Design as a Tool to Address Loneliness: An approach to the elderly through Cultural Probes

Loneliness among older adults represents a complex and growing challenge, with significant emotional and social repercussions. In this context, the Co-bien project adopts a co-design approach to address this issue through empathy, active listening, and socially meaningful technology. The aim of this study is to develop an adapted engagement protocol that enables the exploration of experiences, needs, and expectations of older adults at risk of experiencing loneliness. Qualitative methods such as Cultural Probes and in-depth interviews were employed within participatory workshops involving older adults from diverse contexts. Preliminary findings suggest that these tools foster self-reflection, build trust, and facilitate access to subjective meanings that are difficult to capture through traditional methods. Preliminary results suggest that combining Cultural Probes and in-depth interviews not only enables access to intimate experiences usually inaccessible to traditional methods, but also increases motivation, trust and participants’ sense of agency—laying the groundwork for co-design processes that are ethically stronger and more operationally robust.