The role of co-design in wearable adoption for mobility study

This paper describes on-going work in the EPSRC funded BESiDE project which aim to inform the design of better, more enabling built care environments by utilising wearable location based and accelerometer technologies to gather information regarding the way people engage with spaces.
In this conference paper we introduce two co-design workshops with older adults, who have interest and insight into care home life, to identify initial design requirements for physical activity wearables that meet their specific needs and capabilities. Working with 6 participants over 2 workshops including a 5 days home trial, the findings provided design directions and requirement for the next phase of the design of our physical activity wearables. Our findings suggest that successful wearables should prioritise comfort, utilize familiar materials and facilitate independent use, in particular paying attention to issues such as fastening, tactility and elasticity of materials.

This paper documents methodology and findings of a pilot study we conducted prior to engaging with care home residents. This is of value to human factors specialist or ergonomists who might be in the area of developing wearable technology for older people.