Playing with the Cards: The Cards as a Method
The first part of our findings conveys insights about our deck of cards as a qualitative research method for participatory design at the ideation stage. We found that the cards helped to create a fluent conversation and to establish trust between interviewersFootnote 1 and older people.Footnote 2 Furthermore, using the cards facilitated active participation and a deeper reflection and learning effects for the older interviewees, while also promoting detailed discussions about topics around the home, trust, and social robots.
Creating a Fluent Conversation and Trust
The interviewers, who had no or very little experience with conducting qualitative interviews, reported a positive impact of the cards on the conversation flow (“there was a red thread throughout the conversation and a structure” (I2), “otherwise, how do you keep a red thread?” (I5)). They found the cards “easy to understand, and it was easy to explain to others [i.e. interview partners] what the cards were about” (I1). The students reported that the cards made the conversation appear more relaxed and like a game, even entertaining, and helped in “keep[ing] the conversation rolling” (I5). The interviewers discussed this in contrast to their experience of having such conversations without cards, where they found a tendency that the “conversation died out” (I6) when not using the cards. Figure 2 shows a conversation based on card use.
Our findings also point to ways in which the cards helped to establish trust between interviewer and older interviewee, and using the cards made the conversation personal (e.g., “in the beginning I thought she [the older interviewee] had a good life [...] but later I realized [...] she was really alone” (I5)). The cards gave access to imagined actions in intimate spaces, practices and emotional dimensions in stories around older people’s everyday lives (“when we talked about the bedroom, she really talked about it [...] [how] she combed her hair [...] maybe if we didn’t specifically refer to the bedroom, I couldn’t talk about this aspect” (I6)). To illustrate the emotions conveyed, an interviewee said, “I always need someone to care about me [...] and it’s the greatest fear of my life” (I3), and another older person stated, “the floor is also wet and I‘m afraid to fall” (I4) in the bathroom. Another interviewee said they may be ashamed if they or their private space were filmed by a latest invention.
Active Participation and Mutual Learning
The Provocation Cards and the Places Cards appeared to be the most fruitful for promoting active participation of the the older adults. Laying out the floor plan served as a shared task for the interview partners and established a common play ground (“they [the elicitation cards] helped us and the participants to imagine the house and not skip or miss some rooms” (I2)). The older interviewees frequently followed the invitation to pick up Provocation Cards (up to three cards per place), indicating their active participation in the conversation.
The cards also facilitated additional points of reflection, so older adults were able to develop and revise their ideas. People happened to change their minds in the course of the conversation when talking about concrete scenes with a robot at specific places. The cards thus had an educational effect, where older people were able to reflect more on what they wanted to have in their private space.
Furthermore, the interviewers (and researchers) learned about the challenges of talking about trust, as well as about the domestic environments of older adults. They learned about the home and the social context in older people’s lives, and engaged in an active dialogue with older adults about older people’s concerns.
Facilitating Detailed Insights
Overall, the interviewers reported that the cards added focus to the stories told by participants and thus helped to reveal details (in particular compared to conducting interviews without cards). For example, some older interviewees initially said they had few or no reservations regarding privacy. However, by means of the cards, older people later detailed in which places video recordings were acceptable and where not: “[It is] no problem if the latest invention has cameras and other people can see what the latest invention sees, except for the bathroom and the toilet, she [older interviewee] does not want to be recorded there” (I8).
It was sometimes surprising how much detail was included in the concrete scenarios with robots that interviewees talked through, e.g. an interviewee saying the robot “must not spill the bucket” (I4) when cleaning the rooms, or another older person stating that, they “could as well play a card game on a robot [but] would not want to reach out too far” (I9), and it “should be comfortably reachable” (I9), or the latest invention must have “a certain size to be able to reach things” (I6) in the kitchen. As the interviewers also had the experience of talking about a typical day and people’s homes without using the cards, they found that the conversations without the cards, in comparison, tended to be less easy and lacked detail (“I think they could not have imagined it [without cards] as they did with cards” (I1)).
Components of the Cards
Since the cards had a positive effect on the conversations, it might be useful to unpack the components of the cards and analyse them each in more detail. These details highlight findings on the use of the token as well as particularities of each card category.
The Token Saying Latest Invention: Challenges Regarding the Terminology
Talking about robots per se tended to be difficult in the beginning, even when using the term latest invention. As stated earlier, we gave the students the opportunity of avoiding the word robot by instead introducing the notion of a latest invention (LI). The main motivation was not to create stereotypical robot images in the mind of the older participants (e.g., R2D2 from Starwars). While this term was used throughout the interviews in some cases, other interviewers found LI even more abstract, and instead introduced the term robot in the course of the conversations (“the latest invention was somehow confusing and they didn’t understand it, and we should explain it” (I6)). On the other hand, some interviewers reported how it was hard to avoid the term robot at all (“they automatically thought about robots” (I2)). In the rest of the article, we will thus use both terms, indicating different strategies for handling the conversations.
Some interviewers drew on public media or movie characters to make assistive technologies tangible at first. Also, there were associations with known TV shows like Tom Turbo, an anthropomorphic bicycle (“[it could] make coffee like Tom Turbo” (I8)). One interviewer played a commercial voice assistant in different accents to demonstrate an agent’s potential voice (e.g., saying, “Hey Siri, make some coffee for me” (I7)). In addition, the interviewers reported that it was useful to refer to utilities in the household and connect them to the floor plan in order to help imagining what the latest invention could be like.
Despite the interviewers finding initial difficulties when speaking about robots as unfamiliar artifacts, they also concluded that walking through the floor plans and thinking out loud through daily routines became easier throughout the conversations. Further, using the token (together with the Places Cards) acted as a common ground to get back on track (“otherwise, we would have forgotten plenty of things” (I5)). On the other hand, two interviewers reported how using the token was especially helpful in the beginning of the interview, i.e. “as an entry point [...] then, as the conversation was rolling, we did not need it any longer” (I1).
Students were surprised about the interviewees being so skeptical about robots. However, the interviewers encouraged older people to talk about specific scenarios, i.e. in relation to the places. To overcome the difficulties with the terminology, there were also suggestions for future work. For example, two interviewers suggested that it would be useful to provide older interviewees with information about technology like assistive robots beforehand, i.e. “it would be useful to have an additional set of cards, where these things are explained” (I5). As the interviewers also struggled with not knowing about their interviewees’ background, another two students proposed providing cards around technical affinity to “ask them in more detail to know exactly what is their information about [...] robots” (I6).
Introducing Other People with the People Card
The People Card was intended to introduce other (significant) people of the older adults’ daily lives to the conversations. We found in our analysis that older adults talked about family members later in the conversations, as these family members had been brought into the discussion using the People Card. For example, an interviewee spoke about their grandson in the beginning when using the card. Later in the conversation, when the ability of the robot being able to make phone calls was discussed, the grandson was brought up again (“It would be nice if I say call my dear grandson and it does” (I9)).
Talking About a Typical Day with the Motives Card
The interview partners were discussing plans for a typical day and the lives of the older adults when using the Motives Card, and more in detail when walking through the floor plan. Talking through a typical day was thus facilitated by using the Places Cards in combination with the Motives Card. Upfront, older people described their daily routines (e.g., “wake up early, go in the bathroom. She [the older interviewee] drinks coffee and feeds the animals. [...]” (I8)). However, two older adults were surprised by the question about their plans for their life given they felt old for this question. The interviewers also found the Motives Card repetitive when walking through the floor plan later in the conversation (“the repetitive explanation about the daily life, [...] both interview partners said, I explained it already” (I5)).
Discussing Detailed Place-Based Insights with the Places Cards
Use of the Places Cards enabled the older people to imagine being in the corresponding rooms and discuss the activities that would happen there. Privacy aspects were introduced by the cards, and older people would differentiate between the rooms and associated preferences, e.g., by saying they would have “no problem for recording in the kitchen and if it [the latest invention] understands what you say [...] except for the bathroom and toilet, she does not want to be recorded there” (I7).
By using the floor plan, older adults were also able to talk about recent events at specific places. For example, one older person told the story about a “past burglary” (I3) that had once happened in their home, a theme that was taken up several times again later in the conversation when reflecting on how the robot could enhance safety (e.g., the option of a “secure and intelligent entrance door” (I3), and a latest invention that “consists of cameras in [the] whole house to observe and report an emergency would be again a good idea” (I4)).
The Places Cards were also tied to an older person’s specific current life and how they imagined the future. For example, while mapping out the home, an interviewer said the “bedroom on the first floor will be a problem in later life” (I5). Consequently, the interviewee “liked [the] idea of using voice to trigger commands” (I5) to a latest invention that would serve as a hospital-bed.
The Golden Card Revealing Details About Support in Housework and Personal Assistance
The general question of how the latest invention could support an older person triggered the interviewees to refer to the home, often to housework (e.g., “no particular support [in the living room], besides assisting with] small interior changes or help cleaning” (I10)). The Golden Card was used for such general questions, i.e., how older people could be supported and distracted by a latest invention. Interviewees referred to very specific activities like help with cooking (“It would also be helpful if the latest invention can cook” (I4)), “carrying the garbage downstairs” (I1), vacuum cleaning, work in the garden, “help with picking up things from the ground to avoid bending down” (I10), or help with cleaning in the bathroom or toilet (“it can [...] dry the bathroom after the shower” (I9)). These answers indicated a general openness for support in housework. Despite the self-reported lack of technical affinity of most older people in our study, some of them were able to imagine a latest invention in their homes in quite some detail. For example, when bringing down the garbage, “several steps need to be overcome” (I1), so the latest invention would need to be able to climb stairs.
Interviewers also reported on specific ideas for personal assistance from their interviewees. For example, an interviewee who was sitting in a wheelchair elaborated how “getting out of my wheelchair to sit on the toilet is one of the most difficult things for me. It could help me to do it and especially help me to dress up” (I4). The Golden Card was thus sometimes useful to talk about personalized support and assistance.
Strategies Using the Provocation Cards
While the Provocation Cards did not suggest a strict order of questions, these cards had the most positive effect on the conversation flow according to reports of some interviewers (“It was way easier to ask provoking questions when using the Provocation Cards” (I1)). Interviewers reported that the Provocation Cards were “really good because we could use them and they were good for guiding the interview” (I2). However, other interviewers remarked how “it is difficult to keep a conversation fluent with such cards” (I3), and that “it was sometimes difficult to find the right question” (I6).
To be more responsive to the conversations flow, the interviewers came up with strategies for using the Provocation Cards. Interviewers created several piles of Provocation Cards with similar topics to choose from, such as voice or privacy. Other interviewers created “one [pile], where it was all about the robot, and the other one for more general questions” (I5). This way, it was possible to “get back to a pile, when the situation escalated” (I6).
While most Provocation Cards stimulated the conversation, some interviewers found using two particular cards rather difficult and named them “conversation killers” (I3). The card asking, “What if the latest invention can detect when you are very happy?” was sometimes not understood properly. In such a case the participants responded: “and then what?” (I3). Students reported that the participants “came to a halt, and they did not know what to do with this question, and we did not know either” (I4). Further, some interviewers found the card asking, “What if the latest invention is furry?”, difficult, as their interview partners could not imagine such a robot. Only one older person said they “would rather have something real to cuddle” (I4) (instead of cuddling with a furry robot).
Topics Related to Trust, Robots, and Older People as Facilitated by the Elicitation Cards
Besides findings about the use of the cards per se, we also have specific findings on the topic of trust and robots as facilitated by the elicitation cards. We provide the most significant insights that emerged from the topic analysis to further illustrate that the deck of cards was actually appropriate for revealing relevant, trust-related findings. These include (design) insights on trust that refer to privacy, control and companionship, as well as thoughts on limitations of what technology can provide for people’s lives and the future.
Privacy Throughout the Home
An important dimension of trust centered around privacy. Privacy aspects were provoked by the cards, e.g., when asking older adults to imagine the robot having cameras or recording audio. Older people stated they did not want to be watched.
Often, privacy aspects were in reference to anthropomorphic robot design, e.g. “If it looks like a human, I don‘t have a comfortable feeling to be in the toilet and bathroom with him. I think someone is really watching me and I don‘t like this feeling” (I9). In this sense, the cards facilitated the interviewee imagining a robot in a very intimate place where they would undress or perform intimate activities, and hence raised concerns about any stranger, be it the robot or a person watching them mediated by the robot, being able to watch them in a potentially vulnerable state.
Moving through the rooms sometimes changed older people’s acceptance of what the robot should be able to do. An older person stated they had nothing to hide, but as soon as they entered the toilet and the bathroom, they did not want cameras at all anymore (“No problem if the latest invention has cameras and other people can see what the latest invention sees, except for the bathroom and toilet, she does not want to be recorded there” (I7)). The Places Cards apparently inspired the interviewee’s imagination of the robot actually being there when performing actions like taking a shower. Another example is provided by a case where an interviewee was also saying she had no problems with the robot having cute eyes to make video recordings, which “would be okay” (I8). However, when asked, what if the robot accompanied them everywhere in their home, the older adult rejected the robot coming to the bathroom with them (“I want to go to the bathroom on my own” (I8)), adding “and also when putting on my clothes I don‘t need a robot[,...] at intimate activities the robot shouldn’t be there [...] it should stand in the corner and wait” (I8).
Having Ultimate Authority Over the Robot
A repeating theme regarding trust was control. The fear of a robot making autonomous decisions in one’s home was encountered with the desire to have the ultimate authority over the robot. For example, an older person said, “one may be afraid that it will become autonomous and then do things that one actually does not want” (I7).
Older adults expressed skepticism regarding the robot’s autonomy by indicating it needed a turn-off button (“if I cannot turn off the latest invention [... I] will throw it away” (I5)), a reset-button (in case of any erroneous behaviour) or the option to unplug it. Being able to turn off the robot was often a precondition for accepting a robot at all. One person said they would “place the robot in front of the door and lock it out” (I8) if the turn-off button did not work. Very often, the desire of ultimately being in control occurred in relation to privacy or spending money (e.g. “I rather do this myself” (I7)).
For trusting the robot, older people wanted the robot to explain its actions in a transparent way and to be able to communicate clearly (“I don’t care about the voice, but it should be understandable” (I9)), because they wanted to be in control of the robot’s performances. Control was especially important when it came to the robot spending money (“No, no, I don’t want it at all” (I6), when being asked if the robot may be connected to a person’s bank account), otherwise they were afraid of being robbed.
Mixed Acceptance of Companionship
While we designed the cards and the procedure of using them with an aspiration to give the latest invention a certain degree of agency, the idea of having a quasi-social relationship with a robot was only partly picked up or accepted. While some older adults spoke about companionship with a robot in a quite wishful manner, other interviewees refused this very idea.
The latest invention was mostly imagined as being quite social in the course of the conversations. An interviewee said there were moments when technology was not needed such as when somebody was visiting (“when someone is visiting, I don’t need this invention anymore anyway, then I am so happy and want to be left alone with my friends and family” (I4)), or when you want to be alone (“[there are] moments where you want to be alone” (I3)). Not being alone when the robot is present indicates the robot being perceived social to some extent.
Human–robot companionship was brought up as an alternative to being with other humans, as loneliness turned out to be an issue for some older people (e.g., having “problems with meeting friends because of [my] high age, most friends unfortunately died” (I9)). One interviewer also reported that the People Card “made the interviewee depressed for a moment” (I6). Some older adults discussed how they imagined the robot to be involved in intimate relationships with them, as they wanted a companion to play or talk with (“I would be very pleased to have a playmate to cheer me up” (I7)), or a latest invention to discuss with what would be discussed with a partner, or even to “make a massage at the end of the day” (I8) when talking about support in the bedroom.
Scepticism and Limitations of Technology
Scepticism of future technologies and a notion of carefulness was also part of the conversations. On the one hand, older people said they would “not only rely on the robot” (I10) in cases of emergency if the robot was not trustworthy. Further, older adults said they would “first do a trial run for a couple of months” (I4) before actually relying on a latest invention. On the other hand, the interviewees anticipated limitations of technology for the future. Besides optimism in certain capacities, e.g. being able to interact via voice commands with technology in the future (“I think technology will then be advanced so it is able to understand me” (I8)), interviewees seemed quite aware of its limitations. This holds for socioeconomic issues like the digital divide (“People who need care nowadays did not grow up with technology” (I10)), and medical issues (“When a person has dementia, the robot will not be able to fix it either” (I7)).