Leveraging Curiosity to Care for an Aging Population

The United States is experiencing a silver tsunami: an aging nation with baby boomers becoming the largest elderly population in the country’s history. This demographic shift poses challenges for maintaining mobility and independence among older individuals. This paper will demonstrate an ongoing research project conducted for a major automotive maker that explores how an early research-and-development initiative might lengthen the driving years for older drivers. The paper will introduce the project, its scope, and constraints. It introduces the Inviting Curiosity framework, used to elicit moments of curiosity in interactive experiences. It shows how the Inviting Curiosity framework was used in a research-through-design approach to create mobile and tablet prototypes tested with automotive consumers. The paper provides a detailed account of each research phase, highlighting key findings and the evolution of the project, ultimately demonstrating how technology and innovative approaches can contribute to enhancing the driving experience for an aging population.