A System and Service Design to Enrich Social Network Experiences for the Elderly

The research project aims to investigate the key factors of social connection and interactions between older people and their friends/family. The study is also related to develop a new social platform-Sharetouch plus, which is designed to fit perfectly into the formation of social network and relationship in Taiwan, so that elderly can communicate and interact harmoniously together in an online social platform without difficulties and strengthen their social bond. This research necessitates enhancing the understanding of special needs of elderly users and investigating the principles of social network theory/tie strength theory as design solutions for making a social platform more accessible. Moreover, the area of study is also concerned with validating the newly development platform enable elderly users to engage the benefits of social media and communication technologies, via both user-issue and scientific-based evaluations. The various stages of the project are: • to conduct a comprehensive literature survey of relevant research article, current trends and social changes, users’ characteristics and requirements when accessing a social network site; to investigate latest information on social technologies, existing development of online SNSs and relevant mobile applications; moreover, to analyze different properties of top social applications, mainly focusing on the formation and evolution of the networks as well as the social interaction over the networks. • to measure social relationship among the older people, including network size, extent of social interaction, specific type of relationships, as well as instrumental and emotional support; to generate survey to explore how older generations use social applications; and in particular, to investigate older people in SNSs and consider how properties unique to such mediate environments (e.g., persistence, searchability, replicability, and invisible audiences) affect the ways in which the elderly interact with one another; and therefore, to identify influential factors in association with socialization and web accessibility and provide design principles for a social-based interactive platform. • to develop an online social platform for senior users based on the theory-driven principles and practical experiences; to validate and measure appropriateness and usability of the newly developed social platform on both user-issue consideration and scientific-data demonstration; to identify further research that is required.

Project ID:PB10401-1790
External Project ID:MOST103-2221-E182-051-MY2