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Top1. Introduction
The global population of people aged 60 years and older is growing rapidly; it is estimated that the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years of age will reach 22% by 2050 (WHO, 2014). The aging population is creating serious healthcare provision challenges given that healthcare expenditure typically increases with age and is predicted to account for an ever increasing proportion of healthcare budgets in the future; adults aged 85 and over consume three times as much healthcare per person as those aged 65-74, and twice as much as those aged 75-84 (Alemayehu and Warner, 2004).
Ongoing advances in mobile technologies are increasing the scope for supporting the delivery of healthcare to older adults within their homes via mobile assistive healthcare technologies. Unfortunately, however, age-related physical and sensory impairments – many of which change or degenerate over time – are common amongst older adults and present a number of design and ethical challenges in terms of the successful and effective development of such technologies. In addition to these challenges, there are significant barriers for the use of technology by older adults, including counter-intuitive interfaces and the fact that such technologies are not typically specifically designed to meet older adults’ needs, wants and capabilities (e.g., Leonardi et al., 2008).
An estimated 40% of information systems projects do not ultimately meet user requirements, and more than 60% of projects go over their estimated budgets due to inadequate user needs analysis; one of the main factors underpinning poor systems development is lack of practical participatory, user-centred design (UCD) knowledge and application within development teams (Johnson et al., 2005). The involvement of stakeholders in software development processes has long been advocated in recognition of the proven higher levels of user acceptance of the resulting technology (e.g., De Rouck et al., 2008; Lacey and MacNamara, 2000). Designers adopting the participatory user-centred philosophy recognise that they are not simply designing for themselves (to their own preferences) or for people with similar abilities and needs, but are instead designing for individuals who are often very different in terms of needs, capabilities, and attitudes (Cheverst et al., 2006). While it could be argued that conventional participatory UCD methods are not always entirely appropriate when designing for a large diversity of users (Stojmenova et al., 2012), or are challenging to apply when engaging individuals with impairments (Connelly et al., 2006), it is nevertheless imperative (to achieve maximal utility, usability, and acceptance) that users’ needs, capabilities and wants are given extensive attention when designing technologies for their use.