AI Mobility Solutions for an Active Ageing Society. Introducing Aesthetic Affordances in the Design of Smart Wheelchairs

In the next paper we argue that user-centered product design can play an important role in the development of a new generation of smart wheelchairs that places an emphasis on the users’ functional and aesthetical needs. We present the concept of “aesthetic affordance” [1] and propose interaction aesthetics and user scenarios as valid frameworks for designing AI mobility devices for elderly users. The term “affordance” in this specific case study is seen as bringing together the capability of a device to enable a specific action [2] and the possibility of that device to communicate a certain meaning [3]. We stress out how the smart wheelchairs, which successfully convey their actual mobility support function, can help the elderly people become more easily accepted as active citizens by the rest of the community. In this sense the aesthetics of the product have an equal importance to the innovative AI implementations. An initial review of the existent AI augmented wheelchairs revealed an overall lack of concern about the aesthetic functions of the mobility devices and more important the lack of consideration of how the person using it is perceived by the rest of the society.