Abstract:
The Wisdom of Age (WoA) project aims to develop a matchmaking mentoring platform with specialized knowledge from older adults to help them remain active while also supporting industrial businesses and students in their respective endeavors. Engaging older adults in technology development is crucial to enable and facilitate equal exchange between retirees and companies. Even more, it can contribute to bridging the digital divide among older adults. We explored the use of an online survey to assess the background and needs of the targeted future user-base of the WoA platform. The survey involved older adults with a background in engineering or IT in one of the early development stages and ensured that the necessary features were implemented o increase the potential usefulness of the platform. Overall, older adults showed a positive attitude towards spending time on the platform. They indicated that the platform can provide older adults an opportunity to support society as well as make them feel useful and engaged. In sum, we were able to collect quantitative data and assign a leading role to a larger sample of end-users in the early stages of the WoA development process. The WoA platform has the potential to address the age-related brain drain in industrial companies while supporting the individualization of retirement.