Designing social networking sites for older adults

Lorna Gibson; Wendy Moncur; Paula Forbes; John Arnott; Christopher Martin; Amritpal S. Bhachu

doi:10.14236/ewic/hci2010.24

Designing social networking sites for older adults

Lorna Gibson, Wendy Moncur, Paula Forbes, John Arnott, Christopher Martin, Amritpal S. Bhachu

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

83 Citations (Scopus)

19 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The importance of older adults’ social networks in providing practical, emotional and informational support is well documented. In this paper, we reflect on the personal social networks of older adults, and the shortcomings of existing online Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in supporting their needs. We report findings from ethnographic interviews, focus groups and hands-on demonstrations with older adults, where we find key themes affecting adoption of SNSs. We then consider design aspects that should be taken into account for future SNSs, if they are to meet the preferences of older users.

Original language	English
Pages	186-194
Number of pages	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic/hci2010.24
Publication status	Published - 10 Sept 2010
Event	2010 British Computer Society Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, BCS-HCI 2010 - Dundee, United Kingdom Duration: 6 Sept 2010 → 10 Sept 2010

Conference

Conference	2010 British Computer Society Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, BCS-HCI 2010
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Dundee
Period	6/09/10 → 10/09/10

Funding

The authors thank the participants who helped with this research and also the School of Computing at the University of Dundee for continued support of the User Centre facility which contributed significantly to the research. The authors acknowledge support from several sources, including UK EPSRC project EP/D049520/1, UK EPSRC project EP/ G002118/1, RCUK Digital Economy Research Hub EP/G066019/1 “SIDE: Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy”, UK DTI project “SAPHE: Smart & Aware Pervasive Healthcare Environment”, Scottish Funding Council (SFC) project HR04016 “MATCH: Mobilising Advanced Technologies for Care at Home” and a UK EPSRC Doctoral Training Grant. The interviews of older people in sheltered housing were conducted by Dr. M. McGee-Lennon (MATCH Project & Glasgow University). The authors are members of the Joint Research Institute for Computational Systems of the SFC Northern Research Partnership (NRP).

Keywords

communication
older adults
personal social networks
privacy
social networking sites

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10.14236/ewic/hci2010.24

Gibson-etal-BCS-HCI-2010-Designing-social-networking-sites-for-olderFinal published version, 761 KBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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Designing social networking sites for older adults

Abstract

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Keywords

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