Usability Evaluation of a Private Social Network on Mental Health for Relatives

Usability is one of the most prominent criteria that must be fulfilled by a software product. This study aims to evaluate the usability of SocialNet, a private social network for monitoring the daily progress of patients by their relatives, using a mixed usability approach: heuristic evaluation conducted by experts and user testing. A double heuristic evaluation with one expert evaluator identified the issues related to consistency, design, and privacy. User testing was conducted on 20 users and one evaluator using observation techniques and questionnaires. The main usability problems were found to be related to the structure of SocialNet, and the users presented some difficulties in locating the buttons or links. The results show a high level of usability and satisfaction with the product. This evaluation provides data on the usability of SocialNet based on the difficulties experienced by the users and the expert. The results help in redesigning the tool to resolve the identified problems as part of an iterative proces

An Online Sales System to Be Managed by People with Mental Illness

The percentage of the population aged 65 and over is increasing during the last decades. It is one of the problems that the European health system, and in particular the Spanish system, has to face out. This increase is linked to the rising of dependent people, whose suffer progressive deterioration of both their physical and mental capacities. In this context, technology plays a key role in improving the quality of life, not only of older people but also their caregivers. A technological ecosystem to support patients with mental illness, their caregivers, and the connection with their relatives was developed in previous works. This solution is prepared to evolve according to the users’ and organization’s needs. In this sense, the present work describes the inclusion of a new software tool, an online sales platform that promotes active ageing, seeking that it can be used and managed by older people who may have cognitive impairment problems. Although there are many e-commerce platforms on the market, they not consider users with special needs. The objective has not been to develop a software prototype from scratch, but to focus on aspects relating to accessibility and usability to improve online stores and apply these improvements to an existing solution, following the philosophy of Open Source software development. This work aims to describe the definition process itself

An Ambient Assisted Living Approach in Designing Domiciliary Services Combined With Innovative Technologies for Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease: A Case Study

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most disabling diseases to affect large numbers of elderly people worldwide. Because of the characteristics of this disease, patients with AD require daily assistance from service providers both in nursing homes and at home. Domiciliary assistance has been demonstrated to be cost effective and efficient in the first phase of the disease, helping to slow down the course of the illness, improve the quality of life and care, and extend independence for patients and caregivers. In this context, the aim of this work is to demonstrate the technical effectiveness and acceptability of an innovative domiciliary smart sensor system for providing domiciliary assistance to patients with AD which has been developed with an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) approach. Methods: The design, development, testing, and evaluation of the innovative technological solution were performed by a multidisciplinary team. In all, 15 sociomedical operators and 14 patients with AD were directly involved in defining the endusers’ needs and requirements, identifying design principles with acceptability and usability features and evaluating the technological solutions before and after the real experimentation. Results: A modular technological system was produced to help caregivers continuously monitor the health status, safety, and daily activities of patients with AD. During the experimentation, the acceptability, utility, usability, and efficacy of this system were evaluated as quite positive. Conclusion: The experience described in this article demonstrated that AAL technologies are feasible and effective nowadays and can be actively used in assisting patients with AD in their homes. The extensive involvement of caregivers in the experimentation allowed to assess that there is, through the use of the technological system, a proven improvement in care performance and efficiency of care provision by both formal and informal caregivers and consequently an increase in the quality of life of patients, their relatives, and their caregivers

User-centered design of a dynamic-autonomy remote interaction concept for manipulation-capable robots to assist elderly people in the home

In this article, we describe the development of a human-robot interaction concept for service robots to assist elderly people in the home with physical tasks. Our approach is based on the insight that robots are not yet able to handle all tasks autonomously with sufficient reliability in the complex and heterogeneous environments of private homes. We therefore employ remote human operators to assist on tasks a robot cannot handle completely autonomously. Our development methodology was user-centric and iterative, with six user studies carried out at various stages involving a total of 241 participants. The concept is under implementation on the Care-O-bot 3 robotic platform. The main contributions of this article are (1) the results of a survey in form of a ranking of the demands of elderly people and informal caregivers for a range of 25 robot services, (2) the results of an ethnography investigating the suitability of emergency teleassistance and telemedical centers for incorporating robotic teleassistance, and (3) a user-validated human-robot interaction concept with three user roles and corresponding three user interfaces designed as a solution to the problem of engineering reliable service robots for home environments

ARCH 14 - International Conference on Research on Health Care Architecture - November 19-21, 2014, Espoo, Finland - Conference Proceedings

Healthcare Architecture has grown rapidly in recent years. However, there are still many questions remaining. The commission, therefore, is to share the existing research knowledge and latest results and to carry out research projects focusing more specifically on the health care situation in a variety of contexts. The ARCH14 conference was the third conference in the series of ARCH conferences on Research on Health Care Architecture initiated by Chalmers University. It was realized in collaboration with the Nordic Research Network for Healthcare Architecture .It was a joint event between Aalto University, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) and National Institute of Health and Welfare (THL International).The conference gathered together more than 70 researchers and practitioners from across disciplines and countries to discuss the current themes

The case for investment in technology to manage the global costs of dementia

Worldwide growth in the number of people living with dementia will continue over the coming decades and is already putting pressure on health and care systems, both formal and informal, and on costs, both public and private. One response could be to make greater use of digital and other technologies to try to improve outcomes and contain costs. We were commissioned to examine the economic case for accelerated investment in technology that could, over time, deliver savings on the overall cost of care for people with dementia. Our short study included a rapid review of international evidence on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of technology, consideration of the conditions for its successful adoption, and liaison with people from industry, government, academic, third sector and other sectors, and people with dementia and carers. We used modelling analyses to examine the economic case, using the UK as context. We then discussed the roles that state investment or action could play, perhaps to accelerate use of technology so as to deliver both wellbeing and economic benefits

Holistic System Design for Distributed National eHealth Services

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Common spaces in assisted living for older persons. Aspects of usability from the residential and workplace perspectives.

This thesis is about space. It assumes that space forms a necessary part of the structure of existence. The architectural space becomes an existential space in the encounter with the user. Common unit spaces in assisted living (AL) for older persons are the principal venue for social interaction and have no parallel in ordinary housing. The usability of these spaces is discussed here from the residential and workplace perspectives. These perspectives are explored in relation to the concept of AL and involve residents, staff and other stakeholders in buildings in use. Special housing for older people is currently in focus worldwide due to demographic develop-ments, entailing an increasing proportion of older people. Residents in AL are increasingly old and multi-diseased, which changes the conditions for residential care in its present form.Four methods were used, involving 14 AL facilities (ALFs) in Sweden: observations, group interviews, individual interviews and self-completion questionnaires. An explorative strategy was adopted, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to enhance the validity of the results. The results were analysed using statistical analyses, Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) and triangulation.The results show functional demarcations between apartments, dining rooms, sitting rooms and kitchens in a private-public continu\uacum, with varying adherence to the respective residential and workplace perspectives. It also shows that these perspectives entail diverging objectives for use of the common spaces. The dining rooms were utilized most by the residents, but the kitchens were not used at all. The daily activities promote a focus on collective aspects above individual needs. The increasing use of assistive technology causes space shortages and suggests a mismatch between the actual users and the users conceptualised at the planning stage, which entails a focus on care aspects at the expense of the residential perspective. It shows that the common spaces are not perceived as a part of the home environment; rather an addition. The dementia and somatic units presented diverging objectives for use, but the physical environ-ments did not differ significantly. The functions of the common spaces were perceived differently among users, planners and architects. This suggests that these spaces have ambiguous meanings in a social context and may lead to ineffective use of the spaces. Along with a complicated body of regulations, this calls for a redefinition of AL. Design strategies are suggested that are more up-to-date with the users’ needs in relation to the usability of the common spaces. The residential and workplace perspectives have to be considered concomitantly when planning ALFs, otherwise inherent conflicts will become manifest as a result of the physical design, which affects usability