Designing a gamified social platform for people living with dementia and their live-in family caregivers

In the current paper, a social gamified platform for people living with dementia and their live-in family caregivers, integrating a broader diagnostic approach and interactive interventions is presented. The CAREGIVERSPRO-MMD (C-MMD) platform constitutes a support tool for the patient and the informal caregiver - also referred to as the dyad - that strengthens self-care, and builds community capacity and engagement at the point of care. The platform is implemented to improve social collaboration, adherence to treatment guidelines through gamification, recognition of progress indicators and measures to guide management of patients with dementia, and strategies and tools to improve treatment interventions and medication adherence. Moreover, particular attention was provided on guidelines, considerations and user requirements for the design of a User-Centered Design (UCD) platform. The design of the platform has been based on a deep understanding of users, tasks and contexts in order to improve platform usability, and provide adaptive and intuitive User Interfaces with high accessibility. In this paper, the architecture and services of the C-MMD platform are presented, and specifically the gamification aspects. © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Evaluating the effects of feedback type on older adults’ performance in mid-air pointing and target selection

“Hands-free” pointing techniques used in mid-air gesture interaction require precise motor control and dexterity. Although being applied in a growing number of interaction contexts over the past few years, this input method can be challenging for older users (60+ years old) who experience natural decline in pointing abilities due to natural ageing process. We report the findings of a target acquisition experiment in which older adults had to perform “pointand- select” gestures in mid-air. The experiment investigated the effect of 6 feedback conditions on pointing and selection performance of older users. Our findings suggest that the bimodal combination of Visual and Audio feedback lead to faster target selection times for older adults, but did not lead to making less errors. Furthermore, target location on screen was found to play a more important role in both selection time and accuracy of pointand- select tasks than feedback type

The Participatory Design of an Adaptive Interface to Support Users with Changing Pointing Ability

Individuals who experience temporary, intermittent, or gradual changes in pointing ability may encounter frustrating experiences when using computer input devices. Personalized pointing systems that automatically assess changes in performance and provide individualized information and assistance may benefit these users. However, there has been little inquiry into this populations' expectations for interacting with these types of systems. We describe a participatory design process in which we used a technology probe to assess the information needs and expectations of 27 individuals who experience occasional changes in pointing ability, through interactions with and discussion regarding a high-fidelity personalized pointing prototype. Participants preferred notification and adaptation interactions that provided them with control and explanation of system actions, instead of abstract notifications and automatic adaptations. We describe how we applied these finding in the design of the PINATA system

An investigation of mid-air gesture interaction for older adults

Older adults (60+) face natural and gradual decline in cognitive, sensory and motor functions that are often the reason for the difficulties that older users come up against when interacting with computers. For that reason, the investigation and design of age-inclusive input methods for computer interaction is much needed and relevant due to an ageing population. The advances of motion sensing technologies and mid-air gesture interaction reinvented how individuals can interact with computer interfaces and this modality of input method is often deemed as a more “natural” and “intuitive” than using purely traditional input devices such mouse interaction. Although explored in gaming and entertainment, the suitability of mid-air gesture interaction for older users in particular is still little known. The purpose of this research is to investigate the potential of mid-air gesture interaction to facilitate computer use for older users, and to address the challenges that older adults may face when interacting with gestures in mid-air. This doctoral research is presented as a collection of papers that, together, develop the topic of ageing and computer interaction through mid-air gestures. The initial point for this research was to establish how older users differ from younger users and focus on the challenges faced by older adults when interacting with mid-air gesture interaction. Once these challenges were identified, this work aimed to explore a series of usability challenges and opportunities to further develop age-inclusive interfaces based on mid-air gesture interaction. Through a series of empirical studies, this research intends to provide recommendations for designing mid-air gesture interaction that better take into consideration the needs and skills of the older population and aims to contribute to the advance of age-friendly interfaces