Research Framework
From cross-category interaction failures to adaptive usability guidelines
Overview
My research examines the barriers and facilitators that shape how older adults experience interaction breakdowns across health and household technologies — hearing aids, smart-home access systems, and everyday appliances. I study how age-friendly and adaptive usability approaches can support confidence, autonomy, trust, and continued use. Rather than treating each product as a separate design problem, this work looks at breakdowns as patterns that repeat across categories: sensory decline, working-memory load, motor precision, ambiguous feedback, and caregiver dependency. Working within cross-functional research and design teams, I have contributed to review mining, in-home field inquiry, accessible-design guideline development, and audiological and anthropometric research. The evidence below summarizes that work and the failure taxonomy it points toward.
Evidence Base
Source material
Internal review-mining study across household product categories
Research activity
Contributed to clustering older-adult complaints across washing machines, blood-pressure monitors, water heaters, and humidifiers/air purifiers
Observed evidence
Recurring barriers — low text legibility, multi-step app pairing, unclear control affordances — appear regardless of product category
Design implication
Interaction breakdowns are systemic across an ecosystem, not isolated to one device, motivating a cross-product failure taxonomy
Source material
In-home field research, Beijing households
Research activity
Took part in structured in-home interviews with older residents, examining smart-home touchpoints including locks, cameras, speakers, and robot vacuums
Observed evidence
Adoption breakdowns accumulate from household-level friction, not single missing features; persona synthesis surfaced distinct comfort and trust profiles
Design implication
Grounds the framework in lived, home-context use rather than lab-based testing — directly relevant to use and embracement
Source material
Internal accessible-design guideline materials
Research activity
Co-developed guideline materials spanning information display, software, hardware, physical environment, and safety, translating research findings into structured, testable design categories. This work also informed early-stage input to a related standards discussion.
Observed evidence
Research findings can be reliably translated into structured, testable guideline categories
Design implication
Demonstrates applied experience moving from empirical findings to guideline language — a core EMPOWrD-relevant skill
Source material
Audiological and noise-exposure research
Research activity
Conducted research synthesizing audiological literature on age-related hearing decline and noise-exposure standards
Observed evidence
Hearing decline translates into concrete sound-design limits — frequency bands, amplification ceilings, speech-clarity thresholds
Design implication
Provides the sensory-science basis for adjustable sound-feedback and calibration interfaces, directly feeding the hearing-aid case.
Source material
Anthropometric and reach-envelope research
Research activity
Incorporated anthropometric and reach-envelope data for older bodies into font-scaling and speech playback-rate tables
Observed evidence
Physical and sensory aging constraints can be expressed as adjustable design parameters rather than fixed specifications
Design implication
Supplies the mechanism linking physical and sensory decline to adjustable, rather than static, interface design
Source material
Hearing-aid self-fitting redesign project
Research activity
Contributed research and interaction design to a hearing-aid self-fitting redesign for first-time older users, within a cross-functional team
Observed evidence
A six-mechanism breakdown taxonomy — digital literacy, working memory, motor precision, feedback ambiguity, caregiver dependency, environmental interference — emerged through field-informed research and product analytics
Design implication
Serves as an applied case where the framework's mechanisms were identified and addressed directly
Failure Taxonomy
Mechanisms observed across categories
Cognitive overload
Multi-step instructions or setup flows exceed working-memory capacity under task conditions
Sensory accessibility failure
Text, contrast, or sound design does not accommodate age-related vision or hearing decline
Feedback ambiguity
Unclear system state leaves users uncertain whether an action registered or a process is still running
Biometric / physical interaction instability
Touch precision, grip, or reach demands exceed age-related motor and anthropometric capacity
Caregiver-mediated interaction error
Single, undifferentiated flows force dependency on a caregiver rather than supporting independent use
From Framework to Projects
Hearing-Aid Self-Fitting
→Applies this framework to digital fluency, working-memory load, auditory feedback uncertainty, caregiver mediation, environmental noise, and task continuity in a single applied case.
Xiaomi M30 Smart Lock
→Connects to biometric instability, physical-digital access, household-role management, trust, temporary access, and safety.
TranquilMind
→A future method asset for adaptive sensing and state-aware interaction, such as physiological signals informing real-time interface adjustment; presented as an exploratory prototype, not a deployed system.
BMW HMI Guidelines
→A supporting design-system case illustrating component hierarchy and interface stability within a constrained display environment, relevant to how guideline translation scales across product types.
Research Takeaway
Across appliance reviews, home-context field research, guideline development, and sensory/physical aging data, the same mechanisms recur regardless of device category. This suggests that interaction breakdowns among older adults are patterned failures in how systems handle cognitive load, sensory range, physical capacity, feedback, and caregiver involvement — not isolated product defects. Treating these mechanisms as a shared design vocabulary, rather than re-diagnosing each product from scratch, offers a way to evaluate access, use, and embracement systematically, and to design adaptive usability that supports confidence, autonomy, and continued use over time.
Commercial and field data referenced here are aggregated and anonymized; raw data and implementation details are omitted due to commercial confidentiality.