Design and older people´s real issues: Experiences of an engineer assessing technology in the user´s home

Engineers tend to confine themselves to designing technology for users in the lab. The authors wished to explore exposure to the real-world technology needs of older people by assessing technology use (via a universal design questionnaire) in the older person´s own home. Following a series of home visits to older people and interviewing them on technology use, the authors were exposed to a number of experiences obtainable only from such visits. These are reported on in this paper in a quasi-chronological order with a view to assisting and encouraging engineers to conduct similar in-home assessments so as to design technologies which address the real (holistic) needs of the older person.