For many older adults, aging in place means staying in the home they already know and love. But in practice, aging in place is about much more than simply remaining at the same address.
According to AARP Research, 75% of adults age 50 and older want to remain in their homes as they age. At the same time, 47% doubt their communities will be able to meet their needs as they grow older. Those findings point to a tension at the heart of aging in place: People may have a strong vision for where and how they want to live, but circumstances can make that vision difficult to maintain.
This tension is at the heart of The Desire and Reality of Aging in Place, the first report in the Applied AgeTech in Real Life research series from the AgeTech Collaborative™ and AARP Research that underscores an important insight for AgeTech innovators: As AgeTech evolves, success depends not just on what technology can do, but on how well it fits into the realities of people's everyday lives.
The aging-in-place report brings that idea into sharp focus through the experiences of older adults themselves. Drawing on the perspectives of people across the three cohorts in the Applied AgeTech in Real Life framework — Active, Supported and Assisted — the report reveals the many ways people define home, the compromises they make when circumstances change and the everyday challenges that can determine whether a technology actually works for them. Throughout this post, we'll let their voices help illustrate what the research looks like in real life.
Here are five realities that shed light on what aging in place actually looks like in real life, insights that can help AgeTech companies create technology that works in the real world.
1. Aging in Place Is About More Than an Address
When people talk about aging in place, it's easy to imagine that they’re talking about a specific physical location — the house where they've lived for years and raised a family, for example — and often, they are. But for older adults, aging in place at “home” can be about much more than continuing to live at a particular address. It can mean moving to a different house that better meets their changing needs, or choosing a new community that provides greater independence and connection. What matters is not necessarily staying put, but maintaining a sense of safety, comfort, independence, affordability, community and control.
For Joseph, 56, who recently moved, the comfort of home comes from familiarity — not just with the physical space, but with the people and places around him. “What does it mean to age in place?” he says. “I believe it gives you comfort. It’s almost like a warm sweater on a chilly night. You know it. You know the neighbors. You know the area. You have relatively few surprises.”
That sense of familiarity and comfort can be an important part of what people are trying to preserve as they age. And as another participant, Steven, put it, “We are in place. We are here. We are comfortable here.”
For AgeTech innovators, that distinction matters. People aren't simply trying to maintain a physical environment. They're trying to maintain a way of life: the routines, relationships, autonomy and sense of belonging that make a place feel like home. Technology that supports aging in place needs to fit into that larger picture — not simply help someone remain at a particular address.
2. The Plan and the Reality Don't Always Match
People can have a clear idea of how they want to age in place, but circumstances don't always cooperate. Health and mobility can change; finances can shift; a home that once felt perfectly manageable can become difficult to navigate or maintain. And sometimes, the home that would best meet someone's needs simply isn't available when they need it.
Phyllis, for example, knew that a one-level home would better suit her needs because of ongoing knee problems. But when the time came to move, the home she wanted wasn't readily available. Instead, she ended up in a three-level townhome — an outcome that didn't exactly match her original plan.
That gap between the ideal and the possible is important for AgeTech innovators to recognize. Technology designed to help people age in place can easily be built around an ideal scenario: a person in a suitable home, with the resources and capabilities to use the right solution at the right time. But real life is rarely so tidy. The opportunity isn't simply to create technology that supports a particular vision of aging in place. It's to create solutions that can accommodate the messy, sometimes unexpected ways people actually get there, while helping them maintain as much independence, comfort and control as possible along the way.
3. Family Can Be Both the Bridge and the Bottleneck
Family members can play an important role in helping older adults adopt technology. They may recommend a product, research options, make a purchase, set it up or provide ongoing help when something goes wrong. In some cases, family is the reason a technology gets tried in the first place.
But that support can also introduce a new dependency. If someone needs a family member to vet, purchase or set up a technology before they can use it, adoption may have to wait until that person is available.
Carol's experience with a new computer illustrates this dynamic. Her son bought the computer to replace one she was having trouble with, but getting the new system working with her large monitor proved difficult. As Carol put it, “I’m waiting again for him to come over and try to tackle it.”
The technology itself wasn't necessarily the problem. The problem was that the support system had to be in place around Carol before she could actually use it. A family member's involvement had helped make the technology possible, but it had also become a prerequisite for getting it up and running.
For older adults who need more substantial support, family caregivers may effectively become co-users of technology. They may be the people who receive alerts, troubleshoot problems, manage settings or interpret information. In those cases, a product designed only around the older adult as the user is missing an important part of the system.
For innovators, the opportunity isn't simply to make technology easier for older adults to use on their own. It's to recognize that the person buying, setting up, using and managing a product may not always be the same person. Designing with those different roles in mind can make technology more useful — and more usable — for the entire support network.
4. The Worst Time to Learn a New Technology Is During a Crisis
Technology often becomes especially appealing when circumstances suddenly change. A fall might prompt someone to consider an alert system. A new diagnosis might lead to investigating new health technologies. A change in caregiving responsibilities might create an urgent need for tools that help family members stay connected or manage care.
The problem is that a crisis is also one of the worst times to learn something unfamiliar. When people are already dealing with a major life change, they may have little time or mental bandwidth to figure out a new device, app or service. Even technology that could ultimately make life easier can initially feel like one more thing to manage.
That challenge came through clearly in the interviews with older adults. Teresa, who was navigating significant changes in her health and independence, offered a simple prescription for technology intended to help people age in place: “It has to be simple, simple, simple.”
Her comment speaks to more than interface design. When a technology is introduced at a moment of heightened stress or vulnerability, even relatively minor frustrations can become major obstacles. A product that requires users to learn unfamiliar steps, troubleshoot problems or change established routines may be especially difficult to adopt when the need for it is already urgent.
This is why familiarity matters. Introducing people to technologies before they urgently need them can give them time to understand how they work, build confidence and incorporate them into everyday routines. Then, if circumstances change, the technology isn't entirely new.
For AgeTech innovators, that means thinking beyond the moment when a product becomes necessary. The goal is to help technology earn a place in people's lives before the stakes are high — so that when circumstances become more complicated, the technology is already familiar and ready to help.
5. Real Homes and Real Lives Are Messy
A technology can work perfectly in a demonstration environment and still fail when it encounters a real home. Older homes can be a particular challenge in this regard: They may have inconsistent Wi-Fi, limited outlets, thick walls, awkward layouts or decades of accumulated belongings. The person using a device may have changing mobility, vision or hearing challenges, limited fine-motor control, fatigue or pain. And those conditions can change from one day to the next.
Joseph's experience with a smart-home device shows how quickly those realities can undermine a technology that looks straightforward, at least on paper. He spent so much time troubleshooting a device that he eventually gave up: “I must have reset that device 30 times. It was just the sheer frustration that made me give up.”
That frustration points to an important distinction: The technology doesn't have to be complicated to become difficult. Installation, setup, connectivity and day-to-day use all have to work within the realities of someone's home and capabilities. If a product fails at any of those points, it may never get the chance to provide a benefit.
That's why simplicity matters — not just in a product's interface, but throughout the entire experience. As Teresa put it, “It has to be simple, simple, simple.” For AgeTech innovators, the standard shouldn't be whether a product works under ideal conditions. It should be whether it works for people in the imperfect, changing environments where they actually live.
Designing for Aging in Place in the Real World
Aging in place isn't a single experience or a fixed destination. It's an ongoing process in which people make plans, encounter unexpected changes and adapt to new circumstances, often with help from family and technology along the way.
For AgeTech innovators, understanding that reality is essential. The most useful solutions won't simply address a particular age-related need at one point in time. They'll fit into people's existing lives, account for the ways those lives can change and work within the realities of the homes and support systems people depend on.
Read the full AARP Research and AgeTech Collaborative report, The Desire and Reality of Aging in Place, for the complete findings and additional insights for innovators designing technology for older adults.
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