HCI International 2023 Posters

The call light system is a central communication technology linking care providers and patients. Call light systems in hospital settings help reduce the likelihood and severity of adverse events and ambulatory conditions by allowing nurses to quickly respond to patient needs. However, the call light system was found to be associated with major challenges and usability issues that negatively impacted patients’ safety and quality of care.This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of a high-fidelity prototype of a previously designed smart communication system in a simulated environment. College students were invited to mimic the role of patients, and nursing students were invited to perform routine tasks using a traditional call light system and the smart system. Participants were instructed to perform routine tasks using pre-designed scenarios in a simulated environment using the traditional call light system and the smart system. Results show that the smart system reduced the overall response time by more than 50%.

Interaction and Service Design research was applied to synthesise the complex issues associated with cardiac assessment. A design demonstrator prototype was produced to rationalise how a virtual assistant might enable objective assessments clinical assessment questioning and vital signs monitoring. This led to a concept design prototype called Heart Hub, developed from a telephone triage service for patients with cardiovascular disease.Through a co-design framework and the positive design methodology, a series of user experience techniques were used including clinician contextual laddering video interview, user personas, empathy-journey mapping, user interviews and task analysis. Secondly, we will report on the various design phases from sketching, wireframes, high resolution mock-ups to prototypes. Lastly, we report on the challenges of working on design within a healthcare setting in times of public health crisis and the effects of that). This ongoing research demonstrates the application of design c to tackle wicked problems within a healthcare context.

In today’s world, individuals are encountering increasingly serious stress problems, which calls for useful self-regulation tools. Biofeedback training is a powerful technique for stress management and relaxation training. However, current biofeedback training systems still lack users’ motivation as well as engagement in practicing due to abstract display and tedious tasks. Serious game is an effective tool being used in health care and medical treatment, which shows the potential to improve motivation and performance in biofeedback training while its application in this field is still in its infancy. This study intends to provide valuable strategies for biofeedback game design. And according to the design considerations, we developed a respiratory biofeedback serious game based on heart rate variability analysis. The results demonstrated that the game performed well in system usability and user experience, and it greatly improved user’s motivation and engagement in biofeedback training.

In the past few years, a plethora of serious games concerning eating habits have been developed aiming to help improve people’s diet and prevent chronic diseases. However, little emphasis has been placed on the Mediterranean diet and the Mediterranean way of life. In this paper we propose a novel educational game that promotes the Mediterranean diet among school students in Mediterranean countries. The work was conducted within the PRIMA SWITCHtoHEALTHY project [1], with a focus on food groups, healthy ingredients, water intake, not skipping meals, and physical activity. The game design followed a co-design approach which is based on the educational game design principles [2]. A related questionnaire regarding game factors was adopted and adjusted to the requirements of the proposed game. Each factor consists of up to three questions, certain questions were updated and a new factor that reflects “Transfer to real life” was introduced. The purpose of this process is to gather end-user feedback, with the goal of optimizing and validating the game design. To avoid bias, respondents were diverse in terms of age, nationality, and status. Children, parents, researchers, and nutritionists from Turkey, Spain, Lebanon, Morocco, and Greece participated in the survey. The higher the score, the more satisfied the user is with each question; nevertheless, low scores can occasionally be justified. The game was revised in consideration to the responses, resulting in a co-designed game.

This study focuses on using books in libraries as an interactive medium, aiming to help individuals with social anxiety disorder alleviate their anxiety and establish positive social experiences. The research background and literature review explore the relationship between social anxiety disorder and books, utilizing narrative frameworks and mirroring psychotherapy techniques to design an experience related to books, book reviews, and social experiences. Through case studies, needs exploration, scenario mapping systems, and interactive process design, we provide an innovative approach for individuals with social anxiety disorder who desire socialization, allowing them to find like-minded partners and engage in social interactions with reduced anxiety interference. Finally, this study summarizes system design, interface design, and user testing and evaluation.

The project addressed by this paper was undertaken by graduate students in a healthcare-related design studio course within the MID program in the School of Industrial Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology.After being briefed on the problem, students began with background research intended to help identify and understand the needs of various users, existing solutions, the use environment, as well as specific developmental requirements. In researching this problem further, the team that is the focus of this paper narrowed their attention from general medication adherence to the specific issue of medication adherence in Type 2 Diabetic patients. The team wished to address this population segment after discovering that the required adjustments to lifestyle & medication adherence are particularly problematic and challenging to the newly diagnosed.This paper details the process of how this team leveraged “gamification” of the self-care process to ease the process of updating diet, medication and lifestyle habits. The design encouraged the patient to care for a virtual pet which moved the focus away from oneself and towards the virtual companion. By caring for this virtual pet, the patient could improve his/her self-care, presumably resulting in improved exercise, diet & medication adherence.This “gamification” contrasted with more traditional conceptual solutions proposed by other teams that included improved medication organizers, medication dispensers, and reminder Apps. The lifestyle adjustments required by a Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis are largely a psychological and emotional challenge; addressing these problems through providing care for a virtual companion was a novel approach.

Adolescents’ psychological problems have become a global public health problem, and the age of teenage suicides in schools is gradually decreasing. However, many teens on campus are afraid to disclose their status to counselors and advisor. In the study, we interviewed Six university advisor and five students. Their thoughts and suggestions on functions such as “conversation response”, “menu guidance”, “push broadcast function”, “improved student usage rate”, “providing chatbot data to tutors as evidence for tutoring” of chatbots supporting tutoring. The study pointed out that the introduction of chatbots can help students express their emotions, and adding the option of chatting with teachers can increase students’ ability to explain their own situation to teachers through chatbots, and help teachers manage class management while providing more accurate counseling resources. Based on the research results, we also discuss the functions that help to provide counseling effectiveness, such as introducing chatbots, counseling and counseling chatbot response methods, personalized broadcasting, increasing student usage, precise counseling, and counseling warnings. propose.

In 2022, the World Health Organization reported that 1 in 6 people worldwide will be aged 60 years or older by 2030. By 2050, the global population of people aged 60 years or older will double. The demand for long-term health care for older adults is increasing. In particular, the rate of urinary tract infection in older adults in long-term health care institutions is increasing. In this study, a smart health care strategy was proposed for preventing sepsis caused by urinary tract infections. A smart AIoT urine bag was designed to monitor the urine bacterial levels of older patients who are confined to bed for an extended time. To design the bag, a questionnaire was first administered to 19 medical professionals. Semistructured interviews with three health-care professionals were then conducted for further analysis, and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to perform a quantitative calculation of functional weights and to extract key product criteria. Quality functional deployment evaluation was used to define the design in terms of the house of quality and to verify the AHP results by quantifying the AHP-identified criteria for the design of the AIoT smart urine bag. Posture sensing, one-way valve, out-of-bed displacement warning, and emptying equipment were the four most important criteria for consideration during product development.

Depression is one of the most common psychological disorders nowadays, and its causes are influenced by many factors such as family, personality, emotions, upbringing, and learning process. Usually, depressed patients are sensitive and pessimistic about all kinds of things, and they will show extreme emotions such as pain and misanthropy, and finally they may even have suicidal tendencies and behaviors. Gamification, on the other hand, is considered a reliable way to regulate depression and enhance the sense of experience and accomplishment; meanwhile, in the medical field, gamification has been used as a method to improve treatment compliance and participation. Therefore, in order to address the emotional regulation and self-management of depressed patients in the recovery pathway, augmented reality technology will be combined with the recovery process to design a gamified recovery aid. The design will use audience population interview method, follow-up interview method, questionnaire method, and literature search method for research verification, in-depth analysis of the psychological and realistic needs of depressed patients, formulation of software framework, rehabilitation model and game mechanics through their mapped design points, and enhancement of the visibility and participation of the rehabilitation game through emerging augmented reality means. The software consists of five main modules: game, daily plan, achievement, communication, and record, which regulates patients’ depression through gamification and adjusts the game process based on daily records to reduce their depression and increase their motivation for recovery, thus assisting their self-management and recovery.

This paper presents a novel training system called the Augmented Mirror Hand (MIRANDA) for advanced prosthetic devices. MIRANDA utilizes virtual reality technology and electromyographic data to train the control system of the prosthesis. The system includes an experimental environment, a hand reflection module, and an aggregation module to collect and store synchronized data. A machine learning algorithm is then trained on the collected data to predict the expected movements of the arm. The experiment was conducted with 10 healthy volunteers, and the results showed a prediction error of around 7 degrees accuracy with a CNN-based decoder. MIRANDA has the potential to be used in combination with other paradigms to record muscle electrical activity data in amputees and support the learning of controlling advanced bionic prosthetic devices, which can lead to more intuitive prosthetic control. The proposed system can also contribute to improving the economic and social outcomes for amputees by better preparing them for the use of advanced prosthetic devices.

The research is focused on studying the psychosocial risk factors and work stress in the logistics and distribution personnel of a company in the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. It contributes to the thematic area of the Psychology of Engineering, and the methodology follows a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design and correlational scope. For data collection, the evaluation method of psychosocial factors designed by the National Institute of Safety and Health at Work of Spain through the FPSICO 4.0 software and the Work Stress Questionnaire developed by the World Health Organization are used. The study is conducted on 25 workers. The results show a 70% presence of psychosocial risk with a moderate to a high level, and there is low work stress of 68%. To identify if there is a possible relationship between psychosocial risk and work stress, the variables are analyzed. Initially, the Shapiro-Wilk normality test is performed, obtaining values less than 0.05, and there is no homogeneity between variables. Therefore, the non-parametric statistical test of Spearman’s correlation is established, in which a value of 0.38 is obtained, accepting the alternative hypothesis with a low correlation between the variables. In this sense, this demonstrates the importance of evaluating the work environment to identify the existence of risks that may be affecting the performance of workers and the fulfillment of business objectives. Finally, these results allow for creating awareness in the country to reduce or mitigate the existing risks and prioritize the health of workers.

In order to effectively improve the pain and fear of children’s intravenous infusion process, and effectively maintain a good relationship between children, parents, medical staff and medical products, this study will design and research on children’s intravenous infusion medical auxiliary products based on Professor Norman’s three-level theory of emotional design, combined with the Children’s Medical Fear Scale (CMFS) and the Facial Pain Scale (Wong-baker). The study will visualize the fear of infusion in children, find the root causes and peak stages of children’s fear of intravenous infusion, and finally do a preliminary design of infusion medical auxiliary products in the form of pain transfer to guide intravenous infusion to a more relaxed and pleasant direction, and provide methodological guidance and data support for future related medical design research.

In the context of increasing social competition, life pressure, and COVID-19 epidemic, the psychological subhealth issues of young and middle-aged individuals are becoming more prevalent. In light of this, the study of psychological relaxation has become crucial. The rapid development of virtual reality technology in recent years has enabled visiting virtual environments to be a convenient means of achieving physical and mental healing. Nevertheless, the combination of healing environments and virtual reality is currently limited to virtual scenes shaped by sound and light, and the use of tactile, olfactory, and gustatory simulation technologies is minimal. Therefore, innovative research is required. In this paper, theories and technologies related to five-sense healing around the world are analyzed, and the psychological healing needs of young and middle-aged groups are investigated. On this basis, immersive virtual re-ality healing designs based on the five senses are proposed. This enlightens immersive virtual reality healing design and provides a more immersive healing experience for young and middle-aged people with mental sub-health.

This research aims to map the available evidence on teaching strategies for clinical and laboratory in healthcare professional education during the COVID-19 pandemic and their impacts on students. PubMed, Science Direct, JSTOR, ProQuest, and Springer Nature were searched for relevant articles with queries that combine keywords related to healthcare professional students, clinical learning, laboratory learning and Covid-19. Included studies focused on clinical and laboratory education during the Covid-19 pandemic and their impacts. We excluded reviews or study protocols. The retrieved articles were screened at the title, abstract, and full-text stages. Studies were selected based on relevancy with the inclusion criteria. Findings then were extracted, and the reported based on the PRISMA guidelines. A total of 3237 studies were identified following a comprehensive search, and eight studies were included after removing duplicates and screening. We found several teaching methods utilized during Covid-19 pandemic including blended learning, virtual and online learning, online simulated learning, and the use of telehealth. The learning methods received a mixed response from students, some rated positive responses, and some assumed that this online approach was not enough to support clinical and laboratory learning for health students. The scoping review maps out that majority of used methods are online and virtual clinical and laboratory learning. There is a need for further research designing more quasi-experimental studies to assess the effectiveness of standalone digital education interventions for the remote training of nursing or medical interns to be fully prepared for emergencies.

With the rising popularity of fitness and the growing need to record workouts for analytical or social purposes, there is an increasing demand for fitness application(s) that would cater to the requirements of the emerging lifestyle. Looking at the available applications, there are only a few of them, namely, Garmin Connect, Strava, RunKeeper, Map My Ride, Zombie Run and Zwift. From the reviews received on their websites or applications, multiple issues were identified. A few of them are syncing issues, notification issues, GPS issues, fitness goal update issues, and many more. Motivated by these shortcomings in a market of high demand, a contextual design approach was used to design a new fitness application that would benefit the fitness enthusiast without these issues. Intermediary steps in achieving this goal were - experience model construction, grand vision development, identification of persons, product concepts and their cool drilldowns, storyboarding, Generalized Transition Network (GTN), wireframing, prototyping, creating Usability Aspect Report (UAR) based on persona, and improvements made according to the UARs. Along with these, a few suggestions for further improvement have been made.

Convenience stores (hereafter referred to as “C-stores”) are popular due to their convenient locations and the ability to easily purchase a variety of goods. However, the food available for takeout at these stores tends to be high in energy, fat, and salt. This makes it difficult for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients who have dietary restrictions to maintain a balanced diet while utilizing C-stores. In this study, we propose a nutrition balance confirmation application to be used at C-stores for CKD patients. By inputting age, gender, height, and physical activity level beforehand, the application calculates the user's appropriate nutritional balance. Based on the nutrition information stored in the database, the application can immediately display and confirm the nutritional balance of the food selected at C-stores, making it easy for the user to select appropriate food items. We present the results of a simulated experiment using this application and discuss future challenges.

The Nine-Hole Peg Test (NHPT) is a standard clinical tool to assess the hand dexterity of a subject with impaired mobility. Virtual reality (VR) offers several advantages in evaluating the user’s performance (such as upper limb mobility, movement coordination, precision, and stability) and customizing the rehabilitation task. However, the VR-based NHPT may require more time to complete due to the unfamiliarity of the VR environment and the lack of haptic feedback. In the study, 40 participants were recruited to compare the execution time between conventional NHPT and VR NHPT. The results revealed that participants spend significantly more time in VR than in the physical test (Wilcoxon Rank Sum test, p < 0.0001). This study demonstrates the need for new norms for the virtualized NHPT in order to evaluate hand dexterity.

Caeregivers undertake the important work of taking care of patients'daily life in hospital. But the hospital accompanying bed has the problems of unreasonable size setting and too hard bed surface, which makes the accompanying person unable to get a good rest after a large amount of physical consumption, thus affecting the treatment of patients. In view of this situation, this study firstly investigated the internal space of the ward and the demand points of the accompanying bed. Secondly, the Kano model is constructed through user interviews and questionnaires, and the key user needs are obtained. At the same time, based on the framework of situational FBS model, the structural framework and related technical principles of the accompanying bed are constructed, and the design principles of the accompanying bed are derived. Then the Jack simulation system was used to carry out the experiment, and the size of the accompanying bed was determined, and the design scheme was produced. Finally, evaluate the design scheme through user interviews. According to the results, a multi-functional medical accompanying bed which can meet the needs of caregivers for all-day rest is obtained.

Mobile telepresence robots (MTRs) allow communication and mobility to interact from a distant location. In health care settings, these robots are used to enhance interactions between physicians, patients, and family members. MTRs can thus be effective in improving quality and efficiency in health care; however, the interactions that MTRs afford need to be studied to address issues related to their design, development, and implementation in line with the physical affordance space by looking not only at the features but also at the relationships they create. Therefore, this study aims to identify the types of interactions offered by two different types of MTRs in health care settings, the relevance of each interaction depending on the type of health care setting, and the perceived differences between the two MTRs. Empirical data were collected in Spain, in two hospitals, a nursing home and with professionals from private clinics. With a qualitative approach, the main data source were 25 semi-structured interviews with informants that used CLARC and GoBe tests in situ and video recorded as stimulus. Additionally, observations, two focus groups and archival data were collected. Findings show two types of interactions: displacement and simultaneity. Furthermore, perceived differences related to the appearance of the two MTRs result in different evoked feelings that are either appropriate or inappropriate depending on the type of patient. This study improves the understanding of how to design, develop, and implement MTRs in health care settings by expanding knowledge on the proper fit between type of interaction and setting.

While existing wearable technologies and mobile health apps make easy the collection of personal health data, they do not provide the means necessary for patients to visualise, better understand and make use of this data. Our research examined the following question: What are the behaviours and attitudes of patients living with chronic conditions when viewing personal health data (PHD) visualisations? A cross-sectional online questionnaire survey was conducted in the UK in the spring of 2022. A total of 152 patients with chronic conditions participated. Data was analysed descriptively and using Chi-square tests. The results showed that patients with diabetes viewed PHD more frequently compared to other conditions (p = .011). Patients with musculoskeletal diseases were more likely to have problems understanding PHD visualisations (p = .056). The most frequently viewed types of self-generated data were physical activity (p < .001), mental well-being (p < .001), sleep (p < .001), BMI or weight (p < .001) and healthy lifestyle data (p = .031), such as diet/nutrition plans, alcohol and smoking habits. The most common problems patients faced when viewing their PHD were: “Presence of too much or too little data” (40.7%), “Lack of customisation of the data visualisation” (40%), and “Lack of personalised information” (38%).

Japan’s aging population is among the largest in the world. The increase in the number of people requiring medical and nursing care has resulted in a shortage of home care nurses. Despite an increasing number of home-visit nursing stations and the introduction of electronic medical records, information is still text-input, making it difficult to visualize nursing practice for each patient. Insufficient information sharing increases the risk of medical accidents. Therefore, we developed an information sharing system that uses images and videos on a tablet (iPad). This system consists of an administration screen and a user screen: (1) The administration screen allows “Patient Registration,” “User Registration,” and “Category Registration.” In the “Patient Registration” section, users register by entering the name and date of birth of the patient with whom they wish to share information. “Nurse Registration” registers visiting nurses who will use the system and assigns them an ID and password. “Category Registration” allows users to set categories according to the nature of the nursing practice they wish to share information about. (2) The user screen is used by visiting nurses to log in and use the system. They upload images and videos of nursing practice taken at home and view these images and videos on a tablet. This system is expected to teach nursing practice prior to the visit. In addition, the accumulation of images and videos can be arranged according to the category of nursing practice and used as a continuous learning tool for home-visiting nurses.

The hospital reception (HR) is one of the first contact points for information about treatment stays, visits, or administrative matters, and thus has influence on the perceived hospital quality. In Dec. 2022, we investigated the information needs during a one week participant observation of the entrance hall at a rural Bavarian hospital. We aim to understand the HRs information needs and how these requests are answered. Previous studies show that the information needs can vary significantly among patients, visitors and employees, impacting the overall hospital experience. There is a lack of research on the information requirements at hospital receptions, with most studies focusing on emergency admissions. In our literature search, we couldn’t locate studies that addressed information needs at a hospital reception. We conducted a participant observation using a standardized form. Over the seven day observation period, N = 1,499 requests were made at HR. The requests were examined by summarizing qualitative content analysis in different categories about locations or concerns. Visitors account for 51.3% (n = 769) of all requests, followed by patients at 38.5% (n = 577), employees at 5.3% (n = 79), and other stakeholder at 1.6% (n = 24). The highest utilization of the reception is due to visitors showing a COVID-19 test certificate (n = 289) and asking the reception staff for a patient room number (n = 204). Patients most frequently asked about their appointment registration (n = 148), the procedure in case of an emergency (n = 98), and orientation (n = 79). The minor requests came from employees in the form of administrative requests like borrowing keys (n = 39). On average, the staff needs 65 s to attend to one person. New technologies, like service robots in the entrance hall, can reduce the number of requests in the future. Our study helps to meet user needs through designing service robots. Follow-up studies are planned to validate our findings.

Encouraging humans to disclose personal information is a complex process that is built upon trust, and this is especially true when related to sensitive topics such as mental health. Currently, this data is collected through trained professionals but COVID-19 has seen an increasing demand for support. This paper looks at maximising trust in mental health conversational agents. The study collected data from 177 participants, using survey questionnaires, to examine what human-like features help cultivate and encourage trust. Analysis suggests respondents prefer something that reflects themselves. For example, 78% stated a conversational agent should display a static avatar they can shape to their own preferences. Other factors found to have an impact were friendly greetings (preferred by 76%) and patience (99%). This initial study establishes that humans believe mental health conversational agents can, and should, exhibit a range of human-like features. Some preferences are largely universal across all demographics, whereas others are more specific. This study then delivers a framework of desirable attributes, traits and characteristics, which will be used to test if these features are more successful at establishing trust than standard online forms.

We are developing a game-based nursing-care prevention system, which promotes physical exercise among the elderly by requiring them to wipe or clean a virtual window displayed on a screen. This game can accurately measure the range of motion(ROM) of the shoulder joint, which is one of the main measurement items for activity of daily life (ADL) evaluation. However, this game has its limitations in that there are rare occurrences of side elevation and forward elevation movements. Therefore, this time, we devised the three following methods for obtaining suitable movements for measuring the shoulder joint ROM without impairing players’ enjoyment of the game with more than 100 elderly people. We implemented, 1. A method with voice or video guidance, 2. a method of varying the unclean part of the window, 3. a method of presenting parallel projection images transformed from camera images so that players have an advantage in the game when they extend their hands broadly. As a result, the necessary movements for measuring the typical shoulder joint ROM were induced.

We present the initial design, and development of a wheeled mobile robot that encourages people to sanitize their hands. The aim is to help people make hand hygiene part of their daily routine, as hand hygiene is perhaps the most important measure to prevent healthcare related infections. The laws that regulate machinery, and robots deployed in public spaces affected the design, and determined the equipment mounted on the robot. Safety, and accessibility where the main drivers behind all design considerations in order to allow for side, and forward secure approaches. For a wheeled mobile robot to be able to navigate in complex, and populated indoor environments, and assist humans in sanitizing their hands, a combination of multiple sensors, equipment, and accessories is needed. We tried to keep the budget of the robot to a minimum by equipping it with low-cost equipment whenever possible, and by allowing those who helped us build the robot to be advertised on the robot. We have decided to use hard materials for three reasons: to have a more stable design; to indicate that this is not a robot for communication purposes; and to be able to clean/disinfect it easier. The first iteration of our robotic platform is 1415 mm tall, has max speed 0,7 m/s, is mostly build of stainless-steel material, and involves a contactless hand sanitizer dispenser built on top of a Slamtec platform. Our proposed robotic solution can be deployed in private spaces also, and can be further upgraded with more and better quality equipment to serve in different needs/contexts.

The pandemic has altered some females’ perspectives on fitness, home settings have become a more popular exercise venue than gyms, particularly among young females. In this study, through a survey of 160 young females, it was found that most prefer to engage in low to moderate intensity exercises during home fitness. It is noteworthy that 86% of young females expressed that playing media content during exercise would distract their attention, leading to difficulty in maintaining proper form throughout the workout. This study aims to optimize the home exercise experience for young females and reduce the risk of physical injury caused by improper exercise posture resulting from excessive immersion in media playback content. During testing, six young female participants were recorded using the AI motion capture tool “Plask” while performing an experimental task (rotating hula hoops) with and without media playback, measuring their conscious state and body posture. The experimental results demonstrate that the use of the AI motion capture tool can effectively obtain the movement parameters and limb data of participants from different perspectives. This helps health experts better analyze participants’ exercise perception behavior and identify issues in young females’ home exercise routines. Based on the evaluation results, a set of exercise reminder programs has been designed in this study to assist young females in maintaining exercise regularity through periodic reminders. Through usability testing, it has been demonstrated that this design can effectively enhance the positive effects of home fitness for young females.

Using gamification techniques to intervene in health behaviors is a promising study. The effect of gamification varies considerably between different users. Therefore, our purpose is to understand the effect of user type and health beliefs on the effect of gamification systems. Physical activity applications are studied as an example in this paper. Firstly, we designed storyboards to explain six gamification elements commonly used in the area of encouraging physical activity. Secondly, we conducted an online study (N = 133). We counted subjects’ user type and health belief by using the modified Hexad User Type Scale and HBM scale. Then we measured the perceived persuasiveness of the six gamification elements using the Perceived Persuasiveness Scale. Finally, the results of the correlation test showed a potential influence of health beliefs on the perception of gamification strategies by different users. The novelty of this study is the combination of the health beliefs with the hexad user type model which developed for gamification systems. This complements the existing correlation between Hexad user types and gamification strategies. Our findings may help system developers to select appropriate gamification strategies for different types of users to achieve better health behavior interventions.

The media and cognition course has evolved over ten years and is still keeping pace with the latest developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning. In order to promote this course, the teaching group specially launched one python programming course in the first year of college to help freshmen use python as a tool more proficiently, and combine their interests in the subsequent media and cognition course to propose their more attractive and innovative ideas. This process is also known as the interest-based teaching method. With the development of interest-based teaching method, more students can find interesting problems or difficulties in their study and life, and try to solve them with various intelligent means taught in the course of media and cognition. In the latest course, students independently propose a diagnostic technique for teenagers’ psychological anxiety based on image cognition. In the class, the students developed one anxiety diagnosis chatbot system for teenagers to self-test their anxious level. Based on the user’s description and cognition of the image, the user’s language and text analysis and entity extraction are used to determine the severity of their psychological problems and analyze the causes of their anxiety and stress. The topics proposed in this paper reflect the recent development of artificial intelligence and psychology shown in this course. This kind of interest-based application project proposed by the students fully implies that as a teaching platform, this course effectively helps students to conduct independent research based on interest, and further stimulates students’ innovative ability.

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of gamified design as a means of introductory core muscle training. A gamified design session incorporated surface electromyogram (sEMG) technology and game-like elements to facilitate core muscle training to achieve this objective. The study examined participants’ core muscle surface electromyography, endurance, and engagement levels before and after the training. The findings indicated that individuals who underwent gamified design training demonstrated significantly enhanced core muscle strength and endurance compared to those who received formal training.Furthermore, the participants reported higher levels of engagement and motivation during the training sessions. In conclusion, this study suggests that gamified design can effectively enhance introductory core muscle training. Incorporating game-like elements and sEMG technology may increase participant engagement and motivation, improving training outcomes.

This paper describes an at-home workout product, aiming at improving the sub-health situation of young people and decreasing their low back pain (LBP), and guiding them to actively complete the training in the correct posture in the interaction with music game to achieve continuous improvement of their physical condition. In consideration of young people’s physical condition, the crawling exercises were added to the overall training program which contains upper limb exercises, lower limb exercises, and core exercises. In addition, music games with a strong sense of rhythm are applied to stimulate young people’s interest in daily training and core muscle rehabilitation training of a certain intensity. The movements of young people are captured with a range of sensors and they can control the movements of game characters by their movement in real-time. The design process, the rehabilitation program, and the implementation of the game mechanics are presented in this paper.

Siemens Mobility is a leading provider of sustainable and efficient transport solutions. Siemens Mobility integrates cutting-edge technologies that drive the development of accessible products and services for all potential users. There is a common misunderstanding that accessibility is relevant for only disabled people. Situational conditions may affect the accessibility of a product or a service, even if the user has no disability. The user acceptance can be affected since there is a correlation between accessibility and user experience. The visual, audible, physical, and cognitive abilities of the end user and the context of use in which the product or service is used must be considered. This paper presents how accessibility has been implemented into Siemens Mobility’s holistic user experience process. The design process is described from the perspective of an accessibility specialist who reviews and supports the design team based on best practices and lessons learned from past projects.

This paper focuses on the development of prediction models for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) that are tailored specifically to child and young users. A new native-speaking corpus for child and adolescent languages is introduced, which allows the training of models that better fit the needs of this user category. The experiments conducted on real texts show that adapting the prediction models for children and young users leads to an improvement in keystroke savings, which in turn reduces the number of predicted words to be displayed. This opens up new possibilities for rethinking the virtual keyboard organization and interaction styles, with the aim of reducing cognitive load during text entry.

During the last years different tools devoted to the sonification of astronomical data were proposed. With the aim to enhance accessibility and remove systematic barriers faced by people with disabilities, sonoUno was developed as a user centred sonification software (UCD) for its desktop and web versions [1]. After different user tests the need to understand more about sound perception came out, at hand of the need of training [2]. Perception is a process that requires a great deal of mental processing that provides the means by which one’s concept of the environment is created and helps people to learn and interact with it. The compilation of previous studies throughout history has led to the conclusion that auditory performance improves when it is combined with visual stimuli and vice-versa. Taking into account the above considerations, the development of a training platform that allows to run perception tests begins. The requirements for this platform were: (1) accessibility via web; (2) co-creation with collaborators in different parts of the world; and (3) simple and effective storage of results. In this contribution, the first approach, a graphic user interface that allows users to read information about it and access to the training from the web browser, will be presented. Beyond the USD principles, the proposed framework is being tested with screen readers during each step of its development.

This research aims to provide a tool to support an individual in the early days following a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The end user is the collective diagnosed with mild TBI. The application has two main purposes. The first is to provide useful information to the patient, who probably does not know the severity of this type of injury, generally assessed taking into account the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). The second main purpose is to give the patient the first step with some cognitive rehabilitation, providing a virtual space where they can put into practice their relearning process by themselves or supervised by a specialist. The research explores how the human-computer interaction principles can lead to the design and development of an effective user-flow, that can be applied to a number of virtual environments in order to bring a good place for a patient going through a rehabilitation process.

Students with disabilities stand a higher chance of dropping out of school before completing their primary or secondary education. As a result, their full integration into society may be hindered. Globally, there is a movement towards addressing this issue through targeted interventions. For example, the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD), has been operating at a national level to develop educational programmes (e.g., STEM-Robotics), which expose youngsters with disabilities to skills that are needed for the twenty-first-century. During the 2020/2021 iteration of the STEM-Robotics programme, the GCOPD leveraged the support of 7 mentors from the University of Guyana’s Robotics Club and Department of Computer Science to design, develop, adapt, and execute the curriculum for 48 special needs students within the age range of 11 to 27 years old. The curriculum was delivered using a hybrid approach for approximately 12 weekly sessions. Feedback in the form of observations and experiences was collected from the mentors. Overall, the mentors observed positive improvements in the students’ critical thinking, problem-solving, environmental awareness and presentation skills. Notably, the majority of the participants managed to complete class activities and graduated from the programme. The lessons learned from our study may prove useful for future related programmes.

In recent times, disabled, incoming, and Erasmus students have encountered challenges in their initial days at the University. These challenges often stem from communication or assistance difficulties, necessitating new solutions to aid them. InDoor Mapping is one such solution; it is an assistive technology that serves as a guide and navigation system for students to navigate through the ISEP school premises. The app is powered by beacons, and it displays different routes and accessible points, carefully customized to the users’ requirements. The application provides vital information such as wheelchair access ramps or elevators to the users. Ultimately, this is a fresh inclusion and accessibility solution that assists in welcoming and aiding all students.

Digital accessibility is about designing and building digital products so that regardless of a person's mental or physical abilities, they still interact with them meaningfully and equitably. This study explores the digital accessibility awareness, understanding, and attitudes of technology professionals. As a research method, an online survey was sent to technology professionals currently working in the field to gain a clearer picture of what digital accessibility resources are being used, what limitations might exist, and attitudes and perceptions surrounding digital accessibility in the workforce.

We attempted to transmit the movement direction of nearby vehicles using “vibrotactile apparent motion,” perceived as moving a vibration by two vibrations with a time difference. First, we prototyped a device in which eight linear vibration motors (four on each side) were attached to a handle grip equivalent to that on an electric wheelchair. Using the device, we performed evaluation experiments to determine vibration stimuli that could show five directions (left and right, diagonally backward left and right, and backward) and confirmed whether the directions were understood by subjects. As a result, the vibration stimuli achieved a high accuracy rate for understanding the presented directions. In the future, if we can confirm the effect of vibrotactile apparent motion on accident prevention in real-world settings, it could be applied to various mobility devices as a universal design interface for older adults.

An increasing number of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is linked to blend in problems like anxiety and depression, is known that visual aids make it immediately clear that electronic media can and are there to help the autistic child. This work proposes a system that helps to reduce the levels of anxiety in children with autism, since it is difficult for children to understand an instruction given by an adult and by nature such children have a better visual understanding; Due to this, their cognitive process is stimulated by colors and images, responding to the what, how, when and how long of the instruction, this system aims to help autistic children by making use of these elements, since assigning them the task of caring an orchard considerably lowers their anxiety levels, because it is a task that can be structured, thus helping children attend scheduled activities and thus reduce their anxiety, the system receives information on humidity, temperature and sunlight from different digital electronic sensors placed in the orchard, this information is constantly acquired and is obtained from the orchard, it is sent by an electronic system to the internet cloud, to later notify the child through an software on a computer or a tablet if the garden needs to be cared for by the autistic child, the data coming from the garden is to show them in a friendly and striking way, in this way the child's attention is captured, either to be irrigated by water, or to have excess of it, with these actions, the child autistic develops an understanding regarding a given instruction. Tests were carried out with the system in a period of time in a child with (ASD), in this way it was verified that this helps significantly to reduce the levels of anxiety and depression of the autistic child.

Video games adapted for people with any type of disability should be a growing concern for the video game production companies, programmers and researchers. Literature research reveals that there is still no systematic and structured set of guidelines being followed in order to achieve a truly accessible game. Some researchers and programmers simply follow some recommendations and not always. In this sense, we tried to follow well-known and established heuristics about usability with their mapping for accessibility to be applied in a well-known game, Pipe Mania. Although the game is not yet completely ready to be played by a blind person, it already has the basic mechanisms implemented and others defined. In addition to the recommendations found in the literature, in gathering expert opinion, in applying heuristics and guidelines, it will also be necessary to interview individuals representing potential players. Finally, the game should be tested by users including the disabled ones in order to evaluate the Player eXperience.

There is a lack of unified, standardised measures for cognitive decline in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), despite the fact that they can experience cognitive decline earlier and are a population in which mild neurocognitive disorder and dementia are likely under-diagnosed. Spatial navigation has been identified as a key indicator of mild cognitive decline, and Virtual Reality (VR) has been proposed as a potential tool to address this issue. However, there are a lack of VR tools aimed specifically at individuals with ID. To address this, a co-design methodology will be used to develop a VR platform to assess spatial navigational skills in individuals with ID. Additionally, EEG data will be used to validate the platform’s effectiveness. A within-subjects design will be used to evaluate the system’s effectiveness, and it is expected that this approach will lead to a system that can predict the onset of cognitive decline within this population.

This research proposes a communication system called Mobility Link XR that connects physical space and cyberspace with mobility. Mobility Link XR is a system that enables remote users to view panoramic video from a 360-degree camera attached to a mobility vehicle in different space by wearing a VR device, and mobility users to view the remote user as an avatar by wearing an MR device. In this way, sharing space in three dimensions using XR enables a higher level of human communication. In this paper, we apply Mobility Link XR to an electric wheelchair and design two types of scenarios: an assistance mode that reproduces the positional relationship of communication in a conventional wheelchair, and a passenger mode that reproduces the positional relationship inside a vehicle, which is said to be a suitable distance for conversation. We also evaluated the reproducibility of communication in the wheelchair and the effectiveness of communication using the avatar. The results showed that the reproducibility of voice and emotion was highly evaluated and that the side-by-side positional relationship enabled higher quality communication as the avatar was more easily seen and felt present.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems (AACS) provide a variety of forms of expression used to improve the communication skills of people with disabilities and/or older adults. These systems consist of physical or digital communicator boards that use pictograms to represent an object, a person or an action. The objective of this article is to analyze some easy-to-implement alternatives of SAACs systems, including low-cost digital resources such as websites and Apps; as well as both high devices such as virtual assistants, AI chatbots like GPT, and tangible interfaces. The research analyzes the difficulties that older adults have in activities of daily living, and a proposal is presented that allows to adapt in a dynamic and scalable way. The prototypes generated allowed us to identify some strengths and weaknesses of the possible solutions. These results provide an opportunity for technology designers to take on board the recommendations and use them to design more robust systems adapted to their environment.

The process of rehabilitation of physical or cognitive skills in people with disabilities can be long, monotonous and unmotivating. Exercises can often involve mechanical and repetitive movements, which can have a negative impact on adherence to the rehabilitation process. The aim of this work is the use of virtual reality (VR) environments for the improvement of physical and cognitive skills. The researcher’s proposal is a work based on activities of daily living, which can facilitate the transfer of the improvements obtained to the person’s daily life. The proposed environment represents a very realistic supermarket, which provides a high degree of immersion. Four activities are proposed to take place in different locations in the supermarket. These activities will involve the movement of different parts of the body to improve physical skills. Cognitive skills related to memory, coordination or mental agility will also be worked on. The application will track the person’s movements and record various parameters related to the achievement of the activity. This data can be consulted by the health professional, which could contribute to a better evaluation of the user’s progress.

The development of exoskeleton robots by major ICT companies both domestically and internationally has been focused on augmenting or replacing human body capabilities. However, it is crucial to develop functions and technologies that can facilitate interaction with humans and to establish a proper evaluation system. To this end, this study aimed to derive detailed elements for user evaluation by synthesizing the functional characteristics, user evaluation method, and evaluation results of previously developed passive exoskeleton robots through literature review. The investigation focused on the functional characteristics, purpose, and user evaluation methods of passive exoskeleton robots. The study found that most of the test subjects were men in their 20s and the evaluation methods mainly involved joint angle, muscle activity, heart rate, and subjective questionnaires. However, there was a limitation that evaluation is performed only for specific body parts. As such, the study suggests that there is an urgent need for research to establish a methodology for the development and evaluation of exoskeleton robots that considers their characteristics, functions, use environment, and user class to advance in terms of safety, convenience, and usability. With the establishment of such methodology, exoskeleton robots can be optimized to cater to a wide range of users with different needs, ultimately enhancing their quality of life.

Visually impaired individuals face significant challenges in mobility and acquiring information, resulting in difficulties with education, employment, and daily life. Human-computer interaction technology, such as screen readers and digital libraries, have the potential to improve accessibility and transform the lives of visually impaired people. In the US, Bookshare, National Library Service (NLS) and learning arai provides accessible content to people with print disabilities, while in Japan, the SAPIER Library and the Data Transmission Service for the Visually Impaired of the National Diet Library are major information services. The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a person with a disability more broadly than Japan's NLS, which issues certificates for fixed medical conditions. One significant difference between the US and Japan is music copyright, with the US allowing visually impaired individuals to use music materials, while Japan's accessibility to higher education and music lags behind. The author, a visually impaired person in Japan, is launching a digital library using HCI technology in collaboration with the National Diet Library to provide electronic books and music resources for higher education.

In the field of sports, visually impaired spectators are at a disadvantage in terms of understanding the precise developments in a game. This study proposes a blind football play-by-play system that combines a tactile graphic display and a position acquisition function to aid visually impaired spectators in understanding game developments. To evaluate the proposed system, we develop a prototype system, which detects the positions of players and balls using image processing technology and deep learning and shows these positions via a refreshable tactile display. Furthermore, the validity of the proposed system is established through subjective experiments. The results show that all participants are able to identify each team member and understand the formation of players using the proposed interface. The results provide significant suggestions for the major task of human interface research: the transmission of kinesthesia. Spectators report that they felt as if they were playing on the field and could determine details such as the position of the opposing player and the course from which the assisting player passed the ball to the scoring player. This system provides a rich user experience for spectators and is a powerful feedback tool for players.

Virtual Reality (VR) is a resource for leisure and participation. Recently, VR applications have been introduced progressively into health interventions. The possibility of being immersed in virtual scenarios offers an opportunity to recreate real spaces in a rehabilitation room and to become more motivating. There exist interesting open-access games and applications in platforms such as STEAMVR, VIVEPort or META, that can be used during rehabilitation. Nevertheless, the main problem is the lack of usability and possibility to adapt these applications to demands of final users. The use of VR is conditioned, also, by the experience and perspective of the people. Purpose of research was to analyze and determine the possibilities of generic VR applications from the perspective of final users, based on their experience. A cross-sectional study was done, with sample divided into two groups: people with (N = 24) and without disability (N = 34). The Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) was applied. The applications analyzed were: IkeaVRPancake Kitchen, TheBlue, Adventure climb, Google EarthVR, Cube dancer, Blobby tennis and Richie’s PlankExperience.Results indicated that people without disabilities felt an experience more immersive in VR. No significant differences were obtained concerning the GEQ Post-game. The application with the higher score in terms of positive experience was Richie’s PlankExperience (M = 2,32), and concerning competence was Google EarthVR (M = 2,6) In general, the game experience was positive, but there are still some difficulties detected to implement the games into rehabilitation: control manipulation, interface person-application and understanding instructions. So, is needed to implement adaptations into the games to facilitate their use by people with disabilities.

Browser extensions to evaluate web accessibility have been widely adopted by web developers for checking websites against various Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) success criteria. However, most extensions rely on algorithms to quickly scan web pages and detect accessibility issues. These evaluations are often inaccurate and non-exhaustive. Accessibility Insights for Web, a relatively new open-source web extension developed by Microsoft, offers a unique solution by letting the user perform a combination of more than 50 automated and manual tests and easily document the detected issues. Although it contains some novel accessibility evaluation features, the tool itself faces some serious usability and accessibility issues. In this study, we conduct UX research and iteratively design the Accessibility Insights tool by receiving feedback from a diverse group of professionals with and without disabilities. Our goal is to generalize the findings so that they can serve as a reference for designers of future web accessibility evaluation tools.

Visually impaired children mainly depend upon hearing and touch in the absence of vision. Smartphones are now relatively cheap and are in widespread use in almost all parts of the world, including by many people who do not have access to laptops or desktop machines. Smartphone-based applications provide a learning environment in which visually impaired children can enhance their educational skills in a similar way to other students. This paper introduces an artificial intelligence-based interactive learning platform that can enhance the mathematical skills of visually impaired children. This platform can assist teachers in the classroom to provide accessible and interactive materials to their visually impaired students. The proposed platform uses text-to-speech along with vibrotactile and auditory feedback to help visually impaired students arrive at a better understanding of mathematical material. Four participants were recruited to evaluate the prototype of this interactive learning platform. The results showed that understanding of mathematical content in visually impaired children was significantly improved. Furthermore, problem-solving skills and action awareness were enhanced with the help of a multimodal feedback approach. Participants also reported high levels of satisfaction with the proposed design. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible directions for future research aimed at overcoming barriers to learning faced by visually impaired children.

Sign languages (SLs) are an essential form of communication for hearing-impaired people. However, a communication barrier still exists between the deaf community and the hearing population due to the lack of accurate automated SL communication systems. In this work, a novel SL communication system running as a mobile application has been developed to facilitate the bi-directional communication between hearing-impaired and hearing people.The proposed system utilizes Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, along with linguistic rules to convert between spoken language and signs, taking into account the grammatical structure of a sign language. Additionally, the system employs sign language recognition (SLR) algorithms to transform video sequences to signs, as well as hand and pose estimation algorithms to model the 3D motion of signs. Moreover, a 3D human avatar representation is employed to animate the motion of each sign in a seamless manner. Finally, a new partition of the Greek SL (GSL) dataset is formed with 1825 videos from 12 signers captured in the wild to evaluate SLR performance under realistic conditions. The proposed SL communication system and its components are validated quantitatively in GSLW as well as qualitatively by means of questionnaires, demonstrating the user satisfaction with the system.

Over the 15 years since the adoption of WCAG 2.0, user interface design and interface devices have changed substantiallys. However, many interface guidelines still employ the old color contrast formula. In the last few years, the range of color accessibility tools has expanded with a variety of newcomers: LCH and HSLuv, enhanced color models adapted to human perception, have been developed; Advanced Perceptual Contrast Algorithm (APCA) has been implemented as part of WCAG 3.0; Tools for creating color palettes have been developed based on its implementation, such as Accessible Palette and Huetone. These new tools were used during a redesign of an office suite to change the color scheme. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate practical results of using these tools. Despite the fact that WCAG 3.0 has not yet been adopted, APCA shows more accurate results for measuring color contrast. Huetone Color Tool provides capabilities of palette analysis using the LCH color space model with easy color contrast and color distance calculation.

Based on the sensory design of emotional interaction, the blind art product design is studied with the help of modern technology to enhance the tactile emotional cognition of the blind and to explore and construct an immersive interactive cognitive system oriented to tactile design. To introduce design and art into the development of tactile cognitive product design for the blind, to transform two-dimensional flat information into different three-dimensional recognizable cognitive learning interfaces through 3D printing technology, and to improve tactile cognition and art appreciation for the blind with a unique blind reading and exhibition approach. On the premise of the a priori nature of blind people's tactile and auditory qualities and their bodies, we use materials, shapes, emotions and spatial mapping methods to compensate for the congenital lack of art experiences of blind people. At the same time, through the emotional translation between the blind and the art space, we explore the way to recreate the “blind art space”. Modern technology (mainly 3D printing) is used to develop new tactile cognitive art interfaces for the blind, which are innovative and sustainable in improving the emotional perception of blind people and broadening the design style of artworks. Tactile design-oriented immersive interactive art space design for the blind provides new design ideas and empirical references for exploring art for the blind.

With the rapid development of China's economy and the extension of the average life expectancy of the people, China has entered an aging society. And the elderly, as a high incidence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), their health problems have become the focus of attention. MCI is a transitional phase between normal aging and dementia, and early diagnosis and intervention in this transitional phase is currently the most effective treatment due to the irreversible development of dementia and the absence of effective treatment. Therefore, this paper studies the design of MCI intervention products by combining positive design methods and frameworks. Finally, with the goal of enhancing subjective well-being, “MCI Intelligent Intervention Training Musical Instrument”, an intervention product, that can meet the three design elements of pleasure, personal significance and virtue, delay the decline of patient cognitive function and reduce the pressure of caregivers is designed. The design helps to improve society's attention to MCI, and has a positive guiding effect on the improvement of the positive design theory system and the field of cognitive impairment intervention.

Changes generated by the pandemic have stimulated new forms of communication through technological devices. Thanks to these, augmentative and alternative communication through the use of pictograms has allowed the development of communicative capacity for people who face health problems, such as speech, limited motor skills, hearing, among others. In particular, for segments of the elderly population with limited communication and technology management skills, it is important to consider usability and accessibility criteria in technological support interfaces design, in order to provide a satisfying and non-intrusive user experience. Support activities must be pleasant and transparent for the effective users’ communication with their environment. In this context, the article presents a methodology for the design of an augmentative communication solution based on pictograms, with the purpose of transmitting the message from the user to the receiver. This article proposes a systematic review of the literature on augmentative and alternative communication, as well as the use of existing pictograms and technologies. The systematic review protocol considered the choice of four digital libraries for the search. The method of search and selection of technological solutions was based on the search for Apps and websites for the use of pictograms through technology to automate and support the communication of elderly.

The population of older adults (aged 65+) is rapidly increasing worldwide and about one in four older adults are considered to be socially isolated in USA alone. It is associated with increased risk of depression, dementia, heart disease, and premature mortality. The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing has only increased the risk of isolation. Digital technologies have made communication easier, but traditional screen-based interfaces are not suitable for older adults because they do not offer intuitive, accessible mediums of communication. This results in a steeper learning curve, which eventually leads to non-adoption. Researchers have explored tangible user interface design in the past, but only a few have explored its potential for older adults. This paper presents a comprehensive review of previous research efforts that concentrate on enhancing social connections among older adults. Additionally, it delves into the exploration of tangible user interfaces as a promising alternative solution. We conclude the paper with a framework that suggests design considerations for HCI researchers designing tangible user interfaces for older adults to improve social connection.

Background: Older adults are at risk of social isolation and loneliness. As part of the CO-HUMANICS (Co-Presence of Humans and Interactive Companions for Seniors) project, augmented reality (AR)-based and telepresence robot-based systems are to be developed to support social integration of older adults.Aim: Following a human-centered approach, this study aims to identify requirements of older adults towards AR-based (RQ1) and telepresence robot-based (RQ2) communication that fosters social integration.Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted between May and October 2022 with N = 30 older adults (60–74 years old, 37% women) from Germany. Participants were presented with storyboard illustrations of hypothetical interpersonal communication scenarios involving an AR system and a telepresence robot and gave their detailed evaluations (mean interview duration 43 min).Results: Older adults had ambivalent and nuanced requirements for an AR system and a telepresence robot. Technology-specific and general requirements emerged from the data and were grouped into four dimensions: 1) technological requirements (ease of use, effortless contact initiation, realistic avatar design, intuitive movement control, anthropomorphism, and robot size), 2) emotional requirements (warmth, intimacy, companionship, and empowerment), 3) social requirements (potential for joint activities, multiparty interaction, and multitasking), and 4) administrative requirements (privacy, data protection, and affordability).Conclusions: Older adults recognized the potential of AR systems and telepresence robots to support their social integration; however, ease of use, privacy and data protection issues, and affordability remain an obstacle for technology acceptance.

With the aging problem becoming more and more serious today, the design and research of age-appropriate products has gradually become a hot topic. With the advent of the aging society, the elderly have more and more say in the whole social market. Aging life, aging interaction, community for the elderly and other social hotspots have emerged. The aging travel problem is a very important part of it. In the past, most wheelchairs commonly used by the elderly were driven by manpower, and the circulation time of power-assisted wheelchairs in the market is relatively short. Therefore, most of the power-assisted wheelchairs in the market now have problems such as unreasonable structure, not suitable for most elderly people, and rigid appearance. In addition to the problems in the shape and structure, the elderly also have some obstacles in the interactive learning of wheelchairs, so it is necessary to pay more attention to the interface and operation mode of wheelchairs. In order to help the elderly design an ergonomic model and effectively solve the difficult problems in their travel process, this paper, from the perspective of the elderly and designers, understands their real views and needs on the power wheelchair, and then summarizes and classifies these needs through scientific methods and transforms them into design entities.

With the rapid development of technology, the application of smartphones and computing networks has been continually innovated, occupying every moment of life and reflecting the excellent comfort of the Internet. Through the design of home products, we will integrate the life of older adults, not only solve a few small things in life, but expand the goal and make a design that can improve the current situation with integrated thinking. As service design combines space and time, tangible entities and intangible services may be included. Therefore, many products that can improve the quality of life of older adults and reduce the burden of life are gradually developing, so that older adults can still live healthily and have a happy life in the process of aging. Over the last few years, the search for happiness has progressively become a subject of our modern people. Design itself is an area created to improve people’s lives, and how happy design practices will also be an important indicator of future design. Consequently, this study explores the impact of the design of home appliances on the perceived value and happiness of older adults, and hopes to help older adults design and development of products. In addition to meeting the needs of tomorrow’s society, it has the potential to reduce the impact of an aging society.

As China has a large population with a large elderly group, in first-tier cities with a concentrated population, medical resources do not match the population. In particular, the average daily outpatient reception is large in tertiary hospitals. Taking a hospital in Beijing as an example, the average daily outpatient reception is about 10,400 person-times. The complex medical environment and various procedures also lead to patients need to constantly look for the next target department for a long time. Even if there are a few volunteers in the lobby to guide, the medical treatment process is still a challenge for elderly patients. The guidance of hospital departments is generally based on conventional text signs and some hospitals also try to use the indoor positioning and navigation system of smart phones to give instructions, but the difficulties of unaccompanied elderly people in smart phone applications are not taken into account. Mixed Reality (MR) holds the promise of presenting navigational instructions directly into the patient’s field of vision, creating a humanoid sign of a virtual guide in the patient’s vision, thus achieving the same effect as a human guide. From the beginning of entering the hospital, the virtual guide sign will automatically plan the medical route for the patient, which can save the time for the elderly to ask the medical staff for directions and understand the guide sign and the medical treatment process; moreover, the sense of companionship generated by the virtual humanoid sign based on Mixed Reality (MR) can alleviate the anxiety of the elderly patients when they seek medical treatment to some extent. Although there are still many problems to be discussed in the specific application and practical operation of the technology, the virtual humanoid guide sign with the nature of companion can still become an important design direction of the future hospital navigation system.

In the present research, we developed an application that measures acceleration by a smartphone located at the waist, along with a deep learning system that automatically detects six behavioral activities (walking, running, standing, walking downstairs, walking upstairs, and falling). Specifically, we use a human activity database provided by the University of California–Irvine (UCI) to create a deep learning model with the UCI data. Next, transfer learning was applied to the learning model for the measurement data obtained by the acceleration acquisition application developed in this research. Using Sony’s Neural Network Console development environment as a deep learning tool, in recognition experiments, our proposed method for automatic identification of activities and prediction of falling accidents caused by behavior achieved a high accuracy rate of almost 95%.

This qualitative study aims to display a case of 80-year-old Mrs. Blade and her attitude towards technology and education. A biographic-narrative interview with PZI questions was conducted. The approach of reconstructing narrative identity was used for step-by-step analysis. After a brief explanation of Mrs. Blade’s biography, the case itself will be portrayed. Biographical aspects regarding education and technology will be shown. Results yielded that fear of mis-takes prevent Mrs. Blade to further using or engaging with technology. However, high educational interest may serve as an amplifier of technology use. Additionally, contextual conditions may force individuals to interact with technological devices.

Many older users find it challenging to use Medicare Plan Finder (MPF), an interactive online decision support tool for Medicare plan selections without assistance due to the diversity of plan options and their low internet competency. This study implements an artificially intelligent decision assistant (AIDA) to support older users’ Medicare Part D plan selections on MPF and applies the flow theory to examine (1) the effects of AIDA on older users’ perceptions of online flow (control, concentration, and enjoyment) during a Medicare Part D plan selection on MPF and (2) the moderating role of the decision stage for these effects. Data were collected through an online experiment with a 2 (AIDA: present vs. absence) x2 (Decision Stage: need recognition vs. alternative evaluation) between-subjects design with a U.S. national sample of 420 older (ages of 65 +) Medicare beneficiaries. Structural equation modeling results revealed that AIDA improved the perception of flow in control, which in turn further enhanced the perceptions of flow in concentration and enjoyment. Further, the AIDA effect on flow was significantly stronger in the alternative evaluation stage (vs. the need recognition stage). The findings suggest positive effects of the AIDA intervention in driving older users’ superior online flow experience, especially at the stage closer to the final plan selection and provide significant theoretical and practical implications.

Health data of consumer off-the-shelf wearable devices is often conveyed to users through visual data representations and analyses. However, this is not always accessible to people with disabilities or older people due to low vision, cognitive impairments or literacy issues. Due to trade-offs between aesthetics predominance or information overload, real-time user feedback may not be conveyed easily from sensor devices through visual cues like graphs and texts. These difficulties may hinder critical data understanding. Additional auditory and tactile feedback can also provide immediate and accessible cues from these wearable devices, but it is necessary to understand existing data representation limitations initially. To avoid higher cognitive and visual overload, auditory and haptic cues can be designed to complement, replace or reinforce visual cues. In this paper, we outline the challenges in existing data representation and the necessary evidence to enhance the accessibility of health information from personal sensing devices used to monitor health parameters such as blood pressure, sleep, activity, heart rate and more. By creating innovative and inclusive user feedback, users will likely want to engage and interact with new devices and their own data.

This study aimed to explore the experiences of community-dwelling older adults by piloting a smartphone-based, occupation-focused distance exchange program.The program was conducted over 8 weeks, via the use of smartphones and consisted of remote and three face-to-face sessions, in which older adults and university students interacted in pairs. The first half of the program focused on the use of smartphones, while the second half of the interaction focused on occupation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 community-dwelling older adults after the program, and data were analyzed using the KJ method. Our study found that the total number of labels was 102, through which six categories were extracted: “participation with positive motivation,” “change in daily living performance triggered by COPM,” “acquisition of knowledge of smartphone use,” “expansion of smartphone use,” “things to do with smartphones,” and “benefits and challenges of this program.” Extant literature had identified multiple issues which served as impediments to older adults acquiring smartphone proficiency. Through our program, we delivered lectures on practical ways to use smartphones that met the needs of individual older adults. We were able to demonstrate an increase in smartphone usage among older adults through our program. In addition, the benefits of this program were formulated by incorporating the impact of intergenerational interactions involving university students and older adults.

Increasingly more retired elderly people with financial means have chosen the retirement option of migrating from the north to the south in winter and returning to their hometown in summer, just like the so-called migratory birds. However, the social integration challenges such as socialisation and identity that come with migration can directly affect their well-being in the place they move to. Consequently, this study aims to improve the social integration of older houniao by incorporating an interdisciplinary approach-service design. Firstly, we constructed a social integration indicator system applicable to elderly houniao based on literature research and used this sociological model to conduct semi-structured interviews with them during the study, in order to sort out their key needs. In addition, user portraits and user journey maps were drawn to summarise user characteristics and reproduce life scenarios, exploring the importance of enhancing the interconnection between elderly houniao and their neighbours. In the end, a community support service system for elderly houniao was developed with the theme of ‘neighbourhood mutual assistance’ and three design strategies were proposed: neighbourhood information mutual aid platform, talent mutual exhibition and hometown ‘dining table’. The service system has changed the isolation of elderly houniao in the integration process, and more importantly, explored the new vibrancy of the mutual assistance service mode in cross-cultural retirement communities, thus creating an inclusive and friendly community environment.

There is a big gap between the digitalization level of the whole world and the ICT systems the elderly use in the whole Europe. Faced with this challenge, Universal Design (UD) as sustainable design has become the guiding concept to achieve the sustainability goals by helping the elderly to improve their life quality. ICT systems general characteristics of robustness, stability, resilience, flexibility and performance comply with the seven principles of UD. This paper aims for a conceptual study to explore the concept of UD of ICTs as a significant aspect of social sustainability, especially the Norway Norwegian ICT policy for securing an information society for all, emphasizing the importance of technology for all, including the elderly and disabled people. This study also illustrates the design process of UD of ICTs and some practice in Norway which shows UD has evolved as a significant component for the elderly to achieve a better life.

Recent years, the number of patients with dementia is on the rise. Dementia is a disease where the brain cells can’t function normally for various reasons. The onset of it causes damage to memory and judgment, which makes it difficult for people to live their daily lives. But dementia can be prevented by taking measures. It is considered to be effective to do brain training, exercise and communication, to prevent dementia.The proposed system is an interactive bingo game that requires the use of dices. The main target of this system is the elderly population which contains the most cases of dementia patients. The aim of this game is to get a bingo faster than your opponent while matching the numbers displayed on the screen with help of simple mathematical combinations using blocks with numbers. This is an effective measure against dementia, exercising the brain and body using calculation, coordination moving big dices and communication through a competition.Before full scale implementation, we created the protype using blocks of 103 cm3. And displayed this protype at two facilities to check the concept of this system. Everybody could easily experience because it is easy to understand how to exchange numbers by moving blocks with numbers and making simple equations. When the participants blocked their opponent’s bingo or conversely or when their own bingo was blocked, they communicated actively with smiles.As a conclusion, we have assumed that this system played a good role in brain training and communication.

Smart home technology has the potential to support several tasks in the home, especially for older adults who are likely to increasingly experience difficulties with everyday activities. Trade-offs between privacy and autonomy, security, and comfort have been an ongoing discussion for over a decade. Although there have been significant advances in the technology available today compared to a few years ago, privacy communications to users accompanying these technologies have changed little. Much existing research in the smart home technology space focuses on the design of the technology itself; less has been done to ensure that older adults know where their data is going so that adoption of the technology is better informed, and so they feel more secure about using it. In this work a total of 30 documentations including 24 privacy policies of individual smart devices and 6 privacy terms and policies from platform providers were reviewed to understand their commonalities and shared limitations. Our evaluation revealed that the length of each ranged between 9 to 49 pages, and that such policies are rarely displayed to maximize user access and legibility, contributing to user confusion and concern. The results suggest a need for user agreements and privacy policies to be more easily accessible. Companies publishing privacy documents should be more mindful of how these are presented to the user, whether online or printed. This study recommends that companies should adhere to usability and readability guidelines and follow accessibility standards published by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. For older adults to successfully utilize smart home technology, adoption should happen in an informed manner. Sustained usage may also be encouraged with practices that make users feel confident and in control of their data. It is important that companies build their trust ethically, and ensure that older adults are not required to trade off their privacy for autonomy and security.

Based on the concept of smart health care, in the technology-led solutions for the elderly’s smart health care, this paper finds that there is a lack of attention to and research on the health elderly group, and many factors such as society, family and self make the health elderly suffer from various troubles. The article breaks the contents of economic support, life care and spiritual comfort under the traditional endowment concept and way, discusses the health care of the health elderly from a new perspective, emphasizes that the health elderly are no longer treated in a special way, focuses on the various needs of the health elderly in daily life, and combines the case of the wisdom health care creation camp cooperated by China Academy of Art and Panasonic Group. From five dimensions, such as spirit sharing, habit continuation, value sharing, health care and creation of happiness, the design concept of “suitable for the old and the young” is proposed, and the value proposition of multi-dimensional comprehensive construction of “integration of the old and the young” life scene is constructed, reflecting the care for the health elderly and proposing new solutions for the aging society.

From the perspective of elderly users, this paper discusses the specific factors that influence the continuous use behavior of intelligent wearing devices and constructs a model. Based on the integration of the perceptual-emotion-behavioral willingness (CMC) model framework, the model increases behavioral activation variables. This model comprehensively analyzes the influence factors of persistent behavior from two aspects: affective intention and behavioral activation, and has wide applicability. Multi-faceted thinking provides support to the government in solving population aging problems and enterprises to develop intelligent pension products.

Interpersonal interactions are often expected to be polite and follow communicative norms to avoid potential social conflicts by employing strategies such as face work. Although face work has been well-documented in human-human interactions, it is unclear whether people would be polite to the robots and give them higher ratings in face-to-face interactions than in paper questionnaires. In addition, according to the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, older adults are more likely to be polite to reduce potential interpersonal tensions and maintain emotional harmony, which causes them to respond kindly to others. The current study investigated how face-to-face human-robot interactions influence people’s subjective evaluations of the robot and, more critically, whether older and younger adults perform differently. We recruited older and younger adults and assessed their attitudes toward the robot through face-to-face interaction and a paper questionnaire. The results revealed that the older adults rated the robot more positively than the younger adults. Critically, the older adults rated the robot’s personal association and perceived ease of use higher when responding to the robot directly than when answering the paper questionnaire; however, the younger adults did not show this difference. The findings emphasize the importance of face-to-face interaction and social norms in human-robot interactions, especially for older adults. Our findings have implications for human-computer interaction researchers and practitioners who are interested in developing social robots that are sensitive to social norms for different age groups.