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Abstract

This paper illustrates the ontological, epistemological, and subsequent methodological translations of a descriptive phenomenological study exploring dignity within the digital world among community-dwelling older adults. It demonstrates how the lifeworld phenomenological research, particularly the Sheffield School’s use of lifeworld fractions, influenced by the Duquesne tradition can serve as an attunement for guiding data collection, reflection, and analysis. The lifeworld fractions are conceptualised as a ‘sturdy third wheel’, a stabilising framework that balances the philosophical foundations and analytic procedures of descriptive phenomenology, enhancing methodological coherence and depth. The paper outlines a seven-step analytic process encompassing ‘familiarisation’, ‘breaking-down the descriptions into meaning units’, ‘transforming meaning units’, ‘employing evaluative judgement’, ‘clustering meanings’, ‘developing an intermediary situated idiographic description’, and developing the essential structure of meanings. Through this process, the lifeworld fractions: embodiment, temporality, spatiality, sociality, moodedness, selfhood, and project, served as sensitising dimensions for revealing the underlying structure of everyday experience. Methodological considerations are discussed, including the challenges in translating philosophical ideas into scientific phenomenological methods and the dialectic between maintaining openness and adopting a ‘bridled’ phenomenological attitude – one of a critical yet open reflexivity. The step-by-step outline offers practical guidance for researchers seeking depth and coherence in phenomenological analysis. This approach is particularly relevant for qualitative inquiries examining how technology intertwines with human values such as dignity, wellbeing, and inclusion. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates how lifeworld fractions can deepen descriptive phenomenological analysis and illuminate the meanings of digital engagement in both everyday and care contexts of later life.

Keywords

lifeworld theory lifeworld fractions phenomenology digital dignity older adults

Background

Digital technologies have become ubiquitous in the everyday lives and care environments of older adults, and their adoption is influenced by a range of factors related to capabilities, opportunities, and motivation (Kebede et al., 2022). From online appointments and electronic prescriptions to video calls with family, digital systems now mediate many of the ordinary interactions through which health, wellbeing, and social participation are sustained. While these technologies can enhance autonomy and connectedness, they may also evoke frustration, anxiety, and a sense of inadequacy when their design, pace, or purpose conflict with the rhythms of everyday life. For older adults, digital engagement is therefore not only a technical or behavioural activity but a deeply experiential one, shaping identity, relationality, and dignity in later life. Understanding these experiences requires qualitative approaches that are sensitive to the ‘how’ of living with technology: how digital systems are encountered, embodied, and made meaningful within the everyday health and social worlds of ageing.

Phenomenology offers a distinctive means of addressing this challenge by returning to experience as it is lived rather than theorised. Rooted in Edmund Husserl’s philosophical work, it calls to ‘return to the things themselves’ providing both a stance and a method for describing phenomena as they appear in consciousness, prior to explanation or theoretical abstraction (Husserl, 1970a, 1970b/1936; Moran, 2000). Later phenomenologists such as Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty deepened this project by showing that human existence is embodied, relational, and situated in the world. Heidegger’s notion of being-in-the-world revealed understanding as grounded in practical everyday involvement with things, while Merleau-Ponty’s underscored the inseparability of body, perception, and world. Together, these perspectives affirm that meaning arises through the interwoven relations of self, body, time, space, and others (Dahlberg et al., 2008; Heidegger, 1962/1927; Merleau-Ponty, 1945).

Goodness of Fit: Phenomenological Ontology and Epistemology to Investigate Meanings of Digitally Experienced Objects and Embedded Human Values

Growing interest in end-user experience across disciplines such as human–computer interactions, user-centred design, and user-experience research has rapidly expanded the application of qualitative methods in understanding users, design processes, and digital technology deployment (Hassenzahl & Tractinsky, 2006; Singh, 2001). Within health and user-experience research, descriptive phenomenology provides a way of accessing the structures of lived experience in their complexity and immediacy, making it well suited for examining embodied and relational dimensions of digital life. However, despite its growing use, researchers continue to grapple with how to translate phenomenological philosophy into analytic practice. Many existing accounts emphasise procedural steps or thematic outcomes, but few demonstrate how the lifeworld, the world as lived, can actively guide description.

Insights drawn from phenomenology, particularly those sensitised by lifeworld theory and its existential fractions (Ashworth, 2015), offer a framework for exploring the intelligibility of the lived experiences within the digital world. Digital technologies are now integral to health, care, and social participation. For older adults, digital inclusion shapes access to services, autonomy, and social connection – all central to wellbeing and dignity. This study therefore situates digital engagement as a lived health phenomenon. By exploring digital dignity, we highlight how technology mediates older adults’ sense of belonging, agency, and inclusion, with implications for person-centred digital health design and equitable care delivery.

While this study is grounded in descriptive phenomenology and lifeworld theory, its focus on how digital technologies shape experience, agency, and dignity resonates strongly with the phenomenological philosophy of technology. Scholars such as Don Ihde and Peter-Paul Verbeek have demonstrated that technologies are not neutral instruments but actively mediate perception, action, and moral relations (Ihde, 1990; Verbeek, 2005, 2011). Postphenomenology, in particular, provides a sophisticated conceptual vocabulary for analysing human–technology relations and understanding how technologies co-constitute experience and practice. Ihde’s analyses of embodiment, skill, transparency, and technological breakdown have been especially influential in foregrounding technology as an experiential relation rather than a mere tool.

The present study, however, does not seek to theorise technological mediation as such. Instead, it aims to describe how technologically mediated relations are lived within the everyday lifeworld of older adults. Lifeworld fractions are therefore not mobilised as a philosophy of technology but as a methodological attunement that sensitises the empirical analysis to dimensions such as embodiment, temporality, spatiality, and sociality as they are experienced in digitally mediated situations. In this sense, lifeworld phenomenology and postphenomenology are treated as complementary but non-equivalent projects: the former offering a descriptive methodology for revealing lived meanings and values, such as dignity, while the latter provides a theoretical account of technological mediation.

The lifeworld phenomenological research provides a holistic methodological approach capable of capturing both the experiential and ethical dimension of technology – its quiddity, or ‘whatness’, and the underlying values embedded in everyday use. Phenomenological attention to operative intentionality – how practical, goal-directed activity and purpose shape everyday coping and interaction – informs both research and design by revealing how technologies are encountered and made meaningful in context. Designing and developing usable, useful, and human-centred technologies therefore requires an understanding of how they are mundanely adopted, personalised, and valued in practice. Accordingly, this paper outlines how phenomenological insights were applied to describe a lifeworld-oriented scientific methodology aimed at faithfully describing the meanings, boundaries, and nuanced key constituents of everyday digital interaction, and the conditions under which dignity is maintained, ruptured, or restored among older adults. We further demonstrate how attending to user experience through the lifeworld lens (lived time, lived space, lived body, lived human relations, and lived affective/emotions) could deepen the richness, resonance, and rigour of qualitative investigation (Ashworth, 2015; Finlay, 2011; Galvin & Todres, 2015).

Appropriateness of Scientific Phenomenological Methodology

Qualitative methodologies share core commonalities such as exploring meanings, procedures, and techniques and the aim of producing contextually rich knowledge. However, the nuanced differences in the underpinning philosophical traditions have produced diverse methodological typologies. Selecting an appropriate approach therefore requires attention to the goodness of fit between research questions and epistemological stance. Holloway and Todres (2003) highlight the latent tension between methodological flexibility, where approaches are applied generically, and the need for epistemological consistency and coherence. They argue for a balanced approach between becoming sensitive to context and flexibility, while maintaining inner consistency and coherence to ensure rigour and credibility. The present methodological paper reflects this position by applying a coherent phenomenological approach grounded in lifeworld theory and embedded within the broader phenomenological tradition.

The Lifeworld Theory

In phenomenology, the lifeworld theory is central theme shared by both phenomenological and hermeneutic traditions. It refers to the taken-for-granted world of everyday experience – our practical, embodied, and relational engagement with the world. Heidegger describes this as being-in-the-world, a mode of existence characterised by everyday coping and involvement. For Gadamer, lifeworld denotes unreflective state in which we are immersed (Gadamer, 2013). As the primary orientation of existence, the lifeworld grounds how individual act, relate, and make sense of their experiences. Although rooted in a shared world, each person’s lifeworld is shaped by unique perspectives and values. Phenomenology takes this everyday world as its point of departure, applying methods such as bracketing, openness, and reflection to reveal the meanings that structure lived experience.

Applying Phenomenological Reduction/Bridling

Husserl (1983) introduced the concept of epoché – a suspension of the natural attitude that allows phenomena to be examined as they are given in consciousness. Although Husserl does not explicitly use the phrase ‘bracketing pre-understanding’, this term has been adopted in later phenomenological scholarship to describe the researcher’s effort to hold preconceptions in abeyance, maintaining openness to lived meanings as they unfold (Dahlberg et al., 2008; Giorgi, 2009). The goal is to uncover the essential structure of meanings, the essence of the phenomenon, as it appears in consciousness (Dahlberg et al., 2008; Husserl, 1970b).

Although debates persist between descriptive and interpretive traditions on the possibility of complete reduction, both recognise reflection as central to phenomenological inquiry. Pre-understanding is viewed as evolving rather than fixed. In practice, this entails critically examining how understanding forms throughout the research process – from question formulation to analysis. Dahlberg et al. (2008) describe this stance as bridling: maintaining openness and flexibility while holding preconceptions in check. In this study, the methodological approach we laid out in this paper adopted the position that reflection is an ongoing process, spanning all research stages, before commencement, throughout data gathering, and during analysis iteratively to understand the phenomenon under investigation and to be attentive to what evolves as it appears.

Attunement to the Lifeworld Constituency

Classically, the lifeworld fractions have been employed in different body of phenomenological work, for example, Husserl’s investigation of the structure of experience as temporality (inner time consciousness); Heidegger’s existential discussion on time, spatiality, and the environing world; and Merleau-Ponty’s emphasis on the body and embodied relations to the world.

Contemporarily, these horizons have been used in empirical research in Medard Boss’s work on psychoanalysis/‘Daseinanalysis’ (Boss, 1979). Ashworth (2015) has been proponent of the applications of the existential horizons in empirical and qualitative studies. He wonders why these fractions are underutilised as a methodological armoury for enriching qualitative evidence, guiding data collection, further interrogating phenomena, and serving as reflective and analytical tools.¹ He presents two premises on which the use of lifeworld fractions in qualitative research is justified (Ashworth, 2015). Firstly, the objects of experience are not free floating, and any experience is inevitably interwoven with the rest of the individual’s lifeworld. Reflecting on the interconnectedness between an individual’s experiences and their broader lifeworld, phenomenologically, experiences are not single encounters with isolated events but are deeply embedded within the context of the individual’s lifeworld, which includes their personal history, social relationships, cultural background, beliefs, values, and environmental contexts. Secondly, in any experience there are necessary elements or fractions that cannot be but inevitably found in every experience whatsoever. Previous studies have employed the lifeworld fractions in qualitative studies with both idiographic and nomothetic sensibilities, for example, lived world of patients with Alzheimer’s and their carers (Ashworth, 2009); meanings of gift giving (Ashworth, 2013); and lived experience of elderly couple spousal self-euthanasia (van Wijngaarden et al., 2016).

While distinct in their own right, the lifeworld fractions are not mutually exclusive; instead, they are overlapping, intertwined, and interpenetrating. In line with phenomenological attitude, it is also important not to conflate their use as a fixed constructs and definitive answers. They are best used as a methodological anchor and sensitisation forms of background knowledge rooted in lifeworld theory. Additionally, the fractions hold varying emphases and have potential to open up reflective insights in context depending on the phenomenon under investigation. These fractions include selfhood, sociality, embodiment, temporality, spatiality, project, discourse, and affect structure (see Textbox 1 for the explanation of the lifeworld fractions). However, it is noteworthy that the lifeworld fractions are not required to hold equal weight or significance in every experience. Their salience varies according to the phenomenon and the context in which meaning is constituted. For example, in a study on seeing oneself as a carer in the activity of caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease, the fractions of sociality and project were given particular prominence, reflecting the relational and purposive nature of the caring experience (Ashworth, 2009).

Textbox 1.

Description of the Lifeworld Fractions (Ashworth, 2015)

Selfhood: the self as a fraction of the lifeworld depicts the identity, an experiential world that represents who we are, within a person, the agency and presence in the world. For example, digitally we can conceive ourselves within the digital world as a digital self and construct our own meaning. But also, other aspects of our life for example age and technology use and their effect on the sense of identity, agency, voice, and presence.

Temporality: a given experience is bounded temporally and has a temporal flow, continuity and discontinuity of the personhood that signifies the possibilities. The evolution of technology and experience of time when using technology are implicated.

Spatiality is a horizon concerned with geographies, the environing world and the relational positionality between human being and the world. This lived space signifies the spatial relationship with the world, others, and objects. Technologies can extend or reduce spatial possibilities.

Intersubjectivity relations with others are important. Being with others in the world is the nature of dasein. This intersubjective experience could be personal or virtual. This relational aspect is dependent on language, culture, and tradition.

Embodiment is how our body is related to the world and others. The body is our general medium and gate to the world. The embodiment and its techniques are important in digital engagement as one has to use the body to engage skilfully.

Mood this horizon takes internal perceptual mode, and it is attuned to our existence providing prioritization to lived situations. Emotional responses are signifiers of experience. In technological use there are excitement and frustrations, fulfilment, and confusion.

Project: individuals are oriented towards a fundamental project or activities and orientation that are primary to existence. The person’s ability to carry out the activities they are committed to and which they regard as central. For example, projects change after retirement, altering the relevance of technology in achieving these projects.

Applying the Lifeworld Phenomenological Research to Understanding the Meanings of Digital Technologies and Sense of Dignity for Older Adults

The empirical study underpinning this paper aimed to employ a descriptive phenomenological approach. This work aimed to describe the variations, commonalities, and essential characteristics of dignity within the digital world from older adults’ everyday digital engagement. The goal was to develop a rich and thick account of individual lived experiences and the underlying structure of meanings that faithfully reflect the phenomenon, and collect and recollect others’ lived experiences.

A purposive sampling technique was employed with the aim of achieving maximum and rich variation in age (65–84 years and 85 years and above), gender, and technology experience (‘tech-savvy’ or ‘tech-novice’) (Langridge, 2007). Accordingly, 11 community-dwelling older adults from Southeast Sussex participated in phenomenologically oriented interviews about their everyday and care technologies experiences. Participants were recruited through community networks and ageing support organisations. Most interviews were conducted virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions. This mode of interaction itself offered insights into spatiality and embodiment, as participants reflected on how digital spaces mediated communication and presence.

Data Gathering Through In-Depth Phenomenological Interviews

To grasp the essence of lived experiences and meaning structures, phenomenological research employs in-depth interviews that will give the opportunity to generate rich descriptions of experiential episodes (Kvale, 1996). According to Mishler (1991), interviews are key tools in qualitative research, representing a guided discourse exploring meanings, human actions, and experiences within participants’ personal and social context. Such methodology presupposes the imprecise nature of language, the complexity of human phenomena, the commonalities, and variations between individuals both experientially and contextually.

The interviews were started with an open and lifeworld-evoking question ‘what it is like to live in this digitalised world’ (Ashworth, 2015; Kvale, 1996; Todres, 2005). This prompted participants to reflect on various aspects of their everyday digital experience and to provide concrete examples from the everyday. The second part of the interviews probed specific experiential domains sensitised by the lifeworld fractions. The lifeworld constituents (temporality, spatiality, embodiment, sociality, intersubjectivity, mood, and projects) were used to explore lived everyday examples of participants’ digital and dignity experiences (Ashworth, 2015; Galvin & Todres, 2015).

During the interview, follow-up questions that encourage participants to provide more detailed accounts of their lived examples using prompts such as ‘what was that like’, ‘could you please say more on that’, ‘can you give me a further example of that’, and ‘what happened next’ were employed. The interviews were conducted remotely (primarily on Zoom in 2021) and took up to one and one-and-half hours. The interview process necessitated utmost openness and ‘phenomenological attitude’ through immediacy (being fully present), attentive listening and flexibility to ask follow-up questions, which is crucial when investigating situated and complex phenomenon (Dahlberg et al., 2008; Friberg & Öhlén, 2010).

Virtual Interviewing: Methodological, Practical, and Ethical Implications

Necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting data collection to virtual interviews brought both valuable possibilities and inherent challenges. Methodologically, building rapport with participants and gauging non-verbal cues proved difficult, which had an impact on the sense of immediacy typically fostered in face-to-face encounters. Practically, ensuring technology access for study participants, navigating learning curves with unfamiliar technological tools, and addressing potential technical glitches during the interviews posed additional challenges. Ethically, the recruitment posed the risk of excluding participants who are digitally disengaged and the complexities of obtaining informed consent remotely. However, virtual interviewing also offered benefits such as possibilities of wider participant reach, increased flexibility and comfort, and familiar environment for the participants.

The Process of Phenomenological Analysis

Phenomenological analysis employs an open and iterative approach, aiming to describe lived experiences and meanings. This paper aims to (a) illustrate the use of descriptive and reflective methodologies developed by phenomenological researchers, (b) examine their goodness of fit for describing digital experience, and (c) capture the meaning of dignity within the digital world among older adults. The analysis was primarily influenced by Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenology, Ashworth’s lifeworld and Sheffield School Analysis and Dahlberg’s Reflective Lifeworld Research (RLR) (Ashworth, 2015; Dahlberg et al., 2008; Giorgi, 2009, 2020; Giorgi & Giorgi, 2003). The analytical process was iterative and non-linear encompassing seven stages: familiarisation (reading and re-reading), breaking down into meaning units (MUs), transforming the MUs, employing evaluative judgment on the revelatory power of the MU, clustering the meanings, developing an intermediary situated idiographic picture for each participant, and developing the general essential and constituent structure of meanings (see Figure 1 for summarised steps of phenomenological analysis). Throughout the analytical process, ‘bridling’ (phenomenological attitude and openness), reflection, and the movement between the sense of the whole and the parts were adopted. Moreover, the lifeworld fractions were used as a sensitisation, analytical, and reflective guide (Ashworth, 2015).

Figure 1.

Summary of the phenomenological analysis steps and process

Step 1: Familiarisation Stage for the Sense of the Whole

To become deeply acquainted with individual interviews and become deeply familiar with participant stories, the recordings were listened to multiple times and transcribed verbatim. Giorgi (2009) emphasises the importance of reading and re-reading the transcription to grasp the ‘gestalt’ or the sense of whole. Through reading, discussing, and recounting the interview content with the research team, we explored interesting stories and experiential episodes shared by participants. This stage was helpful in identifying examples that have potential to further illuminate the phenomenon under investigation.

Step 2: Breakdown Description Into Manageable Meaning Units

Since the interviews were lengthy and it is difficult to handle nuanced meanings, breaking the whole into units is deemed important. This stage is common in descriptive phenomenological and reflective lifeworld analysis. We began breaking down the transcripts by revisiting the beginning and re-reading the descriptions slowly. Each time a meaning change was identified, text was demarcated (//) to signify the distinct units of meaning. According to Giorgi (2009), these units of meaning are different from sentences, as sentences are units of grammar (see Textbox 2 for an example of a transcript breakdown into MUs from a participant excerpt demarcated by //).

Textbox 2.

Excerpt From a Single Study Participant and Breakdown Into Meaning Units

Well, it’s a mixture. I’m very ambivalent about it, // it can be useful. And it can open up all sorts of areas to you. // But it also can be tricky, and it makes me feel stupid sometimes. When I don't know what’s gone wrong. //Oh, quite a few. Well, like when I was trying to respond to you with the consent form. I opened it up. and I put my name in, obviously, which I assume is the same as a signature and then I tried to attach it and then send it back. But it didn’t go. And I don’t know why. // We live with this sort of three generation family, two grandsons. So obviously, they’re using it all the time. // But it’s good to be able to look things up and for that, too, if they’ve got questions to look them up together and do that kind of thing. // Whereas before, you know, in my childhood, it would have been a trip to the library and much more of a big deal. Whereas now it’s, it’s all there. So that’s good. // But on the negative side, I’m thinking of the grandsons now, this constant raw over too much screen time. I think it can be a bad thing. I mean, they, I can understand how they feel. Because sometimes when I’m browsing or playing a game or something, you can just go so you don’t realise how long you’ve spent. But they’re six and nine. And they just be on there all the time, if they could, and it just feels like there are other things they ought to be doing. // The last 18 months have been a real case in point for using technology. // It has kept us in touch quite a few times. // Zoom, I’ve done exercises over zoom and quizzes over zoom. //

Step 3: Transform the Meaning Units Into More General Everyday Language Description

The MUs were transformed into more general expressions/language to capture the essence of the experience and illuminate their significance, while remaining as close as possible to the participants’ original descriptions. This stage requires bridling, slowing down, and not rushing to label nor to make abstractions but requires an utmost sensitivity to the lifeworld fractions and the meaning changes (see Table 1 for the MUs and transformed MUs). For an example of this approach, see Todres and Galvin (2012).

Table 1.

Audit Trail of Step-by-Step Analysis for an Excerpt Description of Digital Experience From a Single Participant

Meaning units	Transformed units	Evaluative judgement	Tentative constituents	Lifeworld fractions
Well, it’s a mixture. I’m very ambivalent about it.	She evaluates her relationship with technology as complex due to the benefits and drawbacks and feels ambivalent towards digital technologies.	Revelatory/related	Ambivalent emotions to the use of technology	Affective/emotions
It can be really useful. And it can open up all sorts of areas to you.	Technologies can be useful with a lot of possibilities	Revelatory/related	Manifolds of world opens up in relation to digital technologies	Project/activities
But it also can be tricky, and it makes me feel stupid sometimes. When I don’t know what’s gone wrong.	She shows some discomfort due to the conflict between the positive and negative aspects of technology use. She explains her negative experience and frustration when technology does not work, and she encounters a technical difficulty.	Revelatory/related	Perceptions of malfunctioning technology awakening awareness of incapability	Replaced for clarity: In embodied relations, technology is experienced as ready-to-hand; breakdowns/negative turns bring this taken-for-granted relation into awareness.
Oh, quite a few. Well, like when I was trying to respond to you with the consent form. I opened it up. And I put my name in, obviously, which I assume is the same as a signature and then I tried to attach it and then send it back. But it didn’t go. And I don’t know why.	She has encountered quite a few malfunctions and as a result feeling of frustration and confusion when things go wrong.	Revelatory/related	Technology failing and lack of skill can bring forth a reflective awareness to the participant–technology relations
We live with this sort of three generation family, two grandsons. So obviously, they’re using it all the time.	She lives in a multigeneration household. She notices younger people in her life and notices how intuitive their engagement with technology is.	Revelatory/related	Awareness of others’ digital engagement	Interpersonal
But it’s really good to be able to look things up and for that, too, if they’ve got questions to look them up together and do that kind of thing.	She highlights the benefits for leaning and information seeking and to do it with her grandchildren and promote more social connectedness.	Revelatory/related	Technology used a means to connect with intergenerational others/digital kinship	Interpersonal
Whereas before, you know, in my childhood, it would have been a trip to the library and much more of a big deal. Whereas now it’s, it’s all there. So that’s good.	The inconvenience in the past is compared with the present technological time.	Revelatory/related	Sense of closeness to the world through access to information digitally	Spatial/temporal
But on the negative side, I’m thinking of the grandsons now, this constant raw over too much screen time. I think it can be a bad thing. they’re six and nine. And they just be on there all the time, if they could, and it just feels like there are other things they ought to be doing.	Others’ usage evoke evaluative judgement on the values of spending time on technologies	Tangential/non-revelatory
I can understand how they feel. Because sometimes when I’m browsing or playing a game or something, you can just go so you don’t realise how long you’ve spent.	She places value on other forms of social interactions and play that are not mediated by technologies. She observes her own technological usage and others in the family.	Revelatory/related	Sense of value in terms of spending time and habit-forming technologies	Project
The last 18 months have been a real case in point for using technology.	She reflects on how digital technologies helped cope during the pandemic, where physical meetings were impossible.	Revelatory/related	Technology facilitating coping through synchronous communications during the pandemic
It has kept us in touch quite a few times. Zoom in particular, I’ve done exercises over zoom and quizzes over zoom.	There are activities that have been supported by technology during the pandemic that she has adopted.	Revelatory/related	Activities supported digitally during the pandemic	Interpersonal
And there’s a group of people I used to work with. And we were just saying how good it was because, one of them is in other country and the two others in the UK. And we would never have met but we’ve been chatting together about every two to three weeks on the Zoom, so that’s been really good.	She experienced technology positively as a medium to maintain social connection and kinship. She reflects on interpersonal connection and maintaining long-term friendship across distance. She values these social connections from the past.	Revelatory/related	Maintaining social relations through technology when in-person interaction is not possible	Interpersonal
The exercise [online] is very good. Because you can’t get out and I used to go to, what they call the dolphins disabled swimming group twice a week, and we couldn’t do that. So, having the exercises from the hop 50 was a real god send from that point of view.	Technology served as a replacement when physical spaces were unavailable	Revelatory/related	Technology as a replacement to in-person engagement in activities	Project/activities
It was actually better than the physical ones, because you know,	Preference to virtual mode of exercise through justified reasons	Revelatory/related
If you’re not very physically active normally and not very good at this sort of thing and not got a brilliant body shape. Being in a room with a lot of other people is actually difficult.	Bodily self-perception experienced through virtual technological spaces	Revelatory/related	Bodily perception	Embodiment
But when you’re just a little square on the top of the screen on zoom, you can do it. You don’t feel conspicuous. For me it actually worked very well.	Sense of safety virtually about her perception of her body	Revelatory/related	Sense of conspicuous bodily engagement/digital self which is conspicuous	Embodiment

Step 4: Judge the Power of Each Meaning Unit as Revelatory or Non-Revelatory

The transformed MUs were judged for their revelatory power. Each MU was classified as revelatory or non-revelatory/tangential based on a judgement about the power of the MUs in illuminating the meaning of the phenomenon under investigation. MUs could be essential, contextual, or tangential to the structure of the experience. This method was previously employed to investigate ‘being criminally victimized’ (Fischer & Wertz, 1979).

This stage offers a critical opportunity for the researcher to reflect on the relevance of the delineated MUs to the research question. The goal of this process is to extract meaningful insights that directly correspond to the object of experience. Furthermore, this stage was important in providing an audit trail to critical others to follow as the meanings are developing.

At this stage, the researcher carefully examines whether participants’ statements illuminate the phenomenon under investigation and reflects on how the meaning appears within the researcher’s consciousness. This process requires phenomenological sensitivity, a disciplined approach, and the practice of bridling. Consistent with Hycner's (1985) guidance, when meaning units were ambiguous, they were retained rather than excluded.

Step 5: Clustering of Meaning Units

As the meanings emerge through the reflective analysis, meanings and clusters of meanings were formed. This process involves a kind of putting together the pieces of puzzle at the level of meaning. This step is an intermediary landing to create a temporary pattern of meanings by collapsing those MUs that belong to each other (Dahlberg et al., 2008). Throughout this phase, it is important to approach the patterns emerging openly and in relation to their figure and background relationships. According to Dahlberg (2008), this temporary pattern of meanings helps the researcher to identify the essential meanings and structures that describe the phenomenon. At this stage, the MUs will be assigned tentative constituents that will be used to group meaning structures with similar meanings (Textbox 3).

Textbox 3.

Example of Early Tentative Clustering for a Single Participant Interview

a. Ambivalent emotions to engage technologically

• Mixed feelings

• Positive feelings from its utility

• Frustration from non-functional technologies

b. Technological negative turns and reflective awareness

• Unfamiliar technology

• Technology breakdown

• Absence of technology and alternatives

• Anticipation of future malfunctions

• Frustration from non-functional technologies

• Sense of inadequacy

c. Interpersonal relations through the digital

• Awareness of others engagement

• Maintaining sense of kinship/technology helping form/maintain relationships

• Sense of belonging/Online games and events

• Relational support to cope with technology

• Sense of enjoyment with relational interactions

d. Sense of becoming older person

• Others stereotypical perception of old age and digital technologies

• Ageing identity as disempowering/posing difficulty in learning experience

• Aging experience as nonintuitive digital engagement

e. Closeness to the world

• Removed physical distance when accessing information/health information

• Total detachment from the surrounding

f. Value based engagement

• Technology as a waste of time/

• Sense of power/control

• Reliance on technology as a deskilling

• Sense of intrusiveness

• Sense of safety

g. Embodied technological relations.

• Sense of mobility in virtual spaces

• Privileged perception limited to visual and auditory in the digital world

• Empowering bodily perception in the virtual space/sense of invisibility and body shape awareness

• Screen representing body/Proprioception – Awareness of own body inhibiting movement in virtual space

• Absent non-verbal cues/absence of physical body in virtual space/Virtual fatigue

• Limited visual perception/focused on screen/lost visual perception

Step 6: Develop Individual Situated Structures

This stage was a mid-stage, where an idiographic and contextually rich account of the experience based on the clustered MUs for each individual participant was developed. It served as a temporary and intermediary point to formulate a strong whole for the individual descriptions to aid reflection. An important aim of this intermediary point was to reduce the leap from cluster meanings to essential description of meanings.

This ‘transitional’ sub-process has been enlightening in terms of providing a steppingstone for the upcoming next stage. These steps were essential in enhancing a reflective process within the phenomenological analysis, as it is heightened by the idiosyncratic sensibilities to commonalities and variations within individuals, while hoping to move beyond individuals and develop a general structure that articulates the phenomenon of interest (Churchill & Fisher-Smith, 2021). Developing an idiosyncratic account for each participant and their distinctive relationship with digital technology enabled the study to show how digital technology is embedded in the lifeworld, while variations within and between participants supported identification of the essential structure of meaning.

This step therefore served as a springboard to illuminate further the context in which the meanings appeared and provide the critical other (readers) further transparency to move between the essential description of the meanings and the context in which they appeared. This is in line with Gadamer’s (2013) idea of understanding as the interplay between commonality and variation, by providing the barebone structure of the meanings while providing how the phenomenon shows itself and is lived by individuals uniquely (see supplemental file 1 for an example of idiographic description of one older adult’s digital experience).

Step 7: Describe the General and Constituents of the Phenomenon of Digital Technology and Reflect on the Findings

An essential meaning that describes the structure and essence of the phenomenon was developed. In empirical studies, the essential structure of meanings is not universal in essence; instead, they are general and context dependent. Dahlberg (2006) defines ‘essence’ as a structure of meanings emerging in everyday human experience within infinite, contextual, and expandable horizons, and proposes that these meanings be examined as intentional objects and in terms of figure–background relations. Dahlberg further emphasises that describing essence is a central methodological goal of phenomenological research. Similarly, Giorgi (2009) also recommends developing a contextual general essential structure, balancing between the variations and the essential structure of meanings of the phenomenon of interest. Six key constituents were developed while reflecting on the particulars and the general structure of meanings of digital technology experience among older adults (see Table 2).

Table 2.

Key Constituents and the General Essential Structure of Meanings of Older Adults’ Digital Technology Experience

General structure of meanings	Key constituents	Example variation(s)
Older adults’ digital experiences are complex, shaped by ageing, bodily changes, and societal perceptions. Their relationship with technology has an existential dimension of ‘being in the digital world’ and ‘being with others in the digital world’. Physical changes due to old age evoke frustration and a sense of incompatibility with certain technology, yet technology extends their functional capabilities. Societal stereotypes of older adults as digitally incompetent, coupled with the rapid pace of technological advancement, was overwhelming and excluding.	Digital technology awakening the identity of ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ an older person	• Older adults experience internalised negative self-perceptions (e.g., feeling incompetent or ‘no good at technology’) and self-doubt when struggling with digital skills or technology malfunctions.
		• Physical and cognitive changes (e.g., deteriorating hearing, reduced vision, poor coordination, dexterity issues) significantly impact digital engagement, sometimes leading to technology abandonment.
		• External factors like stereotypes and social comparisons (e.g., young salespersons assuming incompetence, comparing with younger generations’ intuitive use) negatively affect older adults’ confidence and self-esteem in their digital interactions.
Spatial considerations – both physically and metaphorically – further shape older adults’ digital experience, requiring room for bodily adjustments and space for learning and choice. Technology plays a vital role in maintaining social connections and overcoming spatial and temporal barriers. However, lack of physical presence amplifies feelings of disconnection. While others offer technical support, concerns were raised about overreliance and potential risks to privacy or financial security. Ultimately, older adults’ digital experience reflects a balance between empowerment, exclusion, and the pursuit of meaningful connection.	Digital technology expanding the interpersonal realm	• Older adults extensively use digital tools like WhatsApp, Zoom, and Skype to maintain relationships and overcome geographical barriers with family and friends.
		• Despite fostering connections, ‘all virtual’ communication led to a lack of physical presence and intimacy, resulting in a ‘sense of distance, disconnection’ and ‘superficial’ interactions.
		• Virtual interactions also introduce an ‘altered temporality’ with ‘a sense of urgency’ and a lack of natural conversational rhythm, often feeling ‘quite tiring’.
		• While others provide empowering technical support, reliance on them can paradoxically create a ‘sense of dependency, a lack of control, and powerlessness’.
		• Digital spaces increase vulnerability to scams and foster digital distrust, with participants reporting ‘scam calls’ and feeling targeted.
	Technology as embodied relation	• Older adults experience a wide spectrum of emotional responses to technology, from ‘fun, joy, and excitement’ to ‘distrust, dissatisfaction, frustration, and resignation’ due to malfunctions or task difficulties, often manifesting as ‘physical stress’.
		• Technology offers possibilities for pleasure and fulfilment and enables users to achieve goals, sometimes through personalisation and adaptation beyond its original purposes (e.g., live syncing calendars or using apps for specific tasks).
		• Digital engagement necessitates specific bodily movements, positioning, and adjustments (e.g., sitting for online meetings, using portable tech for exercise), and empowering bodily transformations (e.g., feeling less conspicuous during online exercise).
	Technology as constant accelerated change	• Older adults find it challenging to keep pace with the ‘constant digitisation and the speed at which technology is pervading’ their world.
		• They observe the significant evolution of devices (e.g., computers shrinking from room-sized to laptops) and functional growth (e.g., essential for online information, improved communication quality like video calls).
		• The overwhelming and constant changes in technology, particularly app updates, lead to frustration, feelings of disempowerment, and a sense of being ‘thrown on the scrapheap’, as there’s often no way to revert to previous versions.
	Technology requiring space	• Literal physical space is required to install technology and accommodate bodily movement, seeing, and hearing, such as positioning a laptop for online exercise.
		• Older adults desire metaphorical ‘room for learning and choice’ to maintain control over their technology use, with the lack of available options causing significant frustration.
		• The ‘complete shift of public services into digital space’ without alternatives leads to disempowerment.
		• Lack of user control over app changes/updates (e.g., no option to revert to previous versions) creates a ‘disempowering spiral’ of constant relearning.
	Technology serving as a means to an end	• Older adults leverage technology for diverse goal-oriented daily tasks, including receiving care, maintaining social connections, navigating, learning languages, and managing finances and health.
		• There is a tendency to prioritise adoption of ‘goal-directed technologies’ for specific tasks like banking or care, over those with more general or entertainment purposes.
		• Technology can be personalised for novel uses (e.g., using apps for travel planning) and serves to facilitate positive behaviours and enhance inclusion (e.g., encouraging physical activity, reducing self-consciousness in online exercise).

Presentation of the Findings

The complete, detailed findings from this phenomenological work, which communicate variations within the essential structure, cannot be unfolded fully in this present paper. Nevertheless, the essential constituents along with illustrative examples of variations are provided in Table 2, and Figure 2 outlines the subsequent phases of phenomenological analysis. Additionally, the analytic commentary demonstrates how engaging with the lifeworld fractions illuminated older adults’ experiences and advanced the descriptive phenomenological analysis to a deeper level of interpretation. The findings aim to present rich, thick, resonant, and rigorous descriptions of meanings that illuminate the interplay between digital technologies and the values embedded within them.

Figure 2.

Summary of the phenomenological findings both at descriptive and abstracted levels

Findings Are Arranged in Two Parts

Part 1: Descriptive findings with general essential structures of meanings and constituents.

Part 2: Reflective and abstract level findings. At this level, the findings explored (a) the embodied digital experience of older adults using insights from the descriptive findings and Heidegger’s mastery-disruption concept and (b) reflection on the digital dignity with the range and level of intensity they manifest within everyday digital engagement, its rupture, and restorations, while conceptualising dignity as both experiential and relational.

Older Adults’ Digital Experience Through the Lifeworld Fractions

The lifeworld fractions serve as an interpretive structure, grounding and expanding phenomenological understanding. By attending to the fractions, the analysis moved beyond thematic summary towards a textured portrayal of how dignity and wellbeing are lived within older adults’ digital worlds. In contrast, within the present study, embodiment, temporality, spatiality, and sociality emerged as the most salient dimensions through which older adults’ experiences of digital engagement and dignity were revealed, while moodedness, selfhood, and project provided additional contextual depth and nuance.

The point of this exercise is to give account of how lifeworld fractions were used to move beyond the description. Here, rather than presenting an exhaustive narrative, we will demonstrate selected analytic vignettes exemplifying how these existential dimensions of the lifeworld informed understanding of digital engagement and its relation to dignity and wellbeing in later life.

Embodiment and the Felt Experience of Digital Capability

‘When I finally managed to order my repeat prescription on the tablet, I felt proud, like I’d done something clever with my own hands’.

This account reveals embodiment as a central site of dignity. The act of mastering a digital task was experienced not merely as cognitive achievement but as a bodily affirmation of competence. Embodiment here captures the corporeal and affective tone of digital engagement, the feel of hands on a touchscreen, the posture of learning, and the surge of self-recognition that accompanies successful interaction. Within this lifeworld fraction, dignity was restored through embodied confidence: the body, often treated as aged or limited, became instead a medium of capability and control. The analytic attention to embodiment thus stabilised the interpretation, grounding dignity in the lived body rather than abstract notions of autonomy.

Temporality and the Rhythms of Technological Acceleration

‘Just when I’ve learned one system, they change it again, and I feel left behind’.

Temporality, as a fraction of the lifeworld, highlights how the pace of digital innovation intersects with the temporal rhythms of ageing. Participants described a tension between the accelerating tempo of technological change and their own embodied tempo of learning. Dignity was challenged when these temporalities misaligned, generating feelings of obsolescence and frustration. Yet, temporality also held restorative potential: when time was afforded for learning, participants experienced patience and self-acceptance. Attending to temporality enabled interpretation of digital exclusion not as simple deficit but as a temporal dissonance, an ethical and existential mismatch between human and technological time.

Spatiality and the Reconfiguration of Home and Care

‘My tablet is my window to the world; it sits on the kitchen table where the phone used to be’.

This instance foregrounds the fraction of spatiality, showing how digital artefacts reconstitute the geography of care and connection. The digital device became both a symbolic and physical extension of home, mediating access to social and healthcare spaces. Through this spatial transformation, participants experienced both expansion, ‘a room with a view’, and contraction, where digital dependency confined interaction to a single screen. Analytically, spatiality exposed the paradoxical nature of digital inclusion: while technology bridged distance and maintained belonging, it also risked enclosing participants within mediated space. Interpreting digital dignity through spatiality thus illuminated how design and placement of technologies shape the embodied ‘room to be’ for older adults.

Sociality and Relational Dignity

‘My grandson helped me set it up; we laughed so much. I think he saw I’m not hopeless after all’.

The fraction of sociality revealed dignity as co-constituted through relation. Digital participation became a shared project through which generational hierarchies were momentarily rebalanced. Intersubjective exchange, learning together, laughing, and offering help generated a sense of mutual recognition and belonging. Analytically, attending to sociality shifted interpretation away from individual competence towards relational wellbeing. Dignity emerged not from independence alone but from reciprocity and inclusion within digital relationships.

Moodedness and the Affective Tone Within Digital Life

‘Sometimes I just turn it off, I get anxious when the screen freezes, and I feel stupid’.

Moodedness refers to the affective background that colours experience. For several participants, digital engagement was accompanied by ambivalent moods of curiosity, irritation, or anxiety. The emotional tone framed how they approached digital tasks, often oscillating between empowerment and withdrawal. Analytic sensitivity to moodedness made visible these fluctuations as existential rather than merely psychological: emotions were not individual failings but reflections of the broader attunement between person, technology, and world. Understanding this affective landscape was crucial for interpreting how dignity could be sustained or undermined in moments of digital tension.

Project and the Continuity of Purpose

‘Learning to use the tablet wasn’t just about emails, it made me feel I could still do things for myself’.

Project, as a fraction of the lifeworld, situates experience within a horizon of intention and possibility. Participants’ digital engagements were rarely instrumental; they were expressions of ongoing life projects to remain capable, connected, and contributory. Interpreting experiences through this lens illuminated how digital dignity is future-oriented: it is sustained when older adults perceive continuity between past agency and present capability. The analytic attention to project therefore revealed the moral significance of digital engagement as a means of sustaining one’s life narrative and sense of being-in-the-world.

Across these analytic commentaries and vignettes, the lifeworld fractions acted as analytic anchors, what we conceptualise as a sturdy third wheel, balancing philosophical rigour with empirical sensitivity. They enabled movement from surface description towards phenomenological understanding of how dignity is lived, threatened, and restored in digital life. In descriptive phenomenology, this stabilising function is essential: it keeps analysis attuned to the embodied, relational, and affective realities that underpin wellbeing.

Discussion

This paper demonstrated how lifeworld fractions function as a ‘sturdy third wheel’ in descriptive phenomenology – stabilising philosophical foundations and analytic procedure (Ashworth, 2015; Dahlberg et al., 2008; Giorgi, 2009). The philosophical foundation ensured openness to lived meaning, while the analytic procedure offered systematic direction; yet, it was the lifeworld fractions that maintained equilibrium between them, ensuring that inquiry remained close to participants’ embodied, relational, and affective realities. We showed how these fractions sensitised data gathering, guided reflective analysis, and supported a transparent, iterative seven-step process. Methodologically, this operationalises phenomenological concepts within empirical analysis; conceptually, it clarifies digital dignity as a phenomenological construct linking technology use to wellbeing; and practically, it offers a framework for designing technologies and care practices that honour the lived experience of ageing.

Digital Experience in Its Everydayness

The application of lifeworld illustrated how embodiment, temporality, spatiality, and sociality were the most salient fractions through which older adults’ digital experience and dignity were shaped, with moodedness, selfhood, and project providing contextual depth (Ashworth, 2015; Galvin & Todres, 2015). Attending to these fractions moved the analysis beyond summary towards a textured account of how experiences were lived: bodily competence and strain (embodiment), rhythms of learning and change (temporality), the home and screen as mediating places (spatiality), and reciprocity and recognition in relationships (sociality). These dimensions clarified digital engagement as not merely functional but existential intertwined with identity belonging, and moral worth in later life. These findings also echo postphenomenological accounts of technological mediation, where technologies are understood as actively shaping perception and action rather than functioning as neutral tools (Ihde, 1990).

This was consistent with studies exploring aspects of moral engagement (encompassing trust, care, friendship, and commitment) and value orientations as crucial elements for fostering positive online communities (experience) and sustaining digital use (Huda et al., 2017; Palacin et al., 2021). Such values necessitate experiential research and human-centred designs that create discoverable, fun, and reflective digital mementos (Bowen & Petrelli, 2011). Chughtai (2019), applying Borgmann’s concept of the device paradigm, examined how digital experiences are shaped by both the values people hold and those embedded within technological structures.

The findings on embodiment also reflects Merleau-Ponty’s later work on ‘flesh’, which conceive the lifeworld as a shared field of intercorporeality where perceiver and world are mutually implicated (Merleau-Ponty, 1968). Older adults’ descriptions of touch, presence, and mediated closeness through technology suggest that digital engagement involves a reversible embodiment, an extension of one’s bodily agency into the digital realm. Technology thus becomes part of the ‘flesh of the world’, shaping perception, connection, and self-understanding. This interpretation complements the lifeworld fractions by emphasising the ontological continuity between human and technological experience, offering a deeper account of how digital artefacts participate in the lived constitution of dignity and belonging.

Research within user and digital experience already reflects elements of the lifeworld. For example, Oygur and McCoy (2011) examined the physical and spatial requirements, while Karapanos et al. (2010) explored the temporal dimension of digital experience, highlighting how the quality of technology use evolves over time. Other studies have addressed spatiality, human values, identity, privacy, and agency in relation to technology design. By attending to the lived, embodied, and contextual nature of experience, lifeworld research can reveal varying emphases across fractions while offering deeper insight into the human–technology relationship.

Why Lifeworld Fractions Matter Methodologically?

Using the fractions as attunement rather than codes helped maintain openness while preventing drift into either abstraction or purely procedural analysis (Dahlberg, 2006; Dahlberg et al., 2008; Todres, 2005). They provided interpretive prompts at each analytic step, from identifying MUs to developing general structures, ensuring fidelity to participants lived worlds and enhancing coherence, depth, and transparency. This triadic balance – philosophy, procedure, and lifeworld fractions – offered methodological traction that generic qualitative approaches often lack.

Implications for Qualitative Health Research and Design

For qualitative health research, a lifeworld-informed analysis sharpens attention to the embodied, relational, temporal, and spatial conditions under which digital participation sustains or undermines dignity and wellbeing (Bowen & Petrelli, 2011; Chughtai, 2019). For designers and care providers, the findings underscore the need for person-centred, context-sensitive digital health practices: pacing technological change to users’ learning rhythms, supporting embodied interaction, protecting relational dignity, and designing for the spaces and tempos of everyday life.

Throughout the study, the research process was guided by bridling, a disciplined openness that maintained flexibility while critically examining pre-understandings (Dahlberg et al., 2008). While not claiming exhaustiveness, the seven-step process and lifeworld attunement offer a practical template for researchers seeking phenomenological depth and analytic clarity. The study thus extends descriptive phenomenology methodologically and substantively, illustrating how attention to the lifeworld can illuminate the existential, embodied, and ethical meanings of older adults’ digital experiences.

Conclusion

This paper demonstrated how a descriptive phenomenological methodology, grounded in lifeworld theory, can illuminate the meanings of digital technology and dignity in the everyday lives of older adults. Drawing on Ashworth’s lifeworld fractions, the study illustrated how these dimensions provided an analytic and attunement framework, guiding both data collection and interpretation through a transparent, iterative seven-step process.

The lifeworld fractions were conceptualised as a sturdy third wheel – a balancing and stabilising methodological support that complements phenomenological philosophy and analytic components of descriptive phenomenology. This metaphor captures how the framework sustained methodological coherence while remaining open to the richness and ambiguity of everyday experience. Through this process, the analysis moved beyond thematic description towards a textured understanding of how digital engagement shapes embodiment, temporality, spatiality, and sociality and how these, in turn, affect dignity and wellbeing.

Beyond offering analytic clarity, this work contributes a practical methodological and philosophical template for researchers seeking to integrate phenomenological rigour, openness, and depth into qualitative inquiry. The framework demonstrates how disciplined reflection and lifeworld sensitivity can deepen empirical insight, enhancing both analytic precision and interpretive resonance.

Conceptually, this approach underscores that digital participation is not merely functional but existential, intertwined with identity, relationality, and moral worth in later life. Recognising this can support more humane and inclusive design of digital health systems that honour older adults’ lived realities. In doing so, the paper advances the methodological dialogue between phenomenology and digital health research, offering a foundation for future inquiries into the embodied, relational, and ethical dimensions of technology-mediated care.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Material - ‘The Sturdy Third Wheel’: Application of Lifeworld Fractions in a Descriptive Phenomenological Work

Supplemental Material for ‘The Sturdy Third Wheel’: Application of Lifeworld Fractions in a Descriptive Phenomenological Work by Abraham Sahlemichael Kebede, Lise-Lotte Ozolins, Hanna Holst, Kathleen Galvin in Qualitative Health Research

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the participants who generously shared their time and experiences. For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.

ORCID iD

Abraham Sahilemichael Kebede

Ethical Considerations

The study received ethical approval from the University of Brighton Ethical Review Board (2020-4498). Subsequently, ethical clearance was obtained from the INNOVATEDIGNITY Ethical Scrutiny Board.

Consent to Participate

Informed written consent was obtained from all participants.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 813928.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Note

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