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.