Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/32462
Appears in Collections:Faculty of Social Sciences Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Aesthetically Designing Video-Call Technology With Care Home Residents: A Focus Group Study
Author(s): Zamir, Sonam
Allman, Felicity
Hennessy, Catherine Hagan
Taylor, Adrian Haffnor
Jones, Ray Brian
Keywords: video-calls
focus group
design
older people
care-setting
personalization
dementia
Skype
Issue Date: 2021
Date Deposited: 22-Mar-2021
Citation: Zamir S, Allman F, Hennessy CH, Taylor AH & Jones RB (2021) Aesthetically Designing Video-Call Technology With Care Home Residents: A Focus Group Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Art. No.: 540048. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.540048
Abstract: Background: Video-calls have proven to be useful for older care home residents in improving socialization and reducing loneliness. Nonetheless, to facilitate the acceptability and usability of a new technological intervention, especially among people with dementia, there is a need for user-led design improvements. The current study conducted focus groups with an embedded activity with older people to allow for a person-centered design of a video-call intervention. Methods: Twenty-eight residents across four care homes in the South West of England participated in focus groups to aesthetically personalize and ‘dress-up’ the equipment used in a video-call intervention. Each care home was provided with a ‘Skype on Wheels’ (SoW) device, a wheelable ‘chassis’ comprising an iPad or tablet for access to Skype, and a telephone handset. During the focus group, residents were encouraged to participate in an activity using colorful materials to ‘dress-up’ SoW. Comments before, during and after the ‘dress up’ activity were audio recorded. Framework analysis was used to analyze the focus group data. Results: Older people, including seven with dementia were able to interact with and implement design changes to SoW through aesthetic personalization. Themes arising from the data included estrangement, anthropomorphism, reminiscence, personalization, need for socialization versus fear of socialization and attitudes toward technology. After this brief exposure to SoW, residents expressed the likelihood of using video-calls for socialization in the future. Conclusion: Care home residents enjoy engaging with new technologies when given the opportunity to interact with it, to personalize it and to understand its purpose. Low cost aesthetic personalization of technologies can improve their acceptability, usability, and implementation within complex care environments.
DOI Link: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.540048
Rights: © 2021 Zamir, Allman, Hennessy, Taylor and Jones. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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