Idea

“When people interact through computers there can be no separating technological, social, and aesthetic issues – one aspect irrevocably affects the other.”
- Jonas Heide Smith, University of Copenhagen.

“The Internet is much more a social phenomenon than anything else, with users attracted to the idea that computers are now boxes that connect them with interesting people and exciting places to go, rather than soulless cases that deny social contact.”
- Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale (1998:156-7)

The Internet enables us to connect with people without a central institution. This bears the possibility to meet people on the Internet and after that if we choose to in real life.
Which opens up a new way of making friends or as Robert Putnam calls it a way of creating social
capital.

This new way of creating social connections can be used to solve a problem in our society, which is often not talked about or hidden away, the social isolation of senior citizens. Since seniors are the fastest growing user group on the Internet it is necessary to provide them with a possibility to not only meet online, but also to transfer those virtual social connections into the real world.
Otherwise the risk is high that senior Internet users transfer too much of their social life into the virtual world and become even more socially isolated in the real world. The purpose of this project is to provide seniors with such a possibility.


Realization

What issues arise when translating those virtual social connections into real world friendships and therefore how such a web service would have to be designed can only be determined by collaborating
with seniors when designing this service. The chosen process to work with seniors in this case is the iterative design process, which is commonly used in web and interaction design projects.

This project has not been realized yet, it is only a Concept.


Downloads

For a detailed version of the Concept please download:
Concept.pdf


For information on how a Prototype would have to be designed please download:
Prototype.pdf



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