Responsible AI and UX
Research, design, and governance for the AgeTech industry.
Human-centered UX for the aging adult and caregiving ecosystem.
I work on the parts that decide whether older adults and their caregivers can rely on what you build: the research behind the decisions, the design they touch, and the governance behind the AI. One advisor, not an agency.
Start where you are
Most people reach me at one of a few points. If one of these sounds like where you are, that is a good reason to talk.
You have added AI to a product that older adults use, and you are not sure it is safe or clear enough for them.
We start with research and a close look at the design, so you know where it stands before you change anything.
You are close to launch and want to know whether the experience holds up for someone in their late seventies, and for the family member helping them.
I test it with people in that age range and the people around them, then tell you plainly what holds and what does not.
You need AI governance that will hold up to an audit and still match how people really use the product.
I build the governance and run the risk review together, so the paperwork and the real use agree with each other.
You are early, and you want a senior, honest read before you spend budget on the wrong thing.
A short review to steer the money toward the work that matters, and away from the work that does not.
The work, as I see it
Adding AI to a product is easy now. Making AI that older adults and their caregivers can rely on is not. That gap, between a feature that demos well and one people depend on in daily life, is where I work.
Age raises the stakes. When a product touches someone’s safety, dignity, or independence, a careless AI decision is not a bug report. It is a person let down.
You can move fast and still refuse to cut the corners that matter. Most of my work is making sure you do.
The parts that are easy to skip
Good AgeTech is built with older adults, not only for them. That means real feedback from the people who will use it, and from the family and caregivers around them, early and often. It is slower at the start and cheaper by the end.
Accessibility is the floor, not a finish. I hold the work to the WCAG guidelines, so it fits people across a range of sight, hearing, movement, and memory. For older adults, that is the whole point, not an edge to handle later.
AI moves fast, and it is easy to bolt something on and rush to the next thing. That is how technical debt builds: shortcuts that work today and cost you later, in trust and in rework. I help you add AI on the emerging best practices, with the ISO 42001 and 42005 standards as scaffolding, so what you ship holds up instead of piling up.
None of this is only for large companies with compliance teams. A small team feels a careless AI decision sooner, because there is less between the decision and the person it reaches. Getting it right early is not a luxury for the well-resourced. It is how a small team earns trust and keeps it.
About Me
I have spent three decades in UX strategy, research, and design. Moving into AI ethics, responsible AI, and AI governance was not a pivot. It is the same commitment to the person on the other side of the screen, now that the screen can make decisions of its own.
I care most about the users that careless technology serves worst: older adults and the people who care for them.
I am 65 myself. In work meant to include older adults, that turns out to matter.
This site reflects how I work. It sets no tracking cookies, follows the responsible-AI principles I advise on, and says plainly what it does.
- Ezra Schwartz
My initiatives
Responsible AgeTech
My open resource on responsible AI in aging technology: governance guides, state AI regulation trackers, and practical frameworks for AgeTech and caregiving organizations.
AgeTech Studio
My design and evaluation practice for aging-focused products, where inclusive research methods and responsible AI patterns are put to work.
Design patterns
This is where the principles above become real work. Each piece is a practical technique for AgeTech products, written plainly so you can use it. I share them so you can see how I think before we talk.
Guide to Error Messages & User Guidance in AgeTech UX
When something goes wrong, an older adult should never be left feeling at fault. This is about writing error messages and guidance that stay calm, say plainly what happened, and show the next step. The goal is to help someone recover and carry on.
Read the full piece on LinkedIn
Ethical Consent Design for AgeTech: A UX Guide
Consent should be a real choice, not a box you click to make a screen go away. This walks through consent flows that explain what they ask for, in plain words, and make declining as easy as agreeing. Honesty is the whole point.
Read the full piece on LinkedIn
Ethical Subscription UX for AgeTech Products & Services
A subscription should be as easy to leave as it was to join. This covers pricing, renewals, and cancellation handled without dark patterns or hidden traps, so trust holds after the sale. What is fair for the user tends to be good for the business too.
Read the full piece on LinkedIn
Inside Social Companion Robots
A close look at social companion robots for older adults, and the questions they raise. Always-on microphones, facial recognition, and data kept for years put a vulnerable person at real risk. The piece follows how the data actually moves and argues for consent, transparency, and accountable design, with ISO 42001 as the backbone.
Read the full piece on Responsible AgeTech
Managing AI Conversations in AgeTech Apps
When a product talks back, the person has to stay in control. This is about designing AI conversations that are clear about what they are, honest about what they do not know, and ready to hand off to a human when it matters. For older adults, a confident wrong answer is worse than no answer.
Read the full piece on LinkedIn
Working together
A first conversation is thirty minutes, with no pitch. You tell me about the product, the people it serves, and where AI fits. I tell you plainly whether and how I can help. From there, engagements take one of two shapes.
Scoped Engagements
Agreed activities, deliverables, timeline and budget.
Fractional Retainer
Ongoing, part-time strategic advisory support and expertise.
On time and money: the first conversation is free. A focused review usually runs a few weeks. A fractional retainer is monthly and ongoing. I give you a budget range on that first call, once I understand the work. I would rather you know the shape of it early than be surprised later.
Expertise
Research, Strategy & UX Design
AI raises hard questions about quality, control, and whether people will use what you build. I work through them with research, quick prototypes, and testing with real users, so your decisions rest on evidence rather than guesses.
Service Design
I map your service as it works today against where you want it to go, then show you the gaps between the two and a short plan, in the order I would fix things.
AI Governance & Risk Assessment
I build governance that draws on the ISO 42001 and ISO 42005 standards, and run risk reviews that weigh the technical checks and the real-world use together.
Engagements also draw on conversation design, human-AI interaction, strategy across business and consumer products, measuring how an experience performs over time, evaluation that includes everyone and holds up to an audit, aligning the people with a stake, workshops, and talks.
Credentials & recognition
Award
A UTI Story: Journey Mapping Methodology & Improving Continuity of Care
Award issued by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Patent
“Systems and methods for supporting a testing environment for a website”
US 10,002,393
Books
I have written several books on experience design and prototyping. The Axure prototyping books paired tool mastery with a conviction that has outlasted the tools: prototypes are not deliverables but engines for storytelling, collaboration, validation, and testing across the whole design life cycle. From Axure in its prime to today’s AI-powered, high-fidelity workflows, the tools change; how prototypes shape design conversations does not.
My most recent book, Exploring Experience Design, introduces the field to students weighing it as a career.
Experience strategy and design projects
The rigor I built on enterprise and regulated work is what I bring to AgeTech and caregiving today. That experience spans healthcare and pharma, finance and insurance, consumer goods and manufacturing, education, information services, and aviation.
- Bloomberg
- Coca-Cola
- Cardinal Health
- Walgreens-Boots Alliance
- Dell-EMC
- JP Morgan
- US Bank
- Ally Bank
- Allstate
- State Farm
- NetApp
- Houghton Mifflin
- Inspira Financial
- Comscore
- Sentient Jet
- Independence Tube
- UIC
- Actuate
- Anthology (Campus Management)
- Ex Libris Group
I also work closely with startups. Much of that is helping founders think strategically and work on their business, not in it: shaping products that attract investors and keep customers.
Plain terms
A few specialized terms appear above. Here they are in plain language.
- AgeTech
- Technology made with older adults, not only for them. Their feedback and co-design shape it, along with the family and caregivers around them.
- Co-design
- Designing with the people who will use a product, so their feedback shapes it from the start rather than at the end.
- UX (user experience)
- How a product feels to use, and whether it works for the person using it.
- Service design
- Looking at the whole experience around a product, including the steps, people, and handoffs that happen off the screen.
- AI governance
- The rules and checks that decide how an AI system is built, watched, and held to account.
- Responsible AI
- Building AI that people can trust, with attention to safety, fairness, and honesty about what it does and does not do.
- Human-AI interaction
- How a person and an AI system work together, and whether the person stays in control.
- Conversation design
- Shaping how a product talks with people, so the exchange is clear and useful.
- Usability testing
- Watching real people use a product to see where it helps them and where it gets in the way.
- WCAG
- The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. A shared standard for making digital products usable by people with a wide range of sight, hearing, movement, and memory.
- Prototype
- A working model of an idea, made to test and improve it before it is built for real.
- Technical debt
- The hidden cost of shortcuts. Quick fixes that work today and make tomorrow's changes slower, riskier, and more expensive.
- Fractional
- Part-time and ongoing. You get senior help a few days a month, without a full-time hire.
- ISO 42001 and ISO 42005
- International standards for managing AI responsibly. 42001 covers how an organization runs its AI. 42005 covers how to weigh an AI system’s impact on people.