Independence and interaction: Understanding seniors' privacy and awareness needs for aging in place

Jeremy Birnholtz*, McKenzie Jones-Rounds

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

46 Scopus citations

Abstract

As America's baby boom population gets older, aging in place - the idea that seniors can remain independent in a comfortable home environment while being monitored and receiving care from family and caregivers living elsewhere - has received significant attention. Fostering a sense of independence while simultaneously enabling monitoring and frequent interaction can seem paradoxical, however. This raises questions of how we can design technologies that help seniors retain their independence and a sense of comfort, while still interacting with and being monitored regularly by others. We present results from an interview study of 30 seniors, caregivers and relatives in which we sought to understand how they managed their interactions, availability, privacy and independence. Results suggest that they rely on attributes of the physical environment, temporal structures such as routine conversations and activities, and technological mediation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI 2010 - The 28th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Conference Proceedings
Pages143-152
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Event28th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2010 - Atlanta, GA, United States
Duration: Apr 10 2010Apr 15 2010

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Volume1

Other

Other28th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAtlanta, GA
Period4/10/104/15/10

Keywords

  • aging in place
  • awareness
  • home
  • privacy
  • seniors

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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