Meaningful Elderly Mobility
--  Senior Travel Buddy Coordination System

we presented at CHI2007 with Will Odom, Scott Jensen.

Background: Traffic congestion and under utilized public transport can cost local governments and businesses millions in expenses. Statistics indicate that around 10% of journeys are made by public transport, and almost 7 times as many are made by car. Recently, petrol prices have surged due to supply concerns, and if this trend continues, increases in cost of fuel will start to impinge upon business and retail spending. Research shows that cars contribute 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, which may affect climate change, and a study by the European Commission in 2005 calculated that airborne pollution reduced life expectancy in the EU by an average of almost 9 months, and was responsible for 310,000 premature deaths.

Focus group:

Solutions: We are developing a system to be implemented at Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) throughout the United States in an effort to encourage ride-sharing among residents in order to decrease their carbon emissions. We are focusing on senior citizens for two reasons: they are a growing segment of the population with driving habits that result in higher pollution, but they are also a population that is at risk of isolation and the mental and physical harm that can result from being isolated. Our system addresses both of these issues while leveraging the infrastructure and culture of CCRCs in addition to hiding the technology from the senior residents themselves.

Iterative Design Process: "PRInCiPlES": Predisposition->Research->Insight->Concept->Prototype->Evaluation->Strategy

Initial Solution: The goal is to encourage people to use public transportation. Following our predispositions and initial research regarding public transportation we had identified a number of user groups for which a greater usage of public transportation would reach the goal of reducing air pollution. However, this initial research also identified a particular user group who currently has a low utilization of public transportation, but for which a greater use of public transportation would not only reduce air pollution, but also address other important social goals. That group is the elderly people.

As we discuss in detail in the following sections that walk through our predispositions and iterative rounds of research and insights, we found that the impact is if this group utilized public transportation to a greater extent, not only would they reduce pollution, but their switch would improve their lives by providing a safer mode of transportation and also address serious socialization issues that if unaddressed can lead to deteriorating health and depression. However, the elderly have concerns about the public transportation system, and our project initially aims to address these concerns by making the transportation system easier to understand while also increasing their trust and confidence by building a buddy system.

Improved Solution: It's quite helpful to conduct field study at the house of the seniors, retirement centers, senior clubs to understand both physical and psychological issues of this target group and the  problems existing in a particular location, such as the bus in Bloomington, the private cars in Chicago downtown. Having gained insights from interview, focus group, contexture inquiry and observation, we begin to come up with new systems, and the target user group has been changed to administrators of Continuing Caring Retirement Center, while we still aim at affecting the elderly residents' driving pattern.

User scenario:

platform diagram:

interaction demo: