Our previous work engaging with people with dementia and their older caregivers in the design of safe walking aids demonstrated that they could struggle when trying to envision new technologies
observed similar results when engaging older adults in the development of mobile phones. This work also demonstrated the need to respect individual‟s contributions to the design process. We conducted in-depth analysis of participants narratives from participatory design sessions
but found that, at times, this led to ignoring their directly articulated requirements. While some older adults can struggle to articulate themselves, interpreting their utterances without properly engaging them in the design process is not an appropriate solution.