Dundee User Centre – A Space Where Older People and Technology Meet

Paula Forbes, Lorna Gibson, Vicki L. Hanson, Peter Gregor, and Alan F. Newell

School of Computing University of Dundee

Dundee, Scotland + 44 (0)1382 {388872, 385050, 388872, 384152, 384144}

{pforbes, lgibson, vlh, pgregor, afn}@computing.dundee.ac.uk

ABSTRACT In this paper, we describe the User Centre at the University of Dundee which provides a space for older people and technology to come together for the benefit of new learning opportunities, social interaction and research.

Categories and Subject Descriptors H.1.1 [Models and Principles]: User/Machine Systems – human factors. K.4.2 [Computing Milieux]: Computers and Society – Assistive technologies for persons with disabilities.

General Terms Design, Human Factors

Keywords Older people, computing, technology, digital inclusion

1. INTRODUCTION We describe in this paper a unique university environment in which older adults and HCI researchers come together for learning. In this environment, older adults in the local area take part in computer classes geared for older learners. In this sense, the experience is similar to many efforts worldwide that provide community centres for older adults to gain computer skills. The unique aspect of this, however, is that the centre is housed in a university computing department and provides HCI researchers and students with a ready source of user feedback on their work.

2. USER CENTRE The School of Computing at the University of Dundee has a long history of working on technologies for older or disabled people [2]. So much so that during the planning of their new building, which opened in 2005, one of the requirements for the architects was to have a space for older people and technology to converge in the form of research and a members club. This space was dubbed the User Centre.

2.1 The Physical Setup The User Centre is a ground floor room in the Queen Mother Building at the University of Dundee, which houses the university’s School of Computing. It is informally set up with computers and designed specifically for the older people. The room has a mixture of Macs and PCs, some are desktop and others are laptop machines. In addition, there are printers, scanners, large screen televisions from which to teach and a Nintendo Wii with a Wii Fit board. The room has a mix of small tables with 3-4 computers on each and comfy seating with coffee tables for break time. Overall, the space looks informal and inviting.

2.2 The Group as a Learning Platform The User Centre Group currently meets 3 times a week. Each session is 2 hours long: two of the session are drop-in sessions where attendees can choose what they want to do, learn or ask; one session is an informal class. Once a month, there is a popular technical session where people can get help with any technical questions they have such as connecting their digital camera. Each two-hour session stops half way for a coffee break which gives the opportunity for friendly chat. Weekly attendance is not essential and members choose how often they attend. Some of our keen golfers only come in on wet weather days! The weekly class is relaxed and informal, and the topics are often requested by group members. Our classes concentrate on task specific learning such as looking up train times or the best deal for insurance. We have found that our members prefer learning to use a computer to help with practical aspects of everyday life rather than a specific piece of software such as Microsoft Word. Similarly, we find that most members who come and join the User Centre Group have had a ‘trigger’ to come. That is, they have a specific task or activity that they want to achieve. Many of them join being interested in learning their trigger and nothing else. More often than not they stay with us long after they become proficient in their ‘trigger’ and learn many more things. The User Centre is managed by the first author who shares the responsibility with a senior (as in older) volunteer who helps with tutoring and supporting members. He is particularly good at integrating new members within the group who are less intimidated by a peer. There are a number of older, postgraduate and academic volunteers who help out at the sessions.

Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). ASSETS’09, October 25–28, 2009, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. ACM 978-1-60558-558-1/09/10.

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2.3 The Group as Research Participants While taking part in research is not essential in order to join the group, most of the members happily take part in a variety of research activities from research grants to undergraduate projects. Knowing that there will be people at the centre every week has enormous benefits, including ad hoc research where researchers can run quick ideas or recruitment posters passed the relevant demographic. Researchers are required to seek individual ethics approval before engaging with the group.

Types of research activity that members of the group have been involved is varied, some recent examples include focus groups on social networking, research on the older work force and usability evaluations of health information online.

Having the centre embedded alongside our teaching and lab space is another key to the success of the mutually beneficial relationship between the older people and the staff & students. Students have to spend less time finding people willing to participate in evaluations and older people benefit by being part of the university community.

Figure 1 - Mixture of learning and social interaction

2.4 The Group as a Social Network An important function of the group is its social interaction. The coffee break period is always the most enjoyable and animated time of the session. The coffee break melts the ice and allows members to feel more comfortable seeking help from their peers. Further to that, many members build friendships that are wider than attendance at the User Centre and this is particularly beneficial to those who are new to the area or recently retired.

3. SUSTAINABILTY OF THE CENTRE As would be expected, group membership is dynamic, with a constant flow of new members as some, having gained needed skills, no longer attend. We find the following activities useful for recruiting.

Peer Promotion. Members tell their friends about the group and many new members hear about us through word of mouth.

Internal Activities. We host an annual Open Day as a way to let the wider community see what we are up to and entice new members. Every year we host an event for National Silver Surfer Day [1]. We hold our Open Day to coincide with this as it usually generates quite a lot of publicity and public interest. We aim to make our Open Days an enjoyable experience and to ensure that no-one is intimidated by technology. Having a Wii & Wii balance board was a fun addition this year and lots of older people tried their hand at skiing, bowling and even boxing. Many were curious about the Wii as they had heard grandchildren speaking about it but had never seen what it did.

External Activities. The Group is represented at local events in order to raise awareness in the wider community.

4. WHAT CAN BE LEARNT? For interested parties, our experience has demonstrated that the layout and feel of the room used is vitally important. Our space is informal, supports small clusters of learners to work together and avoids looking like a typical lab space with rows of computers. Another important aspect is the sociability, both the coffee break described above and also having helpers who develop a rapport/friendship with the learners.

The key to the learning experience is to choose practical topic based learning outcomes, stick to bite size chunks, use repetition to consolidate knowledge, survey the group for things they would like to learn about and keep the group learning smiling.

The key for research participation is ensuring the participants know that their input is valuable is important as we find many older people lack confidence in their abilities. Feedback given afterwards as to what the research findings were increases the participant’s engagement with the research process and they are more likely to want to continue to participate in future research.

5. FUTURE The User Centre forms a core aspect of the life of the School of Computing at Dundee. The symbiotic relationship between the community of older adults and the researchers has proven invaluable to both parties. Moving forward, the Centre is expanding to meeting growing demands.

6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Our thanks to Mathew Trust whose grant provided the first computers in the User Centre.

7. REFERENCES [1] Digital Unite. National Silver Surfers Day web site.

Available on http://silversurfers.digitalunite.com/. [2] UTOPIA. Usable Technology for Older People: Inclusive

and Appropriate web site. Available on http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/UTOPIA/.

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