Why AgeTech Infantilizes Older Adults | Kunal Parikh

Why does so much technology built for older adults look like it was designed for a four-year-old? Erin went looking for a fidget product for her dad, who had advanced Alzheimer's disease and kept trying to take apart the mechanics of his wheelchair. Almost everything she found was oversized and primary-colored, made for a toddler. It is the physical version of something that ships in software every week. On this episode of Designing for Dignity, Erin Young talks with Kunal Parikh, an independent consultant in AgeTech and health technology innovation. Kunal traces infantilizing design back to a society that measures people by productivity, then names the four places it shows up: visual design, language, interaction patterns, and device form factor. His diagnosis is that it happens when a team hasn't talked to enough people. A few friends and your parents is not a sample size. He also makes a case most AgeTech business models are built against. If a product's job is to strengthen someone's ability to manage their own health, its goal is to make itself unnecessary. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - Why caregiving is logistical labor as much as emotional labor - The four places infantilizing design shows up, and how to catch it in your own work - What gamification looks like when it is built for adults, with progression and real goals - The guardrails passive monitoring needs before it belongs in someone's home, from geofencing to a dignity mode - Kunal's three layers of consent, and what breaks when a product collapses them into one checkbox - Engagement load units, a way to budget the attention your product spends for a care partner - Why the family WhatsApp group beats most care coordination platforms ABOUT KUNAL PARIKH Kunal Parikh is a consultant in AgeTech and health technology innovation. He practiced medicine in India before moving into digital health, and holds a master's in Aging and Health from Queen's University for award-winning research on virtual caregiver training. He teaches at Algonquin College and gave a TEDx talk called "Did You Know You Are A Caregiver?" He is writing a book on the ethics and equity of aging, caregiving, and the technology built for both. - Kunal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunalparikh6 CHAPTERS (00:00) Introduction (01:33) Why a physician left clinical practice (04:10) Coordinating care from another country (07:23) Logistical labor and emotional labor (12:10) A fidget product made for toddlers (13:09) Four ways AgeTech infantilizes (15:51) Productivity, personhood, and value (17:00) How Erin prepares for brain change (19:23) Gamification built for adults (23:17) Overt monitoring and covert monitoring (27:59) Consent decay and meaningful consent (31:21) Where medical and tech ethics meet (34:55) Designing to make itself unnecessary (37:58) Engagement load units (42:53) When a founder is ready for help (53:31) Where to find Kunal ABOUT THE SHOW Designing for Dignity is a podcast from Slide UX about how design shapes autonomy, connection, and quality of life for people navigating aging, brain change, and care. - Newsletter: http://slideux.com/newsletter - Slide UX on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/slide-ux Topics: AgeTech, brain change, family caregiving, consent, infantilization, passive monitoring, data governance, digital health