Socially facilitative robots for older adults to alleviate social isolation: A participatory design workshop approach in the US and Japan.

ABSTRACT: Social technology can improve the quality of older adults' social lives and mitigate negative mental and physical health outcomes associated with loneliness, but it should be designed collaboratively with this population. In this paper, we used participatory design (PD) methods to investigate how robots might be used as social facilitators for middle-aged and older adults (age 50+) in both the US and Japan. We conducted PD workshops in the US and Japan because both countries are concerned about the social isolation of these older adults due to their rapidly aging populations. We developed a novel approach to participatory design of future technologies that spends 2/3 of the PD session asking participants about their own life experiences as a foundation. This grounds the conversation in rea

SUBMITTER: Fraune MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9629871 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature