Stress is prevalent among older informal carers and has been shown to lead to negative developments in physical and psychological health, as well as overall wellbeing. One area of wellbeing that can be impacted is sleep, with high stress levels leading to poor sleep and poor sleep causing stress. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have grown in popularity in recent years and have been shown to reduce stress and increase quality of life among older informal carers. MBIs delivered digitally have the potential to be used by and be of benefit to a wide group of people. Based on the apparent gaps in the literature concerning the area of mobile device/computer-mediated MBIs for older informal carers, further research is needed in this area. An opportunity also lies in the use of wearable activity trackers to monitor any potential improvements in sleep, due to reduced stress. This paper focuses on the design of a digital application delivering MBIs, to support older informal carers to manage stress and sleep. We describe a qualitative study with older informal carers and the resulting digital application while outlining how this system will be trialled with 15 older informal carers over a 12-week period with a view to reducing stress and improving overall wellbeing.

As the number of older adults in our society increases, a greater demand is put on our healthcare systems. This increasing demand on healthcare and especially on the front-line care-givers and professionals has led to a greater need for individual patients to actively engage in personal behaviour change to manage their conditions and improve their quality of life. The Human Computer Interaction Community has a growing body of research pertaining to the many and varied ways that Behavioural Change Techniques have been integrated into digital applications and intervention systems. However, it has been noted that the limitations as to how these interventions have been evaluated has led to the existing research having little impact. This study will explore the design strategies and theories that currently exist regarding implementing digital BCTs and will concentrate on why do these types of interventions work, if they work at all?

SANDPiT is a novel intergenerational project whereby 40 school students and 12 older adults worked together over 9 months to design and prototype technology applications for mobile devices. The main remit of the project was to design applications that are of benefit to younger and older generations alike, focusing on the similarities between generations rather than the differences. This paper explores some of the successes and challenges of creating an intergenerational design team, highlighting issues surrounding collaboration, communication, engagement and mutual learning.