As people age, finding their way through busy and complex urban environments can become increasingly difficult. Age-related changes in spatial cognition, perception, and memory make wayfinding harder, while noisy, crowded, and visually complex settings raise stress and cognitive load. Together these pressures can discourage older adults from venturing out, contributing to reduced physical activity, social isolation, and lower well-being. With Australia's population aged 65 and over projected to grow from 4.9 million in 2025 to 8.4 million by 2050, and similar growth worldwide, the question of how older people move through cities is becoming more pressing.
Debbie Watson's doctoral research asks how adaptive wayfinding technology might respond to this challenge. The central question guiding the work is: how can urban navigation for older adults be improved through adaptive wayfinding, spatial cognition support, and the reduction of environmental stress? The study explores how emerging technologies, combined with personal and public data, can deliver real-time, personalised navigation guidance that responds to a person's physical state, preferences, and surroundings.
The work is organised around three interconnected themes, each addressing a different facet of how older adults experience navigation in the city.
Spatial cognition and wayfinding. This strand examines how variations in environmental cues and support systems affect the spatial and perceptual capabilities of older adults during wayfinding. It investigates how factors such as cue salience, information density, and multimodal feedback influence navigation performance, and how physical design elements like layout, landmarks, and lighting interact with digital aids such as auditory and visual prompts.
Stress, anxiety, and cognitive load. Urban environments are often noisy, crowded, and spatially complex, and these conditions can raise physiological and cognitive stress during navigation. This theme explores how such stressors affect older adults, drawing on indicators such as heart rate variability and skin conductance alongside self-reported experience, and asks how supporting systems might be designed to enable calmer, more confident wayfinding.
Age-friendly urban design. Grounded in the World Health Organization's age-friendly cities framework, this strand considers how features of the built environment, from marked routes and rest stops to safe and accessible pavements, support older adults' mobility and participation in urban life. It examines how digital tools can complement these features by reducing cognitive load and offering reassurance, supporting active ageing and social engagement.
The research follows a Research through Design methodology, complemented by a mixed-methods program. In this approach a working prototype is treated not just as an outcome but as an instrument for generating knowledge, a system through which the relationships between older adults, navigation information, and urban environments can be observed and understood. The process is iterative and reflective, with each phase informing the next.
Quantitative measures, including navigation performance, biometric stress indicators, and route memory, are paired with qualitative insight from participatory workshops, think-aloud protocols, and interviews. Central to the methodology is the involvement of older adults throughout. Co-design is treated as a generative process rather than a consultation exercise, ensuring the resulting system reflects authentic navigation needs, preferences, and lived experience. All work is conducted under approved ethical protocols covering informed consent, data privacy, participant safety, and accessibility.
One application of these ideas is an adaptive navigation system that brings together several components through a central navigation engine. Cities already generate a wealth of publicly available data, from pedestrian and crowd flows to transport feeds and environmental conditions. Smart glasses can provide guidance through audio and heads-up display, while wearables monitor stress and physical state. The person remains in control of what they share and how they prefer to navigate. At the centre, an adaptive engine reads indicators of stress and cognitive load in real time, adjusts routes, and chooses the most appropriate way to deliver guidance based on context. Privacy and personalisation are core design principles throughout.
The research is progressing through participatory design, prototype development, and field evaluation across contrasting Sydney urban environments. A systematic review of existing wayfinding and navigation technologies for older adults forms its foundation, and the conceptual framework continues to develop through engagement with older adults and the wider research community.
Debbie welcomes feedback and collaboration, particularly from researchers and practitioners working on adaptive interfaces, age-friendly design, physiological sensing, or urban mobility. Related publications and outputs are listed on the Publications and Outputs page.