Keywords

1 Introduction

The known contribution of the economic, social and health evolution, as well as the marked tendencies of the aging population [1, 2], contextualize the challenges that increased longevity entails and justify the emergence of programs and studies aimed at the promotion of active aging.

Focused on individual development, the concept of active aging was adopted by the World Health Organization in the late 1990s and privileges the continued social, economic, cultural, spiritual and civic participation of older adults within the community, as opposed to the mere ability to be physically active or to participate vigorously in the labor market [3].

In this sense, active aging appears not only as a challenge, but as an opportunity for society as a whole. It demands accountability and the participation of all, fighting against exclusion and discrimination and, according to Carrilho and Craveiro [4], in promoting solidarity between generations. Society has a responsibility to design different, safe and accessible social spaces, as well as to ensure and promote civic participation of the elderly. This promotion of social solidarity, voluntary life, and civic action is the collective’s responsibility as well as the individual’s duty and right. In turn, social support networks and the existence of meaningful relationships involve affective and solidary investment and come as decisive capital throughout life and aging [5].

The increase in life expectancy will lead to greater opportunities for social interaction between generations. This opens the way for the innovative creation of services and products that respond to the new needs, by integrating the elderly population within society and valuing their life experiences. Intergenerational practices emerge as beneficial experiences, not only for the elderly, but also for children and young people, manifested in the transmission of knowledge and greater social cohesion [6].

ViseuInterAgeStories (VIAS) Project, presented in this paper, is an example of an initiative whose goal is to promote intergenerational practices, in order “to develop a greater sense of belonging to a certain community and to support healthier and more inclusive lifestyles” [7: 2]. Although we have used intergenerational workshops, this paper focuses, specifically, on the results of older adults’ participation.

2 Technology and Intergenerational Initiatives

With this context in mind, increasing relevance is being given to intergenerational programs mediated by technology, as demographic trends go hand in hand with the rapid introduction of technologies in the most diverse sectors of our society.

One example of practices, involving older and younger participants, is the “Engaging Generations Program” [8], developed at a New England public university and inspired by the documentary “Cyber-Seniors”. This documentary highlighted a program developed in Canada, where high school students taught seniors how to use technology, and used a number of interesting moments, such as seniors chatting via video calls or making new friends online. Younger participants underlined how the program helped break stereotypes, not only about older people, but also about their ability to learn to use technology.

In the “Engaging Generations Program”, students worked closely with the elderly in order to teach them how to use technology. In return, students got to acquire some teaching skills. The analysis of the program showed that, in fact, there was an improvement in the attitude of students towards aging and an increasing interest by the elderly on technology. Results showed that the most effective intergenerational practices included “multiple meetings with the same pair as means to deepen friendships, in-person training for student leaders, student responsibility for scheduling, tailoring sessions for each participant, student documentation of meetings, and active involvement by community partners” [8: 1].

“Nobits - Nostalgia Bits” is a particularly interesting initiative as it bears conceptual similarities with the VIAS project. Nobits has developed and evaluated an online memory platform, by establishing a meeting place for different generations where users of different ages share and (re)create personal narratives and memories [9]. Given all the characteristics and peculiarities of the different audiences, the usability of the portal has been a major concern since the beginning of its conceptualization.

The portal’s assessment was divided into two phases and involved 220 participants: 44 older adults and 176 children. In the first phase, the usability of the site was evaluated in a sample of older adults’ participants. In the second phase, the effectiveness of online reminiscence was tested against a control condition in which the elderly shared their memories with children without the support of technology. The main dependent measures included self-esteem, loneliness and pleasure/involvement with activities (flow).

During the phases in which reminiscence and usability effectiveness were evaluated, usability showed positive results. However, the use of the platform did not significantly improve the effects of intergenerational reminiscence.

Another example is the “Grandparents and Grandchildren Keep in Touch” (GRANKIT), a European project co-funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Program under Grundtvig Multilateral initiatives, which seeks to bridge the gap between older people and the use of technology, by using intergenerational practices [10]. GRANKIT’s main goal is to promote active citizenship, regardless of age, and to explore the relationship of first and third generation reuniting seniors (grandparents) with their grandchildren through basic Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICT) education courses. This project involved participants from four countries: Cyprus, Germany, Greece and Romania.

As a result, older participants acquired basic ICT skills - accessing the electronic world for information, communication and lifelong learning opportunities - and found more opportunities to spend time profitably with their children and grandchildren. In turn, younger participants the opportunity to take on the teacher’s role and transfer their ICT knowledge to their grandparents while simultaneously getting to know them better.

Mix@Age [11] is a European Project conducted in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Scotland and Slovenia. The intergenerational workshops were developed in arts institutions, museums and community settings and combined arts and new media such as iPod movies, audio guides for a museum, art blogs, Tagtool performances, digital music and photography. Regardless of educational background, the main goal was to explore the potential of older people and to share their experiences and social skills, as well as to recognize and learn about young people’s skills and perceptions.

Although these activities focused mainly on art and on the development and use of creativity, participants have collaterally developed digital skills by using day-to-day technology, such as mobile phones and tablets, as an artistic tool.

We can see some successful intergenerational programs using technology as process-facilitating tools, but it is important to develop further studies that reflect on the roles of technology in promoting daily intergenerational moments in older people’s lives.

2.1 Participatory Design and Active Citizen Participation

Technological development towards ubiquitous and transparent devices increasingly immersed in our daily lives poses Human Computer Interaction (HCI) some important challenges, widely recognized and discussed in the literature [12, 13]. Boundaries between technology, human and the environment are rapidly reshaping and, in this complex and diverse context, HCI needs to explore new design methods.

Understanding users and user-centered designs has been the main goal since the beginning of HCI. However, the panoply of interaction design approaches calls upon different end-user roles, from simple testers or informants to full and engaged partners in the process design [14,15,16]. Nowadays, the complex interaction design context clearly calls for the active participation of end users throughout the design process. Contemporary HCI must acknowledge that technology is now embedded and used in our daily lives, and, in this context, design activities in the laboratory and in controlled situations are moving into the wild, valuing in-situ development and engagement in significant contexts with the end-users, seeking to understand new technology interventions in everyday living [17].

Participatory Design approaches explicitly engage end-users in the design process, and should be centered on mutual learning, fostering interaction practices for users and developers to explore possible and useful technological solutions. Mutual learning is supported by embedding the design process in participants’ practices, allowing them to explore and experience how emerging designs can affect their lives, which gives them the conditions to construct their own meanings about technology [18].

Participatory Designs value democratic practices as well as the idea of equal partnership between designers and users [19]. More recently, several authors have argued about the need for rethinking how we conduct Participatory Design in order to fulfill democratic issues. They advocate more attention to the values involved in Participatory Design projects [20]. Focusing on participants’ values could be the key to support them through the discovery of meaningful alternatives while they explicitly feel, their influence over the design process, leading to products shaped to fulfill their visions and values [8]. Several methods and techniques, such as workshops, design games, or paper mockups, can help the participants see how emerging designs affect their lives, while making the development of better digital products more noticeable.

When it comes to older adults there is a widespread tendency to underestimate their abilities. This trend widens when dealing with technology. Undoubtedly older adults experience more accessibility challenges in using technologies than younger people, in consequence of their aging process, health constraints and digital exclusion [21]. It is also true that technology is of great help to the elderly population with increasingly sophisticated assistive, adaptive and rehabilitative devices.

However, the focus on health issues, whether physical or cognitive decline, leads to an extremely reductive approach to technology and elderly relationships. Older adults are a highly diverse demographic, and in HCI field one must consider not only their assistive needs, but also the characteristics of their life stage, including the generational perspectives about their social context and the experiences lived while facing technologies, seizing what they can give back to society and their communities.

Societal challenges related to health, demographic change and wellbeing encourage real Participatory Design approaches with older adults. For older adults to find value in digital technologies they need to be designed in ways that support the full diversity of their life experiences, bodies, and skill sets [22]. In this way, active participation and the centrality of mutual learning are unavoidable ingredients for the design process.

3 Aims

VIAS’ main goal is to develop a mobile application that allows both children and the elderly to create stories about the city of Viseu while walking and interacting with historical, cultural, and natural places. Through this process, we intend to add multimedia layers of georeferenced stories developing a greater sense of belonging to a certain community and supporting healthier and more inclusive lifestyles for children and older adults.

In this paper, we present and discuss the importance of elderly participation in the design process and their real contribution to the app development. We also present and discuss the possible impacts that this participation may have on the elderly, namely in the appropriation on the use of technologies and in the value and importance of their role in the process, affecting their self-esteem and fulfillment.

4 Methodology

VIAS | ViseuInterAgeStories project follows a Participatory Design approach. For over a year we have invited a group of children and older adults to participate in exploratory workshops destined to develop and co-design a collaborative intergenerational app that helps to create stories about significant locals of their city (Viseu). Through these activities, urban spaces become “places”, while participants’ reminiscences, meanings and re (meanings) are deposited in multimedia formats across the urban space.

We ran a total of six intergenerational workshops, counting with the participation of children, older adults, facilitators and designers. Elder participants were recruited in the Senior University of Viseu, which means they are active older adults, and children through professional connections, namely family of workers from the IPV and word-of-mouth.

The workshops took place in a significant context, some of them touring around the Viseu city and others within a specific area. We valued intragenerational dialogues, while participants explored a set of technological devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, combined with bags filled with a wide variety of art craft materials used to represent their ideas.

In the workshops, we mobilized several methods to collect data: participant observation; a questionnaire about the use of digital devices in participants’ daily routines and about their digital skills; an open-ended questionnaire about what participants learned and taught to the other generation during the activity; focus-group.

4.1 Previous Workshops. Participants and Procedure

To contextualize the process, we give a short overview of the workshops developed for over half a year. For the purposes of this paper, we will focus our analysis on the last three activities, exploring the perspective of the older participants. Table 1 summarizes, for each workshop, the participants, the main goals and a short description of the activities.

Table 1. Short description preliminary workshops: Participants (Children-C and Older Adults-OA); Aims and procedures.
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Even though, it was difficult to count on the availability of all older adults and children to spend one morning attending each workshop, it was still possible to create dynamics of mutual recognition and collaboration amongst participants.

The first three workshops contributed to explore intergenerational dynamics, having the children and older adults’ stories and reminiscences about the city’s heritage sites. These workshops were also very helpful in exploring how technology is mobilized and used in intergenerational contexts. They also helped to situate participants within the scope of the project and its overall goals. The procedures and results of these workshops are described elsewhere [23, 24].

4.2 Designing Paper Mockups. Participants and Procedure

In Workshops 4 and 5 children and older adults have developed paper mockups, proposing the app design. This was the only activity where they didn’t work in intergenerational interaction. We adopted this approach, having the differences between each generation in mind, in what concerns drawing and writing practices. In this way, both children and older adults would be more comfortable and confident expressing their ideas to their peers. Table 2 presents a summary of the participants and aims and procedures of this activity.

Table 2. Short description of the mockup design workshop: Participants (Children-C and Older Adults-OA); Aims and procedures.
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Participants were questioned about the use of technological devices in their daily routines. All participants tend to use their mobile phones to make phone calls, most of them also use this device to take and view photos (5) and receive and send emails (4). The computer is mostly used to search for specific information (5), to receive and send emails (4), to watch videos (4), to use maps (4) and to search for common information, such as restaurants, cinemas or pharmacies (4). Only one of the six participants said he felt able to use technology for everything he needed, while others said they felt more or less capable. Regarding what they would like to learn to do with technology, two participants mentioned making videos and other uses for the computer.

The design activity with the older adults lasted 2 h. We started with a short “ice breaker” activity, about the quality of life in Viseu city. Then, older adults were invited to explore the collaborative stories created by them and the children in the previous Workshops. In order to project and foster participant’s engagement, we edited place marks with the stories on Google Earth.

We organized the participants in groups and challenged them to design the app. Three of the male participants decided to work individually and the other three participants drew the mockup in a group. They used a bag of stuff with art crafts, city images and maps, and models of the screen mobile phone to create their proposals. Each group presented and discussed their work with the other participants and with the research team. In the end, they answered two questionnaires. The first about technologies in their daily routines and the second about what each older adult learned in the activity, how much they enjoyed it, and if they were satisfied with his/her proposals. Figure 1 presents some moments of this session.

Fig. 1.
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Designing paper mockups.

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4.3 Evaluating the Prototype. Participants and Procedure

The main goal of Workshop 6 was the evaluation of the prototype, developed according to the results obtained in previous workshops. Table 3 provides an overview of this activity.

Table 3. Short description of the evaluation workshop: Participants (Children-C and Older Adults-OA); Aims and procedures.
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Considering the use of ICTs, the characterization of the participants reveals that all older adults use their mobile phones to receive and send emails as well as to make calls and most to take (5) and view photographs (5). Everyone uses their computer to receive and send emails, use social networks, watch videos, and view photos. Most also use their computers to use maps (5), search for common information such as restaurants, movie theaters or pharmacies (5) and to listen to music (4). Asked if they felt able to use the technologies to do everything they needed, four of the participants answered, “more or less capable”, one answered feeling “capable” and the other “not capable”. They shared that they would like to learn how to install and play games, use social networks, make video edits, solve phone technical issues, and improve their computer usage.

The workshop lasted 2 h. It was held shortly after Christmas and began with an “icebreaker” where children and seniors shared what they enjoyed most about Christmas. Next, children and older adults briefly explored the prototype, organized in intergenerational groups, before walking in the city, using the prototype to post memories and stories about Christmas time in places of the historical center of the city. In the end children and older adults answered the questionnaire about technologies in their daily routines and a questionnaire about the app usability issues. They also pointed out what they have learned and taught in this activity, and how much they enjoyed it. Figure 2 represents some of the moments of workshop 6.

Fig. 2.
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Evaluating the app during the workshop 6.

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4.4 Focus Group. Participants and Procedure

Given the profile of older participants, we felt the need to understand better how they assess the app, by mobilizing another form of data collection, which would allow for deeper insight than the questionnaire survey. So we ran a focus group in another session with the older participants. The focus group lasted for about one hour and a half. Table 4 presents a summary of this session.

Table 4. Short description of the Focus Group to evaluate the process: Participants (Older Adults-OA); Aims and procedures.
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In a focus group approach, we gave the opportunity to the older adults to express and discuss their feelings about the project by organizing the debate around the following topics: In what ways older adults perceived their role in the whole project, and if they recognized their contributions in the app. If they thought, they could use the app in a different context.

5 Results

5.1 App Layout Proposals and Experience Evaluation of Workshop 5

As described in topic Sect. 4.2, participants presented four proposals for the app (see Fig. 3). All chose to value and integrate the stories of the places in Viseu. In the first proposal the user would choose between the past or the present; in the second and third the application would present suggestions of nearest places and; in the latter, the places would appear organized by areas such as nature, sport, tourism, etc.

Fig. 3.
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Older adults’ proposals

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The next step in the first proposal would be the emergence of more local information accompanied by images. After a minute, the user was asked if he would like to tell his story about the place, with a yes/no button answer option. Choosing “yes” would open the options “audio”, “photo” or “video”, and before publishing you would be asked if you would like to review it. This option may reveal that this participant already has some digital skills, suggesting usability concerns.

For the next two proposals, users would choose to interact with the app by choosing to be able to hear local stories, take photos, or choose other places nearby.

In suggestion four, after choosing the area, the map with the geolocation of places of interest would appear, which, according to the choice, would present a gallery of images, description of the place, stories already shared by other users and link to similar themes.

Thus, one of the suggestions that result from these proposals is the idea of the app presenting information about the reference places of the city of Viseu. With this in view, it was decided to integrate a new option in the app, that would give access to the history of Viseu, sites within a perimeter close to the georeferenced position of the user and not just the stories deposited by the VIAS community.

On the other hand, the structuring of the information in categories was contemplated, since to upload a story the author must add one or more tags that allow to triggering filters to search stories and information. A rigid information categorization framework was not integrated, as the app was not designed as a tourism app. Figure 4 presents the results of the prototypical interface developed after the five workshops described.

Fig. 4.
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Examples of the prototype interface. (Color figure online)

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When the user loads the app he can see his actual position (the red point on the first screenshot). Clicking in the binoculars icon, you’ll be given access to a second mosaic screenshot where each image gives access to textual information about the cultural or natural heritage near that specific local. When a user logs in, he can see nearby stories added by other users, (stars in the map of the third screenshot). He can also add a georeferenced story about the place, by clicking in the star at the bottom of the screen. He can add text, image, audio and tags to create a story (fourth screenshot). If he adds another author to the same story and if the second author is from a different generation, that story will be represented with a golden star, valuing intergenerational collaboration.

After performing the task, the participants answered a questionnaire directly related to the activity. Regarding the question about what they have learned, the seniors said that they gained more knowledge about the city of Viseu, about the use of technology and about the development of applications, as well as the improvement of group work skills and relationship with colleagues.

When asked if they were satisfied with the app project, everyone answered “yes”, arguing it was a great experience to learn and develop brain fitness, as well as to start feeling self-utility. One of the participants shared he thought that the project would have a bright future.

5.2 App Usability Evaluation

The usability evaluation of the app, performed in workshop 6, revealed ambiguous results, suggesting that there is room for improvement in this area (see Fig. 5).

Fig. 5.
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Usability evaluation

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When asked if they would like to use the application frequently, three of the six participants answered that they totally agree, two partially agreed and only one that neither agrees nor disagreed.

Regarding the app’s complexity perception by the users, the answers are not unanimous and reveal some need to review usability issues. Two of the participants reported partially disagreeing, two neither agreeing or disagreeing, one strongly disagreeing and the other strongly agreeing.

In addition, when asked if it was easy to use, three participants revealed that they partially agreed, one that he totally disagreed, one that he partially disagreed, and the other participant neither agreed nor disagreed. Regarding whether they would need the support of a coach, two of the seniors said they don’t agree or disagree, two partially agreed, one fully agreed, and the last participant replied that it did not apply. Four of the seniors reported they partially agreed that the app’s features were easy to use, one said that he strongly disagreed, and one that neither agreed nor disagreed.

When asked if they thought other users would have it easy to learn how to use the app, four participants reported partially agreeing, one totally disagreeing and the other neither agreeing nor disagreeing. On trusting the application, two seniors strongly disagreed feeling it was trustworthy, two partially agreed, one partially disagreed and one neither agreed or not. The last question was whether they needed to learn a lot before they could use APP, two seniors said “yes”, completely agreeing, two partially agreed, one partially disagreed and only one totally disagreed.

After the session, all participants were asked about what they thought of the intergenerational moment. Regarding what they thought the younger ones had taught them during the activity, the older participants stressed the ease with which they used their mobile phone, the friendliness, respect, responsibility and joy of young people, the importance of being creative and one of the seniors even said that “in interacting with these young people, we feel a bit like them.”

When asked about what they thought the younger generation learned from them, the seniors said that the young people were able to learn about the city of Viseu that existed in other times and to hear stories about places that no longer existed today. In addition, it was said that the youngsters learned the importance of family respect, and that, older people also knew how to live and understand them.

Regarding what they liked most about the activity, the opinions are unanimous in emphasizing the contact with young people, remembering the places and being able to tell the stories placed in the city.

The seniors left as suggestions the possibilities of extending the activity to more people, allowing more time to do it and creating a mobile application that covers more areas in Viseu.

5.3 Focus Group Results

When asked about the main difficulties while using the app, participants stated their general lack of ability to use technologies and not this particular app, “as it would always indicate where to click”. “I have had the phone for a few years, but I’m still not sure what an application is”, “I personally felt little interest, I saw no use for my life”. They recognize the role of the youngest in exploring the app. “Without the support of the youngest, it would be difficult to do the job”.

About what did they like the most about the app and what did they dislike the most about the app, the seniors did not express sound opinions, but left as a suggestion for improving the creation of a support tutorial. “In the future we should have an explanatory session before going to the field”, “the existence of an explanation (tutorial), or an explanatory video to support the use of the app”. These tutorials would help people using the app, as they feel that, from one usage to another, “you forget about features and operations”.

When asked if they think that it is possible for other kids and adults to use the app, they asked objective questions about the features of the app envisioning its exploration. “Will the app only work in the Viseu center? It will be interesting to have some places outside this area that may also be important”. “We must wait until we have the app on our mobile phone, is it possible to use it with our grandchildren? But we will need a tutorial”. Questions as “how is intergenerationality reflected in the app functionalities?”, “how will the app be disseminated”, “the person who posts can delete that content”, “the contents are supervised?”, unveils the appropriation that older adults make of the app.

Finally, when asked how they perceived their role in the Project, they stated that, although at an early stage they only did it as a favor, they enjoyed it and wished they were able to follow up. “At first, I participated just to do the favor, but then I liked it and wanted to continue. We learned a lot”. They also stressed the interaction with the younger ones, referring to the moments of learning and how they felt valued by them. “I enjoyed interacting with the younger ones, I felt valued”.

6 Conclusions

VIAS | ViseuInterAgeStories aims to develop an app that fosters collaboration between youngsters and the elderly by creating and sharing stories about the cultural and natural heritage of their city, (re)creating some of the places’ appropriations and meanings, while adding a multimedia layer to the living city. The project mobilized a Participatory Design approach, working with children and older adults as a path to explore intergenerational dynamics and practices, as well as to co-design the app.

In this paper we have presented and discussed the results of the design and of the evaluation workshops, emphasizing the meaning of contributions by older participants.

We have followed the idea of embedding the design process with the participants’ practices, by exploring in-situ the way how children and older adults interact to create collaborative multimedia stories, while touring in the urban space as they use mobile phones. For over a year, exploratory workshops guided the context and the conditions for the participants to develop paper mockups, with significant contributions, and to evaluate a prototype of the app.

Results show how older adults value the history of the city. Faced with this fact, we decided to integrate georeferenced historical information into the app. Another issue pointed out by older adults was the importance of categorizations. In fact, one can say elderly users have important and significant opinions about what should be the app’s requisites. Although they assume the difficulties faced while confronting technology, they have been constructing their own meanings as much as possible, and they want to do it by using technology.

The intergenerational experience as well as the co-design process both showed implications for older adults’ self-esteem and fulfillment, and gave value to their role as productive and important members of the community.