Conference Agenda

The sustainable development of an ageing society necessitates active participation of older people, requiring effective integration of their individual and collective resources into design. However, designers’ understanding of older people’s resources is rather limited. This study aims to develop a conceptual model of older people’s resources to support design for healthy ageing. Through literature review and interviews with 19 recently retired Dutch seniors, twelve resource types were identified, categorised into six dimensions: practical, emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, and time. These categories were synthesised into a Diamond Model of Resources. The framework, encompassing both resource categories and the Diamond Model, was applied in a design workshop. Results demonstrated that the resource-based mindset and knowledge significantly influenced design outcomes, enabling designers to develop solutions that promote active participation among older people. The study has led to a toolkit for empowering healthy ageing, showcased in the “Design for all” exhibition in Zurich.

The growing presence of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) offers new opportunities for older adults, yet raises concerns around the digital divide, trust, and social inclusion. This exploratory study examines how older adults perceive and engage with technology through a community-based approach. Data were collected from 106 participants using a mixed-method design that combined the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to assess adoption factors with narrative storytelling to capture contextual experiences. Centring participants’ voices, the study identifies emotional, social, and contextual factors shaping technology engagement. Findings highlight the importance of relational trust, social learning networks, perceived ease of use, and confidence in technology use. Thy also demonstrate the potential of co-design practices to empower older adults as active contributors rather than passive users. The study underscores the role of inclusive design and co-design approaches in promoting autonomy, wellbeing, and equitable digital inclusion among ageing population.

Older adults face complex challenges in managing multimorbidity. As the ageing population increases, digital health technology (DHT) offers significant potential to address these challenges while supporting independent living. However, current research remains largely condition-specific and technology-driven, providing limited insight into how digital health can support older adults with multimorbidity (OAwM) in self-management for independent living. This study investigates how digital health technologies can be inclusively designed to support older adults living with multiple and complex health conditions. Drawing on qualitative inquiries into older adults’ self-management practices, it develops an understanding of the challenges existing in multimorbidity management within independent living contexts. The findings contribute to inclusive design by proposing design principles to inform the creation of digital health that are context-responsive and grounded in the lived realities of ageing with complex health needs.

As populations age, companion robots are increasingly explored to support emotional well-being in later life. However, older adults often find it difficult to express abstract emotions or imagine interactions with unfamiliar technologies, limiting their participation in early-stage design. This study develops and validates a structured toolkit designed to support emotional articulation and co-design participation. The toolkit, consisting of companionship cards, robot role cards, and recording canvases, was refined through expert evaluation and user testing, and validated through comparative interviews with older adults (n=10). Results show that the toolkit supported richer emotional expression, smoother dialogue, and more sustained engagement, helping participants transform lived emotional experience into design-relevant insights. The study contributes a replicable methodological approach for emotion-centred participatory design, showing how structured visual scaffolding can foster emotional and conceptual inclusion, empower older adults to articulate their perspectives, and help their voices more actively shape more resonant Human–Robot Interaction.

As global population ageing accelerates, virtual reality (VR) offers new opportunities to enhance older adults’ wellbeing, cultural participation, and social connection. Existing VR research concerning older adults has predominantly concentrated on medical or clinical applications. In contrast, this study investigates the potential affordances of VR for this population within cultural and entertainment domains. Through Participatory Design workshops with ten adults aged 60+ in UK, this study explores older adults’ user experience with VR and proposes recommendations for age-inclusive VR design. Results show that complex multi-step operations, dual-hand coordination, and complex menu structures create high cognitive load and reduce user confidence. Participants also faced sensory–perceptual challenges and reported limited access to VR in daily life, though they expressed strong interest in using VR for cultural and social engagement. The study also reflects on methodological challenges such as sampling bias and the early developmental stage of age-inclusive VR research.

In Scotland’s social care system, decisions about support and care transitions are often shaped by professional and policy discourses, leaving older people and their families with limited involvement in key decisions. Although policy frameworks emphasise “choice and control,” communication remains dominated by professional language, and lived experiences are rarely used to inform care processes. This paper proposes an early-stage conceptual framework that considers how narrative theory and scenario-based co-design may contribute to a more user-centred understanding of decision-making for older people. Within this framework, a by-proxy approach is proposed, in which family carers are positioned to represent aspects of older people’s experiences. The framework outlines a way to gather, structure, and communicate experiences, with the aim of supporting reflection among carers and exploring how narrative experiences might be translated into scenario-based materials that could inform decision-making, while making the perspectives of older people and carers more visible.