M.M. Bekker, Y. Lu, and R. Tieben, Requirements for communication technology to support social interaction of older adults. Gerontechnology 2010;9(2):<page>. Social interaction has a positive influence on older adults’ sense of wellbeing 1 . Many new technologies exist to support social communication, such as telephone, skype and sms messaging. While previous studies have examined We conducted a case study to investigate the status quo of communication be- tween elderly and their separate living children, The main objective was to understand the contem- porary communication experience of elderly people, i.e., what communication technologies are used, what types of messages are conveyed and what are the thoughts and experiences around this. With such insight, we aim to create design insights, recommendations and proposals for im- provement in the current communication for elderly people, Methods. We used a mixed-method approach to gather both subjective and objective data related communication between elderly people with their separate living children. We combined the voice diary method during use, with an Affective Benefits and Costs for Communication questionnaire and an interview after use. Test participants consisted of parents (age 50-75) and their children. Four parents- children pairs participated in the test which took one week for each pair. Results. Four com- munication media were used most frequently: telephone calls, voicemail, SMS messaging and email. Compared to other media, telephone calls are most preferred by the elderly people as they separate 'synchronous (contact)' and 'a-synchronous (message)' strongly. Elderly people 'stick' to the 'phone-rituals', even though they use new media: e.g. sms messages are used as acknowled- gement/short conversations, yet a phone call is needed to discuss details/confirm acceptance/etc. Contacts made are about staying up-to-date, telling about one’s own life, planning meetings, and other social and practical exchanges. Four types of contacts can be distinguished: social, emotion- al, practical and for a special occasion (e.g. a birthday). Aspects stated to be valued about the communication are: receiving unexpected messages, being called for social reasons instead of for practical questions and the ability to have a dialogue when both sides are comfortable and focused. Some insights from the user study are similar to those found in other studies 2 , such as the need for privacy and the experienced obligations. However, our results provided some more detailed in- sights: for example, users described their need to be able to do other tasks while on the phone, combining privacy and practical issues. Furthermore, elderly sometimes distrust voicemails and messages: they kept calling and sending until receiving an answer, because they were unsure whether the message was received properly. A third example is the difference in opinion between older adults and their children on synchronous and asynchronous communication: both parties like the acknowledgment a quick text message gives, but older adults feel they have not had any real contact with their children (ignoring the text messaging) while their adult children are happy that they had an efficient contact, without the need for more chit-chat. Conclusions. Communications technologies that also take into account subtle requirements, such as synchronicity and unexpected messages that lead to social dialogue are needed to design suc- cessful future communication experiences for older adults. References 1. Lee GR and Ishii-Kuntz M Social Interaction, Loneliness, and Emotional Well-Being among the Elderly, Research on Aging, 1987; 9(4), 459-482 2. Romero Herrera NA, van Baren JK, Markopoulos P, de Ruyter BER, and IJsselsteijn WA. Addressing interpersonal communications needs through ubiquit- ous connectivity: home and away. In E. Aarts, R Col- lier, E van Loenen, B de Ruyter (Eds.), Ambient Intel- ligence. First European Symposium, EUSAI 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 2875. , 419- 429, New York: Springer Verlag. Keywords: elderly communication, social inter- action, well-being Address: Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design, HG 2.55, P.O.Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands; E: m.m.bekker@tue.nl.