VIAS | Viseu InterAge Stories: Participatory Intergerational Design of an App to Promote Social Inclusion and Healthy Lifestyles
Conference:
ECER 2017
Format:
Poster

Session Information

06 SES 04.5 PS, General Poster Session

General Poster Session

Time:
2017-08-23
12:00-13:30
Room:
W4.corridor (Poster Area)
Chair:

Contribution

The ubiquity and transparency of technology provides new ways of experiencing the urban space. These technologies support the development of smart cities, and sensor networks and ubiquitous computing technologies can ensure a better management of infrastructures and utilities. However, cities become smarter when they take full advantage of its its human potential creating new dynamics of wealth and social inclusion (Oliveira & Campolargo, 2015). In face of the constant technological progress and a rapidly aging society, fostering the quality of life, communicative action and reducing social isolation have become relevant, particularly for the elderly who are exposed to greater vulnerability because of biopsychosocial changes (Xie, 2008; Bengtson, Gans, Putney, & Silverstein, 2009; Brossoie, 2009; Ferreira, Torres, Mealha, & Veloso, 2014; Pfeil, Zaphiris, & Wilson, 2009; Saxon, Etten, & Perkin, 2015).

A significant contribution to the quality of life in an advanced age is participation in community activities that help the elderly to feel useful and recognized (Araújo, & Melo, 2011). Intergenerational activities enhance solidarity and social cohesion for young and old by creating space and time for sharing and transforming culture and cultural experiences (Cortellesi & Kernan, 2016). Intergenerational reminiscence, sharing autobiographical memories between generations, is not only potentially beneficial to elderly psychosocial wellbeing, but it also a way to transmit the heritage of folk traditions, triggering the interest of younger generations about their roots (Gaggioli et al., 2014). These experiences are viewed as important since they facilitate learning that might otherwise be diminished due to changing family structures, migration, technological changes and growing age segregation (TOY, 2013). These exchanges can, specifically, enrich the experience and meaning of places, adding layers and facets that are multi-generational to the lived cities.

Although digital technologies are accused of excluding and dividing generations, being referred as one of the main causes of the huge gap between youth and elderly culture (Khoo, Cheok, Nguyen, & Pan, 2008), technology can also be the solution to bring generations together. The combination of digital technologies and reminiscences can be a meeting point for different generations, where they can share, re-elaborate, and read memories and meanings (Morgantiet al., 2016). Technology can also support reminiscing activity by eliciting memories, supporting the creation of representations or the collection of artifacts and sharing them with others, in multimedia, geo-referenced ways.

Having intergenerational activities connected to the city and to heritage also contributes to identifying benefits and challenges of synergistic efforts to create livable cities for all ages (van Vliet, 2011). It is through human activities that urban spaces become "places". How people experience and conceptualize "place" is formed by the scope and range of what happens in that space and those that inhabit it (Wouters, Claes, & Moere, 2015).

VIAS | Viseu InterAge Stories aims to promote interaction between different generations, deepening the sense of belonging to the city and the practice of outdoor activities thru a collaborative app. Using technologies of everyday life, such as "smartphones" and "tablets", and having the city of Viseu as the setting, the project intends to foster the development of intergenerational outdoor activities. The application will include a set of "placemarks" - city places with cultural and natural heritage value. Based on this mapping, the habitants will be invited to create and share stories about their city, collaboratively, while touring and interacting with the various places. The several stories will integrate memories and reminiscences of the elderly, meanings of the present and future expectations of children and youth concerning the same sites. Younger and elder will have the opportunity to walk from place to place making their own stories, uploading new content to the placemarks.

Method

The project aims at a proof of concept by developing the app. It is, therefore, the process and the potential benefits that are of most interest. The development of the conceptual model and of the interface design will follow a participatory methodology (Muller, & Druin, 2011). In this sense, several intergenerational workshops with children, youth and the elderly will be developed in order to (co)design the application prototype. For the evaluation of the app and its use, a mixed methods design, like the one proposed to investigate the success of Pokémon Go (Clark & Clark, 2016) is suited to understand the complex web of interactions. The project will follow a methodology involving ethnographic and action research studies, including workshops with local participants of different generations, focusing the exploration of intergenerational activities based on the mapping of the points of interest and based on the associated physical activity. The assessment of the evaluation of the impact will also use a quasi-experimental approach, by the administration of welfare, self-esteem, social integration and physical activities scales (pre and post-test).

Expected Outcomes

The project was submitted in December 2016 to start in March 2017. By August, we expect to report on the design of intergenerational activities through workshops. The workshops will be focused on developing procedures for creation and/or upload of content by future users on the application, and designing the users' experience (game dynamics and interaction) for the application through intergenerational participatory design. This includes the collection of artefacts encapsulating memories (letters, newspapers, photographs) connected to the placemarks and the creation of graphic and audio material representing meaning and experiences of the different placemarks for different generations. We intend to evaluate the benefits of participation in intergenerational participatory design for the different generations through focus group sessions with each group for evaluation of the process of intergenerational participatory design and scales of well-being, self-esteem and social integration to the participants.

References

Araújo, L. & Melo, S. (2011). Relacione-se com outros. In O. Ribeiro & C. Paúl (Coords.), Manual de Envelhecimento Ativo (pp. 141-170). Lisboa: Lidel. Bengtson, V. L., Gans, D., Putney, N., & Silverstein, M. (2009). Handbook of Theories of Aging. NY: Springer. Brossoie, N. (2009). Social Gerontology. In R. Robnett & W. Chop (Eds.), Gerontology for the Health Care Professional (2 ed., pp. 19-52). Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett. Clark, A. & Clark, M. (2016). Pokemon Go and Research: Qualitative, Mixed Methods Research, and the Supercomplexity of Interventions. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. J-D, 1-3. Cortellesi, G., & Kernan, M. (2016). Together Old and Young: How Informal Contact between Young Children and Older People Can Lead to Intergenerational Solidarity. Studia Paedagogica, 21(2), 101-116. Ferreira, S., Torres, A., Mealha, Ó., & Veloso, A. (2014). Training effects on older people in Information and Communication Technologies considering psychosocial variables. Educational Gerontology. Gaggioli, A., et al. (2014). Intergenerational group reminiscence: a potentially effective intervention to enhance elderly psychosocial wellbeing and to improve children?s perception of aging. Educational Gerontology, 40, 486-498. Khoo, E., Cheok, A., Nguyen, & Pan, Z. (2008). Age invaders: social and physical inter-generational mixed reality family entertainment. Virtual Reality, 12, 3-16. Morganti, L., et al. (2016). How can technology help intergenerational reminiscence? A pilot study. International Journal of Web Based Communities, 12(1), 35. Muller, M. J., & Druin, A. (2011). Participatory Design: The third space in HCI. In J. Jacko (Ed.) The HumanComputer Interaction Handbook (pp. 273-291). NY: Taylor & Francis. Oliveira, A., Campolargo, M. (2015). From Smart Cities to Human Smart Cities, 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Pfeil, U., Zaphiris, P., & Wilson, S. (2009). Online social support for older people: characteristics and dynamics of social support. Workshop. Vienna. Saxon, S., Etten, M., & Perkin, E. (2015). Physical change & Aging - A guide for the helping professions. NY: Springer. TOY. (2013). Intergenerational Learning Involving Young Children and Older People. Leiden: TOY. van Vliet, W. (2011). Intergenerational Cities: A Framework for Policies and Programs. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 9(4), 348-365. WHO - World Health Organization (2002). Active ageing: A policy framework. Geneva: WHO. Wouters, N., Claes, S., Moere, V. (2015) Investigating the Role of Situated Public Displays and Hyperlocal Content on Place-Making, Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal, 25, 60-72. Xie, B. (2008). Multimodal Computer-Mediated Communication and Social Support among Older Chinese Internet Users. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 728-750.

Author Information

José Pereira (submitting)
School of Education and CI&DETS, Polytechnic of Viseu, Portugal
School of Education and CI&DETS, Polytechnic of Viseu, Portugal
School of Education and CI&DETS, Polytechnic of Viseu, Portugal

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