Independence and Interaction: Understanding Seniors' Privacy and Awareness Needs For Aging in Place

As America's baby boom population gets older, aging in place - the idea that seniors can remain independent in a comfortable home environment while being monitored and receiving care from family and caregivers living elsewhere - has received significant attention. Fostering a sense of independence while simultaneously enabling monitoring and frequent interaction can seem paradoxical, however. This raises questions of how we can design technologies that help seniors retain their independence and a sense of comfort, while still interacting with and being monitored regularly by others. We present results from an interview study of 30 seniors, caregivers and relatives in which we sought to understand how they managed their interactions, availability, privacy and independence. Results suggest that they rely on attributes of the physical environment, temporal structures such as routine conversations and activities, and technological mediation.