Ambient Displays for Integrating Older Adults into Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites (SNS) help users sustain and strengthen ties with friends and relatives. However older adults who are less technically inclined individuals are often left aside these SNS felling as outsiders within their own family that uses this media to socialize. To assist these non-technical older adults we developed two ambient displays aimed at seamlessly integrate them into SNS. The first prototype, ePortrait, shows to older adults the photographs uploaded by their relatives in a SNS and the second prototype, eBowl, provides means to communicate their status through the manipulation of physical objects. The results of an evaluation shows that ambient displays are capable of monitoring older adults' context and provide them with continuous information about their social network in a subtle, peripheral and expressive manner. As a consequence, older adults use the information conveyed by such displays to enhance conversations with new topics helping them feel more integrated with their family.