Although older adults are motivated to engage in physical activity, their routines are often disrupted by a multitude of interrelated barriers, which are not addressed by current physical activity promoting technologies. To explore how technology might be better designed to promote physical activity in older adults living alone, we developed 15 design concepts envisioning digital and non-digital tools for supporting older adults in maintaining physical activity routines and then interviewed 15 participants on their preferences and reactions to the concepts. In this poster, we share preliminary findings on our participants’ reactions to the designs. While generally positive towards all concepts, participants identified most with a design aimed at providing alternative exercises in response to a health-related routine disruption and least with two concepts, which both involved sharing activity logs with others. As social accountability is a common feature of commercial tools, our findings help shed light on why existing physical activity promoting technologies have been critiqued by older adults as poorly aligned with their needs, further reinforcing calls for considering their unique needs for physical activity support.

Older adults, especially those living alone, are less likely to meet recommended physical activity levels than other age groups. However, current physical activity promoting technologies have seen low uptake among older adults, likely due to poor attention to their unique needs. To understand the perspectives of older adults living alone towards physical activity, including their motivations for and the challenges encountered in maintaining routines, we conducted a qualitative study with 17 participants. Through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and diaries, we reveal their diverse motivations for engaging in physical activity while also detailing how their intentions and routines are habitually disrupted by multidimensional and interrelated barriers, including changing personal and environmental circumstances, lack of stimulus to maintaining motivation, and limited access to resources. We suggest future PA promoting technologies to leverage social interaction to develop commitments and employ a holistic design approach to addressing the interplay between the barriers.

The older population, especially those living alone, is less likely to meet recommended physical activity levels than other age groups and deserves more attention in this era of population ageing. However, existing technologies for supporting physical activity have been generally poorly aligned with the needs of older adults. Reasons for such problem are manifold, including the lack of involving older adults in design and evaluation, prevalent technology-driven perspectives, and the complexity of designing behavior change technology. Therefore, this research project aims to investigate how to better design behavior change technology to support the needs of older adults living alone for physical activity, which will address four main aspects: meeting user needs, investigating the rationale of technology design, improving co-design practice, and evaluating designed technology. To this end, this project will employ a human-centered iterative design methodology and actively involve the target group in the design process to let their voices heard and incorporated in design. This research will not only contribute to a deeper understanding towards the needs and preferences of this insufficiently studied group, but also identify implications for improving co-design practices as well as design opportunities for future behavior change technology.