Abstract:
Designing health technologies for older adults presents unique challenges that extend beyond technical feasibility to encompass behavioral, social, and ethical considerations. In this talk, Dr. Pedja Klasnja explores how user-centered design (UCD) methods can address the “wicked problems” inherent in developing interventions for this population. He illustrates how UCD’s iterative and participatory approach enables teams to co-create solutions that are meaningful and adaptable to older adults’ diverse needs and circumstances.
The presentation highlights two key design tools—personas and scenarios—as powerful frameworks for translating user research into actionable design decisions. Personas synthesize data about user groups, motivations, and constraints, helping design teams recognize and accommodate heterogeneity within older adult populations. Scenarios build on this foundation by envisioning how individuals might interact with technologies in real-world contexts, uncovering potential usability issues, privacy concerns, and unintended consequences early in the design process.
Dr. Klasnja emphasizes the critical importance of involving not only older adults but also caregivers, healthcare providers, and broader social networks throughout the design process. He discusses the trade-offs between safety and privacy, the need for social contact and family dynamics, and how thoughtful design can mitigate implementation barriers. Drawing from his extensive research, he demonstrates that engagement with mobile health technologies among older adults may surpass that of younger cohorts, challenging assumptions about technology adoption in this demographic.
This talk underscores that while developing health technologies for older adults is complex, adopting a user-centered, iterative, and collaborative design process is essential for creating effective, acceptable, and sustainable interventions.
Biography:
- Pedja Klasnja, PhD, Associate Professor of Information, School of Information at University of Michigan
- Predrag “Pedja” Klasnja is an Associate Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He focuses on the design and optimization of novel mHealth technologies for health behavior change. He is particularly interested in the design and evaluation of just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs), interventions that continuously adapt their functioning to provide optimal support to individuals as their needs and circumstances change. In addition to his intervention development work, Dr. Klasnja develops optimization methods for implementation science, with an emphasis on causal modeling of processes hypothesized to underlie the functioning of implementation strategies.