Empowering Active Aging Through Co-Designed Digital Tools

This September for Healthy Aging® Month, JMIR Aging is bringing peer-reviewed science off the page and into daily life. We are spotlighting four articles and their lead authors in a dedicated video series that illustrates the direct connection between academic research and real-world impact. Each feature demonstrates how evidence-based digital health solutions are moving beyond theoretical design to actively empower older adults, caregivers, and technology developers, showing how digital tools can foster independence, purpose, and vitality in everyday living. In our first video feature for the series, Anna Whittaker, PhD from the University of Stirling shares key insights from her research published in JMIR Aging.

In her video, Professor Whittaker highlights that one of the most exciting ways digital health supports independent living is by encouraging regular physical activity. She emphasizes that engaging in digital physical activity, especially when experienced together in groups, yields benefits far beyond physical health, actively reducing depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness while improving sleep quality.

Translating Older Adults’ Priorities Into Real-World Technology: The GOALD Study

Professor Whittaker’s video builds directly on the findings of a recent co-design study published in JMIR Aging, titled "Developing Digital Platforms to Help Older Adults Stay Physically and Socially Active: Co-Design Study to Develop a Toolkit and Evaluate Its Impact". Conducted as part of the Generating Older Active Lives Digitally (GOALD) project across England and Scotland, the study addressed a critical challenge in digital health: while small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) create many promising wellness tools, they often lack the resources to conduct extensive co-design directly with older adults.

To bridge this gap, researchers collaborated with 157 participants—including 121 older adults across 15 community and care home settings—to evaluate over 20 digital technologies, ranging from online exercise platforms to immersive virtual reality (VR). The participants engaged in technology trials, focus groups, and structured card-ranking activities to establish key design priorities. These user insights were then translated into a practical, developer-facing toolkit covering general accessibility principles, online physical activity platforms, and immersive VR experiences.

Proven Impact for Digital Health Developers

To evaluate the toolkit's real-world impact, 10 UK-based software SMEs were awarded small development grants to apply the co-designed guidance to active development projects. The results were overwhelming: developers reported that the toolkit validated critical design decisions, enhanced accessibility options, improved visual and audio instruction, and inspired new social connectivity features within their apps and platforms.

Beyond improving usability, participating developers noted tangible business benefits, including reduced operational support costs, stronger cases for investment, and increased user adoption. By translating the lived experiences of older adults into structured design guidelines, the GOALD study demonstrates how evidence-based toolkits can accelerate inclusive, high-impact digital health innovations that empower older adults to maintain vitality, independence, and social connection.

In the Author's Words

"Digital health technology helps older people live more independently by keeping them physically and socially active."

— Prof. Anna Whittaker, PhD (University of Stirling)

Co-designing tools with older adults ensures we build technology people actually use. But bringing those tools into daily life depends on the frontline workers delivering care. In our next feature, Baldwin Pok Man Kwan looks at how in-home care teams use digital tools—and what they need to make them work on the road.

Cooper L, Bradwell H, Shore C, Tomaz S, Baxter R, Ryde G, Gaudl S, Haynes R, Hennessy C, Jones R, Whittaker A, The GOALD Project 
Developing Digital Platforms to Help Older Adults Stay Physically and Socially Active: Co-Design Study to Develop a Toolkit and Evaluate Its Impact
JMIR Aging 2026;9:e89785
URL: https://aging.jmir.org/2026/1/e89785
DOI: 10.2196/89785