Co-Creating Emotionally Aligned Smart Homes Using Social Psychological Modeling

Abstract

Smart homes have long been proposed as a viable mechanism to promote independent living for older adults in the home environment. Despite tremendous progress on the technology front, there has been limited uptake by end-users. A critical barrier to the adoption of smart home technology by older adults is the lack of engagement of end-users in the development process and the resulting one-size-fits-all solutions that fail to recognize the specific needs of the older adult demographic. In this paper, we propose a novel online platform aimed at closing the gap between older adults and technology developers: ASPIRE (Alignment of Social Personas in Inclusive Research Engagement). ASPIRE is an online collaborative network (OCN) that allows older adults, care partners, and developers to engage in the design and development of a joint shared product: the smart-home solution. To promote the adoption of the OCN and the alignment of this collaborative network with the values and emotional needs of its end-users, ASPIRE harnesses a social-psychological theory of identity. This paper presents ASPIRE as a conceptual model, with a preliminary implementation.