Myosotis-Garden – Exploring ways to co-design a touch panel game in the retirement home

Nowadays, software products for the elderly mostly meet functional requirements but often neglect not only aesthetic elements in the interface design, but moreover lack of critical concepts, when it comes to include cultural or bio-political aspects. Through interdisciplinary cooperation between experts in technology, art, design (both visual but also beyond), music and psychology, the project will develop new insights in this area with application for the future.

The overall project aim is to speak to people not only at a cognitive and emotional level, but also (and this is the role of our subproject) think about their cultural backgrounds, the power constellations both institutional and personal in the retirement home. By achieving a greater understanding of the links between aesthetics, design, interaction and technology in the context of an ageing population, the project will help build expertise in all four participating schools and be able to act as a catalyst for future projects. Our research will enable the needs of this growing group of elderly and aged people to be better addressed.

In our subproject design researcher Maja Riegler works highly interdisciplinary and explores methods such as visual thinking, paper prototyping and co-design not only with-in the research team, but also with the inhabitants of the homes.