Don ’ t Leave Me Untouched : Considering Emotions in Personal Alarm Use and Development

Older adults want to live independently in their home for as long as possible, and technologies can support them with this goal. However, solutions to help with living alone are often designed from a technical perspective, ignoring the needs and preferences of older adults. This results in strong attitudes and feelings against, and limited adoption of, these technologies. In this chapter, the authors use ethnographic methods to inform the development of solutions taking into account the emotional needs of end-users. They present a three-staged approach by applying it in the domain of personal emergency alarms. First, the authors identify the shortcomings of current emergency alarm systems as perceived by older adults. Then, they develop a prototype that addresses some of the issues identified, focusing on emotional needs. Finally, the authors conduct a trial with the prototype. The results show that considering emotions during system design can improve user experience.