Making the invisible visible: Supporting older adults’ expression of emotional needs for companion robots through visual co-design tools

Abstract

As populations age, companion robots are increasingly explored to support emotional well-being in later life. However, older adults often find it difficult to express abstract emotions or imagine interactions with unfamiliar technologies, limiting their participation in early-stage design. This study develops and validates a structured toolkit designed to support emotional articulation and co-design participation. The toolkit, consisting of companionship cards, robot role cards, and recording canvases, was refined through expert evaluation and user testing, and validated through comparative interviews with older adults (n=10). Results show that the toolkit supported richer emotional expression, smoother dialogue, and more sustained engagement, helping participants transform lived emotional experience into design-relevant insights. The study contributes a replicable methodological approach for emotion-centred participatory design, showing how structured visual scaffolding can foster emotional and conceptual inclusion, empower older adults to articulate their perspectives, and help their voices more actively shape more resonant Human–Robot Interaction.