This report first discusses the phenomenon of aging, how it is commonly understood, and the state-of-the-art of the technology for aging people (gerontechnology) (chapter 1). In the analysis, the author briefly describes the origin and development of the notion of aging through medical, social, and cultural lenses. How the negative narrative around aging has hamstrung the innovation for older people is presented by enumerating three types of design pitfalls identified in today’s mainstream gerontechnology. Drawing on a body of literature (e.g. the ‘successful aging model’ and the ‘personhood turn’ in the ‘care model’) and projects, the author shows new voices attempting to overturn this negative narrative. The Capability Approach (CA), especially Nussbaum’s capability theory which provides a concrete and substantive normative foundation for probing into older people’s lives is introduced (chapter 3 prologue). Interviews are conducted to obtain in-depth understanding of people's needs, wants, and challenges (chapter 3). Based on the literature research and empirical studies, a gap between the real needs and wants emerging in the aging process and what is provided by current mainstream gerontechnology is identified (tension 1) (chapter 4).
Informed by several inspiring design frameworks or theories (e.g. design for appropriation, end-user development, ambiguity in design, meta-design), the author proposed design for openness as a potential design strategy to address the first tension (chapter 5 prologue). What is so powerful about ‘openness’ in design is its potential to satiate various needs over time, in the meanwhile, promote autonomy in users. A theoretical model is theorized to provide firm design handles (chapter 5 prologue). Next, co-speculation sessions are conducted to gather situated knowledge and to experiment with the idea of design for openness (chapter 5). Findings from the sessions reveal the potential risk of leaving the design completely open: ineffective appropriation caused by misalignment between use and design (chapter 5). How to lower the seemingly paradoxical misalignment between design and use while still maintain the openness in design becomes the focus of the rest this research (tension 2) (chapter 5).
A concept artifact is crafted as an explorative attempt to address the misalignment between use and design (chapter 6). Next, the evaluation of the concept artifact is conducted which results in rich design implications (chapter 7). Insights from the evaluation sessions also help further develop the theoretical model (chapter 8). An alternative design process that's different from the traditional one is put forward and limitations are discussed and directions for future research are sketched out (chapter 8). The report closes by reflecting on the whole project and summarizing the main contributions of this project (chapter 9).