UXA2023 Yasamin Asadi - Designing for a post-lockdown metaverse

With the worldwide population of adults over the age of 65 growing faster than any other according to the United Nations, considering their voice in designing the 3D embodiment of the internet (the Metaverse) is necessary for moving away from the deficit model of ageing, especially coming out of the pandemic. This presentation advocates for an ethnographic, co-design approach with older adults for those looking to design in a fully immersive space.

Transcript

1. Designing for a Post
   Lockdown Metaverse
   YASAMIN ASADI
   

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2. Introduction
   

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3. COVID-19 pandemic.
   

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4. Different types of
   connections over distance.
   

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5. The Metaverse.
   Blurring the boundaries between the digital
   and the physical world.
   

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6. Examples of virtual worlds.
   

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7. Road to digitalisation
   Digital Model Digital Shadow Digital Twin
   

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8. Metaverse brings new opportunities
   for social connections.
   

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9. Picture credit: Sydney Jewish Museum, 2023.
   Reverberations: A Future of Memory
   

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10. The experience of connections over distance.
    Older adults' technology use during the pandemic.
    Adjustments to technology?
    

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11. Interviews
    

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12. Interviews
    May - June 2020
    How the pandemic
    affected their
    technology use.
    Discuss the
    technology use
    after the novelty
    effect wears off.
    Melbourne-based
    participants' views
    about technology
    use in lockdown.
    August 2020 October 2021
    

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13. Slowness.
    

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14. Ogden, 2020.
    Ogden, 2021.
    UK
    Droit-Volet et
    al, 2021.
    France
    Chan et al,
    2022.
    Singapore
    Cornell et
    al, 2022
    Australia
    Vermeulen et
    al, 2022.
    Belgium
    Kosac et
    al, 2022.
    Germany
    Alatrany et
    al, 2022.
    Iraq
    Similar Work
    

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15. The focus was on social
    technology use.
    Slowness was generated later as a theme.
    

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16. Findings
    

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17. Proposed Pathways
    The Agency
    Pathway
    The Preferred
    Interaction Pathway
    The Adapting to
    Social Circumstances
    and Natural Rhythms
    Pathway
    

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18. The Agency Pathway
    

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19. Designing to support agency.
    The Agency
    Pathway
    

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20. "The early stages of lockdown
    were marvellous because you got
    to do all the things you’ve been
    meaning to do for ages. It
    encouraged me to go for walks, to
    do knitting which I haven’t done for
    20-30 years, and it encouraged me
    to do some sewing which has
    been hovering like a guilty
    conscience forever."
    The Agency
    Pathway
    

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21. Reflection.
    The Agency
    Pathway
    

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22. Reflection triggered by circumstances.
    The Agency
    Pathway
    

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23. Organic reflection.
    The Agency
    Pathway
    

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24. Interactions in the Metaverse.
    The Agency
    Pathway
    Avatars.
    Smart Assistants.
    NPCs.
    

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25. Different avatars for different contexts.
    Kao, D. (2019). The effects of anthropomorphic avatars vs.
    non-anthropomorphic avatars in a jumping game. In Proceedings of the 14th
    international conference on the foundations of digital games.
    Latoschik, M. E. et al (2017). The effect of avatar realism in immersive
    social virtual realities. In Proceedings of the 23rd ACM symposium on
    virtual reality software and technology.
    The Agency
    Pathway
    

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26. Different avatars for different contexts.
    The Agency
    Pathway
    

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27. User-led instead of designer-led.
    The Agency
    Pathway
    Technologies to support slowing down,
    whether by choice or compelled by external
    circumstances.
    

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28. The Preferred
    Interaction Pathway
    

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29. "I found that some of the Zoom happy hour
    things were getting to me a bit. I felt like I’m
    one of the few ones that’s single. Where
    they’re all couples and they would be sitting
    there with their wine. It made me feel a little
    bit different to them.[...] It was making me
    feel a little bit not necessarily good, whereas
    I don’t feel that when I’m out walking with
    them."
    The Preferred
    Interaction Pathway
    

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30. Screen-based interactions can make
    some people feel "othered".
    The Preferred
    Interaction Pathway
    

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31. "All the guys, widowers or bachelors, who live
    on their own, and I’ve just rung them up [...] Not
    to discuss the world or not- just how’s it
    going.[...] Couple of them said "If you’re not
    going to talk about transport, I’m not
    interested." They call it on-topic and off-topic. I
    didn’t want to talk about off-topic things. That’s
    been a bit of an eye-opener."
    The Preferred
    Interaction Pathway
    

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32. Adjusting the settings is current social
    media can be hard to find.
    The Preferred
    Interaction Pathway
    

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33. Privacy concerns about
    current technologies.
    The Preferred
    Interaction Pathway
    

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34. Privacy concerns about the Metaverse. The Preferred
    Interaction Pathway
    

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35. Flexible degrees of involvement. The Preferred
    Interaction Pathway
    

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36. The Adapting to Social
    Circumstances and
    Natural Rhythms Pathway
    

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37. "My garden never looked as good because
    it’s never had as much time devoted to it as
    at the moment. [...] I’d be getting messages
    on my phone saying, "Where are you? We
    started the Zoom meeting." Then I’m going,
    "No, there’s still a bit of light." I join it at 6:00
    instead of 5:00. I can still do some
    gardening. Why would I come in and sit
    down and chat?"
    The Adapting to
    Social Circumstances
    and Natural Rhythms
    Pathway
    

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38. Considering natural rhythms.
    The Adapting to
    Social Circumstances
    and Natural Rhythms
    Pathway
    

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39. The main thing is I’ve realized that I feel like I’m 71
    now. Even the active travellers I’ve known, once
    they’ve got to the late 70s, they sort of slow down. My
    friend who is 78, he’s much less interested in travelling
    than he was previously. So I’m sort of conscious about
    that and we’ve already lost two years of traveling. [...] I
    think some people might realize that age and health
    issues have sort of caught up with them in the two
    years without them realizing that things have
    changed.
    The Adapting to
    Social Circumstances
    and Natural Rhythms
    Pathway
    

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40. Connections around hobbies.
    The Adapting to
    Social Circumstances
    and Natural Rhythms
    Pathway
    

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41. Design with natural clocks in mind.
    The Adapting to
    Social Circumstances
    and Natural Rhythms
    Pathway
    

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42. Conclusion
    Conducted an ethnographic study with older adults.
    Suggested 3 pathways for future design.
    Hope to see users inform the design more moving forward.
    

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43. Thank you!
    

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