Co-Investigators: Andrew Monk and John Clark (University of York); Patrick Oliver, Paul Dunphy, Karim Ladha, Cas Ladha and Vasillis Vlachokyriakos (Culture Lab, Newcastle University)
Project Partners: AgeUK and Barclays Bank
Funding: RCUK Digital Economy Programme 'Research-in-the-Wild'
It is well documented that the world’s population is getting older. Over the past two decades, a lot of research has explored how technologies can be better designed for the needs, desires and imagined experiences of an ageing population. In this project we explore the design of new banking technologies for and with people over the age of eighty. This age group is commonly referred to as the ‘older old’, although we prefer the more neutral term ‘eighty somethings’. Eighty somethings are the quickest growing age group in the world, and in the UK a person aged 80 today is predicted to live for at least another 11 years. Despite there being more eighty somethings in the UK than there ever has been, they are very poorly provided for by the banking sector.
Context
Many people aged over eighty have never had a bank account in their lives, and have spent much of their lives managing their finances primarily through using cash. In 2006 the UK Government legalised that pension payments could no longer be collected in cash from the Post Office using a pension-book. Instead, payments have to be made directly into a bank account or, at a minimum, a special Post Office Card Account where you use a Card with a PIN to withdraw a pension. For people unfamiliar with using bank cards and accounts, these were radical changes to the practices they have used throughout their lives.
Many eighty somethings, therefore, find it difficult to adapt to these new practices and technologies, and as we discovered during this project, their carers, friends and family members would often act as ‘third parties’ to ensure people continued to have access to their finances.
Even those eighty somethings that have used banks throughout their lives find their needs and desires ignored by their banks. The tale of banks and Post Offices in rural areas closing down or moving to more populous areas is often told, and when this happens it is often the oldest members of the community who become financially isolated. Cheques – a financial instrument whose use can be traced back over 300 years – are under threat of being withdrawn or replaced by new payment systems. Many modern payment systems require the use of PINs and complex passwords that are difficult to use for most people, yet alone an eighty year old. In this project we collaborated with eighty somethings, representatives of the banking and third sectors, and care-givers throughout in order to explore alternatives that might improve the banking experiences of this age group.
What We Did
The project began with a series of in-depth ‘financial biographies’ with people aged over eighty where they talked about their experiences of banking and money throughout their lives and how they felt these experiences had changed. These biographies were supplemented by semi-structured interviews with experts on the subject of banking and the needs of eighty somethings, such as care home managers, welfare benefits officers, and representatives of project partners and financial organisations.
Following the analysis of the interviews, we brought together the project team, external partners, and advisory board in a workshop to identify the key banking needs and barriers emerging from the first stage of the project. From this workshop the entire team had a better understanding of the problems the people we interviewed were facing, and in the ways in which better design could improve their banking experiences.
Over the course of five months we performed a series of co-design workshops with several groups of eighty somethings on a monthly basis. During these workshops, the project team ensured that participants and researchers were on an equal footing and could question one-another about their practices and experiences; therefore, useful dialogues would often emerge highlighting the huge difference between the young and old when it comes to managing finances. As we got to know each other better during the workshops and began to collectively understand some of the issues related to banking, we began to design new services and ‘invent’ new technologies with one-another. Typically, the workshops would focus on discussions with the researchers reacting by mapping out comments, drawing ideas, or making very basic models with the participants. The researchers would then often return to the next workshops with more refined imagery and prototypes in an iterative manner.
The result of this process is the development of a number of working provocative prototypes and service designs that can be both deployed in-the-wild and used to communicate the needs and desires of eighty somethings to stakeholders. For example, as a result of the co-design workshops, the team tested a community-based cheque ‘clearing’ system and ‘digital’ cheque book that allow people to make electronic payments with what looks and feels like a tradition paper cheque. We have also developed a secure PIN reminder that incorporates three-types of biometric sensors to provide basic PIN and password reminders to an account holder. Currently, we are also exploring the design space for those who need to temporarily delegate their finances to a trusted friend or carer.
Who will benefit
Clearly, the primary beneficiaries of the outcomes from this project will be people aged over 80 and those who support their banking practices. Yet at the same time, we expect that many of the issues revealed and ideas developed during the project will be useful to both other financially excluded groups and mainstream users of electronic banking.
For example, the expectation to remember and use (without writing down) multiple codes and passwords is not just a problem for those over-80 but for a great many people. Whilst the implications of the project are targeted towards what may appear to be a ‘niche’, we believe many more people will benefit from our designs.
The main commercial beneficiaries of the research will be financial service providers, who will be provided with a better understanding of the needs and desires of the eighty somethings when it comes to using modern banking systems. Other commercial beneficiaries include technology providers and manufacturers in the finance and payment sector, particularly those willing to explore the benefits of inclusive design.
The aim of the research is also to support the work of third sector organisations such as AgeUK in making an impact on banking policy and the UK Payments Council in their drive towards more inclusive payment methods.
Impact
As of November 2011 we have published three papers from this research (see references below) and have several others in-review. In October we demonstrated the prototypes and the recommendation to our project partners and advisors. Over the coming months we will be demonstrating our prototypes and recommendations to the public and to representatives of the financial sector, policy makers, and key technology manufacturers and service providers. In 2012 we aim to exhibit the designs emerging from our work, along with communicating the findings to relevant academic communities.
Related Publications:
Vines, J., Dunphy, P., Blythe, M., Lindsay, S., Monk, A., and Olivier, P. The Joy of Cheques: Trust, Paper and Eighty Somethings. In Proc. CSCW 2012, Seattle, USA, 11-15 February 2012.
Monk, A., Dunphy, P., Olivier, P., Vines, J., and Blythe, M. New approaches to banking for the older old. Digital Engagement: The 2nd All Hands Meeting of the Digital Economy, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 15-17 November 2011. http://www.eightysomething.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/11.10.27-New-approaches-to-banking-for-the-older-old-DE.pdf
Vines, J., Blythe, M., Dunphy, P., and Monk, A. Eighty Something: Banking for the Older Old. BCS-HCI 2011. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 4-8 June 2011. http://www.cuhtec.org.uk/download/EightySomething.pdf?PHPSESSID=ced0f41d81781a82ae4374568aae2889
Related Links:www.eightysomething.org
Press Coverage:
- http://tinyurl.com/digital-cheques-telegraph
- http://tinyurl.com/digital-cheques-daily-mail
