Hands-on sessions, where
older people experience new technology, have also proved more successful than
verbal explanations or demonstrations, and these can often lead to spontaneous
suggestions for improvements or for new products [11], and hands-on sessions allow
researchers to observe the difference between what people report and what actually
happens [18]. Gheerawo and Lebbon [8] describe a similar process which they called
‘empathic bonding’ to stimulate creative thinking and user-facilitated innovation.