Volume 15, Issue 1 - Special Issue: "Design for Aging"

It is challenging to design a sufficiently complex user interface that is universally usable. Striking differences between younger and older users, based on age and cohort effects, demand suitable design compromises with an effective combination of user interface and instructional design. This paper describes such a design compromise with a focus on video instruction for an AAL application designed to maintain and expand cross-generational social support networks. To estimate its effectiveness, 30 younger (M = 26 years) and 31 older (M = 68 years) participants were split in two groups: Both solved the same 16 tasks with the same AAL application, yet the experimental group received a short video instruction before the tasks and the control group did not. Results show that both age groups rated the video instruction as useful and did benefit from it – older users’ effectiveness improved even to the level of younger users. It can be concluded that the effective combination of user interface and instructional design played a central role towards universal usability and that early integration of instructional design into the human centered design process improved its efficiency.

Ethnographic research methods are getting more and more popular in disciplines that have mainly been dominated by quantitative or experimental methodological approaches. Especially in technology-driven research, ethnography seems to enrich common approaches by investigating the use of technology in the everyday life of prospective users. By participating in and observing the users and their mundane activities, routines and rituals ethnography provides insights that can be integrated in the design process to improve the usability of the artifact. This article discusses the intersection of ethnography and usability by introducing ethnographic methods, discussing their application in the context of design for elderly and presenting results of an ethnographic case study in the field of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL).

Age-related decline in cognitive capacity can lead to functional restriction in everyday life. Therefore, interventions that aim to maintain and facilitate the individual cognitive capacity are becoming increasingly important. Computer-based cognitive learning is a promising approach to combat age-related loss of functional capabilities. The publicly funded project LeVer was developed especially for older adults and consisted of an online virtual cognitive training platform that enabled older adults to train on their own and in groups. Apart from investigating how older adults interacted with the platform, acceptance towards computer-based group training and audio-video communication was also analyzed. During the 20 to 30 minutes long sessions of the group training, learning units that included memory strategies as well as everyday exercises to intensify those strategies were taught. The group training was divided into four modules. The content of each session was structured using evidence-based cognitive training methods and manuals. Of the 40 older adults who used the individual online cognitive training (IOCT), half of the participants (11♀, 9♂) took part in all of the four sessions of group training. 14 participants (9♀, 5♂) aged 62–77 years ( M  = 69.56; S D  = 3.99) answered a proprietary evaluation questionnaire after all of the group sessions. The opinion of the participants about the content and design of the group training was rated on a 4 point Likert-scale with 43 items. Group training was generally rated as a positive experience. The online video communication was new for the majority of participants and was rated as enjoyable. The answers to the open questions in the evaluation questionnaire revealed that group size, topics covered during training and the exercises were seen mostly positive. Criticism was focused almost solely on technical problems, which occurred before or during the training sessions, such as loosing audio or video or an intermittent Internet connection. In this study online-based cognitive group training (OCGT) for older adults via video communication was confirmed by the participants to be a useful and positively received method to facilitate cognitive function. Participants that did not complete the training to the end did so due to time or technical problems. Since this type of training is rather cost effective and easily accessible and can be used at home, it is a favorable alternative to conventional face-to-face training. Training to better use these devices and technical support on hand is necessary to take care of participants during the group training.

One mega challenge for the next decades is the aging of populations in western societies. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Technologies provide solutions for these challenges of demographic change. Elderly people living independently in their homes can be monitored for health reasons with integrated information and communication technologies (ICT) to get help in case of emergencies. From the user-centered approach, acceptance of these solutions is crucial. In his work, we focus on the effects of 5 domestic spaces and 3 integrated ICT on acceptance and the influence of user factors. We consider two samples from 2010 (n = 100) and 2015 (n = 148). Results show that visual monitoring is accepted least, positioning best. The role of private and public rooms has a strong influence on acceptance. Also, the type of technology as well as the interaction of technology and room have a strong impact, whereas user factors play only a minor role for AAL acceptance.

Research on technology acceptance presents different theories and models to predict the intention to use and actual usage of a system. However, even when applying these concepts to the design of novel technology, there is still a lack of acceptance among many older individuals. In the past years, we gathered experience in developing and evaluating technology for older adults. Throughout multiple engineering cycles, we repeatedly encountered issues impacting user acceptance. Based on our research, we argue that low acceptance can be ascribed to all phases of the engineering process, and thus, should be systematically applied to technology engineering. By considering research on technology acceptance among older adults, and presenting our own experiences in how older adults accept ICT, we introduce 12 lessons learned when designing ICT for older adults (understanding acceptance, evaluating the importance of user acceptance, pursuing the own goals, consulting with the user, considering all available information, connecting potential benefits, balancing different views, considering mediating factors, making use of emerging artifacts, being sensitive to one’s own actions, avoiding misunderstanding, and communicating clearly). We conclude with a proposition on how to implement these lessons into acceptance engineering throughout the engineering lifecycle.

Demographic change and associated shifts in the age structure lead to major challenges in health processes. One way to address this is to increase the use of telemedicine systems and services to ensure non-local yet individualized patient care, such as in rural areas. When considering new medical technology components, we must compensate for age-related changes in perception, cognition and motor skills to achieve user-centered design and take into account psychophysical effect relationships to achieve sustainable acceptance for technology integration. This paper presents various best-practice examples for participatory investigation into influencing factors, with a focus on the different times and periods within the lifecycle of a telemedical product and associated services. In addition to giving concrete design hints derived from individual studies, the paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the paradigms used and provides recommendations for user-centric development with old and very old patients.

Based on experience in teaching programming, we developed the integrated development environment (IDE) 5Code especially to support beginners. As a first step, a simple, understandable formula was developed how to advance from the problem to the program in 5 operative steps: r e a d   i t → g e t   i t → t h i n k   i t → n o t e   i t → c o d e   i t . $read\;it \to get\;it \to think\;it \to note\;it \to code\;it{\rm{.}}$ In order to reduce the cognitive load of the learners effectively, 5Code was designed such that all 5 steps are permanently presented, accessible and executable. Thus, learners are provided with the entire programming context from presentation of the task via own notes and annotations to the code area. Learners can mark and annotate any part of the given task’s text; these annotations can be edited as notes with own comments. Furthermore, the notes can be dragged into the code area, where they are shown as comments in the coding language. Any modifications in the comments are synchronized between notes and code. 5Code is implemented as a web-application. It is used in university introductory courses on object oriented programming.

The Uncanny Valley hypothesis describes the negative emotional response of human observers that is evoked by artificial figures or prostheses with a human-like appearance. Many studies have pointed out the meaning of facial features, but did not further investigate the importance of eye contact and its role in decision making about artificial faces. In this study we recorded the number and duration of fixations of participants (N = 53) and recorded gaze movements and fixations on different areas of interest, as well as the response time when a participant judged a face as non-human. In a subsequent questionnaire, we grasped subjective ratings. In our analysis we found correlations between the likeability and the duration of eye fixations on the eye area. The gaze sequences show that artificial faces were visually processed similar to the real ones and mostly remained not assessed as artificial as long as the eye regions were not considered.

Companies are more and more interested in providing a positive user experience (UX). The aim is to offer a smooth and pleasant experience with the application at hand. As UX consultants, we often face the following basic questions at the start of user experience projects: How can we learn about the user processes in the scope of the project, that is, the activities a user needs to perform to achieve a certain goal? How can we gather the essential steps and stages of the user process and the experiences accompanying them? How do we identify where in the process user research is needed? In order to help answer these questions, we suggest the method of User Journey Mapping, which we developed and refined in the course of seven customer projects.

The establishment of human-centered design within software development processes is still a challenge. Numerous methods exist that aim to increase the usability and user experience of an interactive system. Nevertheless, the selection of appropriate methods remains to be challenging, as there are multiple different factors that have a significant impact on the appropriateness of the methods in their context of use. The present article investigates current strategies of method selection based on a conference workshop with practitioners. The results show that usability and user experience professionals concentrate on five to seven well-known methods and will need more support to select and use further ones.

Where ideas exist for products or features, User Experience (UX)-related aspects are usually not given enough consideration. Role-play exercises enable the implicit knowledge of experts which then can be used to identify and refine UX-related factors in product ideas. From early childhood, people use role-play to try out roles and get to know them. Their experience provides them with a more in-depth understanding for the roles and also teaches them how to interact with each other. This original learning method can therefore be applied by most people without a great deal of preparation. Personas (i. e. prototypical user) are ultimately a form of role description and are used as a launching point from which to place ourselves in the position of a user. Scenarios offer contextual information and provide a scope for the role-play exercise to move on.