The taxonomy of human goals in technology development: supporting needs of long-term care recipients and their caregivers in finding and accessing appropriate care

Background
Digital health innovations increase the options to enhance care practices, such as providing support in the complex task of organizing timely and appropriate care for long-term care recipients. Aiming to provide directions for technology development, this study investigated the needs of care recipients, specifically those facing cognitive challenges. We used a taxonomy of human goals to identify what long-term care recipients and caregivers value regarding care and support.

Methods
Ten focus groups with 36 participants (23 care recipients and 13 caregivers) were conducted. Data were analyzed through a hybrid approach to thematic content analysis. The taxonomy of human goals served as a deductive framework, whereas inductive coding was applied to derive main themes and subthemes, elucidating the needs underlying the identified human goals.

Results
Three overarching human goals emerged from the analysis: 1) Tranquility, 2) Self-determination, and 3) Social responsibility, with 18 human goals clustered under the overarching goals. Five main themes underlying the overarching goals provided a comprehensive understanding of the needs and desired outcomes for technology use. Additionally, two new human goals were identified: 4) Connectedness and 5) Being understood.

Discussion
The existing taxonomy should be expanded with the newly identified human goals to enhance the representation of more vulnerable populations such as long-term care recipients. Moreover, various directions for technology are discussed, including the potential of a virtual assistant (i.e., conversational agent) sensitive to the different needs of long-term care recipients and caregivers.