My Articles on Tech-enhanced Life

End of Life Planning

End of Life Planning

End of Life Planning was the exploration of the month at several Longevity Explorer circles. Here is what we learned about end of life planning, including things like advance directives, healthcare powers of attorney, POLST forms, MOLST forms, and living wills. If you are thinking some end of life planning might be timely, either for you or for a family member, read this.


Longevity Explorer Workshop

Older Adults Online: Behavior, Trust, & Design

Our Longevity Explorers frequently comment on just how poorly they think most Apps and websites are designed — when viewed from the perspective of an older adult. So we were excited when a Silicon Valley startup enlisted our help to answer a variety of questions about how older adults really do interact online.


Amazon Echo Show: Older Adults Explore

Our Longevity Explorers have been testing the Amazon Echo Show and exploring its capabilities. With the ability to make phone calls and video calls on request, Alexa and the Amazon Echo Show have added important capabilities since our community of older adults first explored Alexa back in 2017. Learn what these “seniors” think is (or is not) useful about it; what questions they have; and what they think needs improvement.


Medical Alert Recommendations: “Go, Go” Persona

This page contains specific medical alert recommendations for a specific type of person: one that fits a “persona” we call the “Go, Go” persona.


Medical Alert Recommendations: “No Go” Persona

This page contains specific medical alert recommendations for a specific type of person: one that fits a “persona” we call the “No Go” persona.


Medical Alert Recommendations: “Slow Go” Persona

This page contains specific medical alert recommendations for a specific type of person: one that fits a “persona” we call the “Slow Go” persona.


Medical Alerts: Just Tell Me What To Buy!

“I don’t want to become an expert on medical alerts. Just tell me what to buy.” is something we often hear. We’ve found the answer depends enormously on the specific lifestyle of the person enquiring.

Most people fit within one of a handful of broad “personas”. Choose which persona best matches your lifestyle, then see which medical alert devices we recommend for that persona.


Medical Alert Recommendations: “Needs Some Care” Persona

This page contains specific medical alert recommendations for a specific type of person: one that fits a “persona” we call the “Needs Some Care” persona.


Medical Alert Recommendations: 24/7 Care Persona

This page contains specific medical alert recommendations for a specific type of person: one that fits a “persona” we call the “Needs 24/7 Care” persona.


Brainstorming an App for Loneliness

An App to Make New Friends: Intergenerational Brainstorming

Ever thought “I need to make new friends: There should be an app for that“? Longevity Explorers and design students brainstormed the features they would like to see in an “App to make new friends” at an intergenerational design workshop at the 2018 Stanford Centre on Longevity Design Challenge.


Artificial Intelligence and Robots: What Older Adults Want

While there has been lots written by academics, companies, and futurists about the potential of robots and AI in aged care, the voice of the older adult is generally absent from these discussions. Here are the opinions of the Longevity Explorers as to problems they wish a robot, smarthome, or Artifical Intelligence could solve for them.


Amazon Echo (Alexa) for seniors and the elderly, brainstorming session by older adults

Amazon Echo and Alexa for the Elderly

The older adults in our explorer groups have recently become interested in a relatively new product: the Amazon Echo and its artificial intelligence Alexa. Here are their thoughts on topics like: do we want one; why would we want one; what do we use it for; and wouldn’t it be great if it could also do …”.


My Background:

Tech-enhanced Life has a small group of individuals who share the tasks of creating syntheses of our explorations, and other outputs that summarize investigations in which a number of people have participated. This type of work is published under the authorship of “The Tech-enhanced Life Editorial team”.

We also publish a variety of content authored by specific individuals, and you can see those individual contributors profiled on our “Collaborators and Contributors” page.

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