Human-Computer Interaction and the older population in 2025, Special track in Interacción 2015

Download Pdf

7-9 September 2015, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain

In light of an ever-increasing ageing population, along with the continuing pervasiveness of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in multiple facets of daily living, we believe that research into HCI and Ageing will remain just as important over the next decade as it has been for a number of years. The primary aim of this one-day special track is to bring together practitioners in the field of HCI and Ageing in order to discuss the question of where do we go from here? From time to time, it is a healthy practice to take stock of a research area in order to take it forward. Since the seminal Human Factors Research Needs for an Aging Population (edited by Sara J. Czaja in the 1990s), a growing number of HCI studies with older people have been conducted over the past two, almost three, decades. Established research indicates that accommodating for age-related changes in functional abilities is key to the design of more accessible technologies for older people. It is also widely accepted, especially in areas related to HCI (such as Gerontology), that older people are a very heterogeneous user group and that chronological age is not always helpful enough to conceptualize ageing. There is also a growing movement in favour of moving away from “assistive” technological conceptions based on stereotypical negative views of ageing. Conducting Participatory Design with older people is not so straightforward as we might think. How will this body of knowledge change when most of today’s adult people who have grown up with digital technologies grow older? How will current trends in technology development (e.g. Wearables, Big Data, Casual games and Do-It-Yourself (DIY)) impact on HCI studies with older people? How will the fourth age shape HCI and Ageing in 2025?

Deadline for submissions (full and short papers): April 8, 2015. Accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library. This special track is organised by (in alphabetical order) Josep Blat (UPF), Andreu Català (UPC), Andrea Rosales (IN3-UOC) and Sergio Sayago (UdL). For further information, please visit this special track’s webpage and/or the section of special tracks on the conference’s website.