Dear Colleagues,

This special issue addresses technology design for older people (65+) in two timely and important design scenarios: the COVID-19 pandemic and Human–Artificial Intelligence (AI) interaction.

The COVID-19 pandemic has focused increased attention on social isolation and loneliness for all ages, particularly older people as the most vulnerable, at-risk segment of the population. Many of the traditional strategies for engaging older adults have become obsolete in the new normal. Over the course of the pandemic, we have seen evidence of openly ageist discourses (e.g., #BoomerRemover), which complicates the experiences of living through COVID-19 for older people. How can digital technologies be designed to improve connectivity in a time of recommended and required physical distancing for older people (and all of us)? What lessons can we learn from the COVID-19 pandemic to design better technologies for a growing ageing population?

We are moving toward an era of Human–AI interaction, as autonomous and intelligent systems, from voice assistants and product recommenders to smart-home devices, smart cars, and social robots, are becoming increasingly common in our lives. This has led to claims for examining AI as the new design material, exploring ways of prototyping Human–AI, and putting forward new design guidelines, as the best user experience no longer comes only from usability but from trustworthy, personalized, and ethical machine intelligence. At the same time, population ageing is poised to become one of the most significant social transformations of the 21st century, with implications for nearly all sectors of society. How do we design Human–AI interaction for, and with, older people?

This interdisciplinary Special Issue aims to bring together a selection of high-quality papers (e.g., case studies, insightful reviews, theoretical and critical perspectives, and viewpoint articles) that contribute to technology design for older people by addressing topics including, but not limited to:  

• Older people, COVID-19, social isolation, loneliness, and ICTs;
• Designing digital technologies for a growing ageing population post-COVID 19;
• COVID-19 and digital ageism;
• Artificial Intelligence as a design material and older people;
• Ways of prototyping Human–AI interaction and older people;
• Guidelines for Human–AI interaction and older people;
• Ethically designed Human–AI interactions and older people.

Dr. Sergio Sayago
Dr. Paula Forbes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.