Personal Narratives in Technology Design: The Value of Sharing Older Adults’ Stories in the Design of Social Robots
Name
frobt-08-716581.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.22 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
be1b934c4c568723a422c74be179c14d
Author(s)
Ostrowski, Anastasia K
Harrington, Christina N
Breazeal, Cynthia
Park, Hae Won
Date Issued
2021
Journal
Frontiers in Robotics and AI
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Citation
Ostrowski, Anastasia K, Harrington, Christina N, Breazeal, Cynthia and Park, Hae Won. 2021. "Personal Narratives in Technology Design: The Value of Sharing Older Adults’ Stories in the Design of Social Robots." Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 8.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The storytelling lens in human-computer interaction has primarily focused on personas, design fiction, and other stories crafted by designers, yet informal personal narratives from everyday people have not been considered meaningful data, such as storytelling from older adults. Storytelling may provide a clear path to conceptualize how technologies such as social robots can support the lives of older or disabled individuals. To explore this, we engaged 28 older adults in a year-long co-design process, examining informal stories told by older adults as a means of generating and expressing technology ideas and needs. This paper presents an analysis of participants’ stories around their prior experience with technology, stories shaped by social context, and speculative scenarios for the future of social robots. From this analysis, we present suggestions for social robot design, considerations of older adults’ values around technology design, and promotion of participant stories as sources for design knowledge and shifting perspectives of older adults and technology.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
10.3389/frobt.2021.716581
