TRUST, AFFECTION, AND AUTONOMY: DESIGNING JOYFUL AND INCLUSIVE VR/AR, AI AND ROBOTIC COMPANIONS FOR OLDER ADULTS

Technology for older adults is focused on rehabilitative and monitoring technologies and often fails to address their needs and desires. The trope of the technologically illiterate Older Adult is ingrained in our public consciousness, yet this stereotype may not be truly inherent to age and aging. We interviewed 20 older adults over age 65 about their experiences with technology during tech-support hours offered at a local senior center. Excluded from the idea of the target user of technologies for joyful experiences, older adults come to associate technology with frustration, surveillance, and infantilization. Confusing interactions and social stigma against age damages their self-confidence and autonomy. This design bias may itself be responsible for our associations with age and technical competence, as our neglect of play and joy throughout the life course creates technical systems for adulthood that are devoid of engagement and personal relevance.

This dissertation is structured as a series of four research studies, each exploring a shared thematic goal: creating accessible and joyful technologies for older adults. The rich ethnographic data presented throughout these studies is drawn from over 600 hours of volunteer engagement, supporting older adults with their technology-related challenges over three years in the West Lafayette and Lafayette, Indiana area. Altogether, these studies build a narrative arc that begins with a critical examination of how older adults are excluded from technology design through the persistent cultural trope of techno-ageism. The first study interrogates the structural and social mechanisms that stigmatize aging populations as technologically inept, ultimately contributing to their marginalization in both research and product development, which perpetuates the cycle of exclusion of aging populations. The second and third studies dive deeper into this phenomenon by focusing on emerging AI-powered robotic technologies. Through participatory research and qualitative analysis, these studies explore the nuanced emotional and ethical dimensions of older adults’ interactions with socially responsive machines, offering insights into how design practices can reinforce or disrupt ageist assumptions. The final study introduces an Augmented Reality (AR) digital photo display system (Patented, provisional, US App. No.: 63/691,048) designed to support older adults in feeling remembered and emotionally connected to their loved ones. By engaging ten participants in a participatory research framework, this study offers insights into how small, thoughtful interventions, such as receiving personalized, accessible AR digital postcards, can create moments of joy and belonging, affirming the role of older adults as valued participants in a digital world.