An electronic copy of the proposal is available through UT Box at: https://utexas.box.com/s/baipk9xtd675mkbrk3cl7cnsp6ccdktb. The title and abstract are below.

Title: Understanding the Lived Experience of Older Pedestrians: Combining Walking Interviews and Participatory Design to Anticipate Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Communication

Abstract: Older pedestrian safety has gone largely unnoticed in studies anticipating future autonomous vehicle (AV) design. As fields such as HCI, mobilities, and road user safety have converged to understand current interactions and envision future solutions, there is often a tendency to favor new and novel modes of design, rather than developing a deeper understanding for the needs and abilities of people -- especially overlooked populations such as older adults. Addressing these gaps in the literature, this study aims to understand: (1) how age-related changes in personal ability and environmental elements impact older pedestrians’ perception of sensory cues from current vehicles; (2) what features older adults envision in future vehicle design (as vehicles become more automated) that might help overcome the challenges they currently experience as pedestrians with existing vehicles; and (3) how combining observational (walking interviews) and participatory methods can be used to include older pedestrians in the design of future vehicle technologies. A total of 20 older adult participants (55+) will be recruited to take part in a study at WellMed Senior Center in Austin, Texas. All participants will be asked to take part in (1) one walking interview, (lasting approximately 1 hour); and (2) 2 small group sessions (approximately 5 participants per group) lasting 2 hours each (4 hours total). At least half of the walking interviews (n = 10) will need to take place before the small group sessions in order to create realistic scenarios. These scenarios will serve as the foundation for group activities. Group activities will include drawing and embodied enactments of scenarios (i.e., acting out a story using a script or illustration) of the pedestrian-vehicle-environment relationship. Data will be collected in the form of: audio recordings and transcripts from walking interviews, photographs, artifacts generated from drawing activities, and short videos of scenario enactments. All data will be analyzed through a reflexive process of thematic analysis. The findings will have implications for including the experience of older pedestrians in the design of effective AV-pedestrian communication technologies.

Committee: Bo Xie (Chair), Eric Meyer, Danna Gurari, and John Traphagan (UT Austin Religious Studies and Department of Anthropology)