A HumanCentered
Approach to
Technology
Development:
Designing
Cleaning
Products for
Elders
Susan Wyche
Ph.D. Student
Human-Centered
Computing
January 13, 2004
Overview
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About me
Why housework and ageing?
What is a Human-Centered Approach?
Methodology and Tools
Results
What is a Human-Centered
Approach?
• Interdisciplinary
• Contextualize technology in human
needs rather than other technology
• Intersection of technology development
and social analysis
Why Housework and Ageing?
•Aging population wants to “age in place”
•I-methodology
• Housework missing from current Smart
House/ Digital Home discourse
•History of Housework
Design Ethnography
Design ethnography is an emerging discipline that
draws on many theories, practices, and
methodologies of anthropology, as well as other
social-science disciplines, such as psychology,
sociology, sociology, and communications. It is
based upon understanding what people do, what
they say, and what they think. We do not ask
consumers what they want; instead, we strive to
understand how they live (Salvador, Bell, &
Anderson 1999).
Objective
Use qualitative research to look deeper into how elders
(65+ year olds) clean their homes in order to develop
concepts for cleaning products that are responsive to
their needs.
The following questions guided my research:
•Appropriateness of applying F.W. Taylors’ principles of scientific management to
domestic environments
•Has technology really made housework “easier?” (Vanek, 1978)
•How can products be designed to better fit elder’s needs and abilities?
•Research tools that capture people’s experiences and allow them to participate in
the design process. Using people’s experiences as a source of inspiration.
•How can older adult’s lifetime of knowledge and experience help us to design
technologies for the future?
Invaluable Tools
“Guerilla Research”
Rapidly immersing myself into anything and
everything related to cleaning and ageing.
• Try it yourself – trying the product better appreciate
the experience actual users might have
• Self awareness
• Spend as much time as you can with people relevant
to the design topic.
• Envision scenarios different from what we know.
Historical Awareness
Historical awareness enables
us to consciously choose which
themes bear repeating and,
which we want to resist in our
design. (Sengers, 2003)
• Housework as “women’s work”
• The “labor saving” debate
• Loss of sensual joys that
accompanied aspects of
housework
Sample
•Deliberately looked for people
that were different from myself
•18 Adults (3 men, 15 women)
•Age Range 65-89
•Recruited through friends,
family, professors, Carnegie
Mellon Alumni Directory, Ithaca
Department of Aging . . .
•Screened for age and
accessibility
Human-Centered Research Tools
Using official looking questionnaires or formal meetings
seemed likely to cast us in the role of doctors,
diagnosing user problems and prescribing technological
cures . . . Trying to establish roles as provocateurs, we
shaped the probes as interventions that would affect the
elders while eliciting informative responses from them.
(Gaver, Dunne, & Pacenti 1999)
•User studies that engage participants and that they
enjoy doing.
•Sensitivity to changes that occur with aging (i.e. decline
in mental and visual acuity)
In-home Interviews, Observations,
and Tours
“Box of Products”
Participants were asked to interact with
various cleaning products I purchased.
I wanted to see how they reacted to
new cleaning products and new
dispensing mechanisms (i.e. wipes,
Swiffer mops, Method bottle ) and
understand their relationship with
packaging.
15 participants could not figure out
how to make soap dispense from the Method bottle!
Most participants were not familiar with wipes.
All participants were frustrated with packaging!
In-Store Shadowing
One in-store
shadowing was
done in order to
gain insight into
how growing
older affects the
shopping
experience.
Shopping in
Super Wal-Mart
was challenging
for my 90 year
old grandfather.
He like many of
the people I
talked with
missed smaller
stores with less
product choices.
“You go to buy these products today your Windex, anything, they’ve got this added,
they’ve got that added, they have perfume added, which one do I want?
“Memory Scrapbook”
“Cleaning Roundtable”
“Cleaning Stations”
Computer
Linoleum Floor
Mini Grocery Store Aisle
Dusting
Cultural Probes
Insight Cards
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Organize enormous
amount of data
Capture “instances” of
elder’s behavior
Inspiration
Resource for others
Writing everyday (good
habit for graduate student)
Results
•Findings and Themes
•Speculative Designs
Housing Design
Physical Changes
Product
Modifications
Packaging
Changes over
time
Speculative Design
Speculative designs are plausible products
which suggest new applications for technology
and are often critical of existing ones. They
are driven by peoples’ experiences and
sometimes purposeful avoid utility. The
designs attempt to provoke a search for
meaning, using evocation rather than explicit
communication (Dunne & Gaver, 1997).
“Book Bottles”
“Untouchables”
Hands and Knees
Calorie Counting Trigger
Bottle Monocle
Packaging
Conclusion
Thank You!
Phoebe Sengers, Ph.D., Info. Science/ Science and Tech. Studies
Johanna Schoss, Ph.D., Anthropology/ Design and Environ. Analysis
ECL for thoughtful feedback yesterday!