Designing e-Service for an Ageing Society

Contemporary societies are experiencing a proliferation of e-services that is fast changing how people go about their daily lives. With the rapid ageing of many societies, the rising ubiquity of e-services is exacerbating digital divide and digital inequality as these e-services are not designed to facilitate senior citizens’ adoption and usage. The aim of this research is to explore the situated usage of e-services among senior citizens in designing useful e-services for an ageing society. The emphasis on e-services usage among senior citizens as situated practice led to the adoption of Bourdieu’s Practice Theory as the theoretical sense-making lens. Preliminary analysis revealed the saliency of disposition, bodily capital, cultural capital, economic capital and social capital in senior citizens’ use of e-service. This research has implications to both theory and practice. It proposes an approach of e-services design that holds potential to reshape societies in becoming more inclusive and age-friendly