stewart 2018; Lupton 2013; Vines et al. 2013). Hence, they had to learn how to use new devices, reshape their habits, and revisit ideas of privacy, independence, and ageing at home. Design can contribute to this changing context by creating new meanings, understandings, and practices. Secondly, together with changes in cellular and molecular tissues, ageing is a time of social, economic, and personal transitions. Co-creating, prototyping, and experimenting with the ageing population are foundational to exploring new ways of living, connecting communities, services, and products, and ultimately supporting individuals in their physical, mental, and socio-economic health. Finally, as a medical anthropologist exploring and engaging with design research, I consider meeting docs and postdocs from across the world and learning from them an invaluable academic experience and an opportunity to create a network for cooperating across countries and research centres. I am also eager to receive feedback from international experts, challenging ideas, and approaches to research in design while contributing with my anthropological perspective to devise future research strategies resulting from a creative, critical, and innovative educational process.