The Periodic Table dictates that Self, the user, is the one and only starting point for technology-supported aging solutions. Tenets then, act as guide rails to remind and assure relevance and intent is always in the best interest of Self and that solutions are designed with these fundamental principles in place.
The Tenets are the foundation for a relationship of trust between the users and solutions required for successful adoption and outcomes. They become even more important in the face of still-early, disruptive technologies, such as artificial or augmented intelligence. While they hold great promise for improved quality of life and help in addressing important global challenges, these new technologies can unintentionally be counter to the best interest of Self if not carefully considered against Tenets.
For example, Smart Homes and Internet of Things are frequently called out as solutions for aging individuals. But consider for a moment how they might be applied. Are they designed for the direct benefit of the person aging-in-place at home, or for the benefit of the paid or unpaid caregiver concerned with the status of that person?
“Uninvited Guests” – a video produced by design firm Superflux for ThingTank – plays witness to loving children who have supplied their widowed father with technologies to improve his health including app-connected fork, walking cane, and bed sensor. The hilarious and realistic outcome has dad outsmarting the smart objects to continue living on his own terms. All without his well-intentioned children ever knowing.
The goal of many solutions is to effect behavior change or to be a proxy for people or organizations with the best interest of Self in mind. The children in the Uninvited Guests scenario likely believed that in the absence of their mother who might have seen to healthy meals and physical activity for dad, technology could function as a virtual – and “cool” – stand-in. Yet the video speaks volumes to why Tenets are necessary building blocks that ensure the user of the cool technology himself, finds it meaningful. It also acts as a great reminder that regardless of how many of the elements represented in Tenets are honored in design of a technology or tech-enabled service, if others are missed, the adoption challenge will prevail.
Dr Clara Berridge’s Research Article, “Breathing Room in Monitored Space: The Impact of Passive Monitoring Technology on Privacy in Independent Living” is another good example. It explores the precarious nature of boundaries between privacy and permission that impact uptake and reliance on ambient technology. While constrained to passive monitoring technologies, the research identifies opportunities for design and practice that allows individuals to make their own determinations as to privacy and control of how technology is applied through informed consent.
Combined, all the Tenet elements serve to achieve a much more elusive goal: the preservation of dignity for Self. Miriam-Webster defines dignity as “the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed”. Objectively incorporating this most fundamental sense of self in a technological context can be a challenge — not because those designing solutions do not understand its importance — but because they tend to evaluate it solely from the scientific perspective. Dignity must be contextualized and tested against an individual’s sense of independence and enhancement of quality of life at the same time making it possible for other stakeholders – family, friends and care givers – to support dignity through an envisioned technology or tech-enabled service. For example, a solution may enhance a person’s ability to live independently by reducing the need for constant “check-ins” by family and care workers. The UK Department of Health once noted that technology supported care is “as much about the philosophy of dignity and independence as it is about equipment and services”. We couldn’t agree more.
In use of the Periodic Table for design of technology and tech-enabled services, Tenets become the promise to the target user, the Self, that the solution is truly for them, not simply about them. Constant testing of any solution against each of the elements in the Tenets category should prove valuable in aligning and defining the right solution for the right reason.
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Please also read:
Part 1: Building a common language: why we need a periodic table for technology-supported ageing.
Part 2: Building a common language for technology-supported ageing: why we started with “Self”