Where to, Roberta? Reflecting on the Role of Technology in Assisted Living

This paper reports on a study of a newly developed system for assisted living, which was implemented in the homes of seven elderly residents. Based on these findings we point out three fundamental issues that will enrich and improve the use of technology for assisted living in the home. Firstly, we argue that the technology must co-evolve with the elderly people as their needs change, thereby building on an existing familiarity with a given system or artifact. Secondly, we argue that there is a need to seriously take into account the qualities of the domestic setting in both design and deployment, and that social as well as clinical aspects must be considered when designing for assisted living. Thirdly, we argue that technology must be much easier to deploy, use and comprehend for the elder users. We then outline our future work on developing technology for assisted living.