Investigating familiar interfaces to help older adults learn computer applications more easily

Many older adults wish to gain competence in using a computer, but many application interfaces are perceived as complex and difficult to use, deterring potential users from investing the time to learn them. Hence, this study looks at the potential of ‘familiar’ interface design which builds upon users’ knowledge of real world interactions, and applies existing skills to a new domain. Tools are provided in the form of familiar visual objects, and manipulated like real-world counterparts, rather than with buttons, icons and menus found in classic WIMP interfaces. This paper describes the formative evaluation of computer interactions that are based upon familiar real world tasks, which supports multitouch interaction, involves few buttons and icons, no menus, no right-clicks or double-clicks and no dialogs. Using an example of an email client to test the principles of using “familiarity”, the initial feedback was very encouraging, with 3 of the 4 participants being able to undertake some of the basic email tasks with no prior training and little or no help. The feedback has informed a number of refinements of the design principles, such as providing clearer affordance for visual objects. A full study is currently underway

A petri net on-line controller for the coordination of multiple mobile robots

In applications such as mining, space exploration, and toxic waste cleanup, mobile robots are often required to move within a common environment and to share resources. This introduces the need for a means of coordinating their behaviours. Also, due to the unpredictable nature of the worksite, there is a need to accommodate changes in a dynamic environment. -- A general framework for group robotics was developed in response to this need. The framework includes a discrete event controller for on-line control and runtime monitoring, the focus of the current research. -- A Petri net based discrete event formalism has been investigated as a basis for the development of an on-line controller, ftom a high-level task description, a set of rules have been used to automatically generate a Petri net structure that provides coordinated behaviour. The Petri net can then be executed to send instructions to robots and to incorporate feedback from the robots at runtime. This on-line controller has been used to control mobile robots in a proof-of-concept demonstration. In a laboratory setting, the Petri net controller was able to coordinate the behaviour of two robots in marker-based navigation tasks. -- Although the work completed to date has provided promising results, many research challenges remain. Some suggestions for future work are presented

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

Text or image? Investigating the effects of instruction type on mid-air gesture making with novice older adults

Unlike traditional interaction methods where the same command (e.g. mouse click) is used for different purposes, mid-air gesture interaction often makes use of different gesture commands for different functions, but first novice users need to learn these commands in order to interact with the system successfully. We describe an empirical study with 25 novice older adults that investigated the effectiveness of 3 “on screen” instruction types for demonstrating how to make mid-air gesture commands. We compared three interface design choices for providing instructions: descriptive (text-based), pictorial (static), and pictorial (animated). Results showed a significant advantage of pictorial instructions (static and animated) over text-based instructions for guiding novice older adults in making mid-air gestures with regards to accuracy, completion time and user preference. Pictorial (animated) was the instruction type leading to the fastest gesture making with 100% accuracy and may be the most suitable choice to support age-friendly gesture learning

TESSA - Toolkit for experimentation with multimodal sensory substitution and augmentation

TESSA is a toolkit for experimenting with sensory augmentation. It includes hardware and software to facilitate rapid prototyping of interfaces that can enhance one sense using information gathered from another sense. The toolkit contains a range of sensors (e.g. ultrasonics, temperature sensors) and actuators (e.g. tactors or stereo sound), designed modularly so that inputs and outputs can be easily swapped in and out and customized using TESSA’s graphical user interface (GUI), with “real time” feedback. The system runs on a Raspberry Pi with a built-in touchscreen, providing a compact and portable form that is amenable for field trials. At CHI Interactivity, the audience will have the opportunity to experience sensory augmentation effects using this system, and design their own sensory augmentation interfaces

Movement characteristics and effects of GUI design on how older adults swipe in mid-air

We conducted a study with 25 older adults that aimed to investigate how older users interact with swipe-based interactions in mid-air and how menu sizes may affect swipe characteristics. Our findings suggest that currently-implemented motion-based interaction parameters may not be very well-aligned with the expectations and physical abilities of the older population. In addition, we find that GUI design can shape how older users produce a swipe gesture in mid-air, and that appropriate GUI design can lead to higher success rates for users with little familiarity with this novel input method

Comparing clothing-mounted sensors with wearable sensors for movement analysis and activity classification

Inertial sensors are a useful instrument for long term monitoring in healthcare. In many cases, inertial sensor devices can be worn as an accessory or integrated into smart textiles. In some situations, it may be beneficial to have data from multiple inertial sensors, rather than relying on a single worn sensor, since this may increase the accuracy of the analysis and better tolerate sensor errors. Integrating multiple sensors into clothing improves the feasibility and practicality of wearing multiple devices every day, in approximately the same location, with less likelihood of incorrect sensor orientation. To facilitate this, the current work investigates the consequences of attaching lightweight sensors to loose clothes. The intention of this paper is to discuss how data from these clothing sensors compare with similarly placed body worn sensors, with additional consideration of the resulting effects on activity recognition. This study compares the similarity between the two signals (body worn and clothing), collected from three different clothing types (slacks, pencil skirt and loose frock), across multiple daily activities (walking, running, sitting, and riding a bus) by calculating correlation coefficients for each sensor pair. Even though the two data streams are clearly different from each other, the results indicate that there is good potential of achieving high classification accuracy when using inertial sensors in clothing

Short-term and working memory treatments for improving sentence comprehension in aphasia: a review and a replication study

Although the roles of verbal short-term and working memory on spoken sentence comprehension skills in persons with aphasia have been debated for many years, the development of treatments to mitigate verbal short-term and working memory deficits as a way of improving spoken sentence comprehension is a new avenue in treatment research. In this article, we review and critically appraise this emerging evidence base. We also present new data from five persons with aphasia of a replication of a previously reported treatment that had resulted in some improvement of spoken sentence comprehension in a person with aphasia. The replicated treatment did not result in improvements in sentence comprehension. We forward recommendations for future research in this, admittedly weak at present, but important clinical research avenue that would help improve our understanding of the mechanisms of improvement of short-term and working memory training in relation to sentence comprehension

E-Commerce design by older adults: the selection and placement of web objects on shopping sites

This study offers insights, gathered from co-design activities with older adults, on the design of e-commerce websites. Twenty older adults (aged 52–75 years) took part in a paper-based design activity in which they were presented with a web browser window, cutouts of a selection of web objects (e.g., product images and “add to cart” buttons) in a range of designs, and office stationery for making annotations and asked to select and place web objects onto the browser window to express their design ideas for two types of shopping experience: purchasing a grocery item that is inexpensive and typically purchased in multiples (carrots) and purchasing an assistive technology item which is considered expensive and normally purchased as a one-off (wheelchair). Objects selected frequently by the older adults for inclusion in both types of e-commerce websites included product images, price, and an “add to cart” button. Some objects were selected for inclusion depending on the type of website—quantity selection was selected for the cheap, multiple purchase item, whereas descriptions, reviews, and shipping/return information were deemed important only for the expensive, single-item purchase. Regarding the relative placement of the “add to cart” button, participants most often placed the button close to the quantity selection and/or the price. Furthermore, participants expressed that having these three elements presented within a visually distinctive “buy box” would be beneficial. This study offers insight into which website elements are deemed important by this older adult participant group for e-commerce websites and how the elements should be arranged, and the results also indicate that some design requirements may differ between different types of shopping experience. The findings can potentially benefit designers, developers, and industries to more fully grasp the potential of usable online shopping applications

Evaluation of the eNutri automated personalised nutrition advice by users and nutrition professionals in the UK

Nutrition apps have great potential to support people to improve their diets, but few apps give automated validated personalised nutrition advice. A web app capable of delivering automated personalised food-based nutrition advice (eNutri) was developed. The aims of this study were to i) evaluate and optimise the personalised nutrition report provided by the app and ii) compare the personalised food-based advice with nutrition professionals’ standards to aid validation. A study with nutrition professionals (NP) compared the advice provided by the app against professional Registered Dietitians (RD) (n=16) and Registered Nutritionists (RN) (n=16) standards. Each NP received two pre-defined scenarios, comprising an individual’s characteristics and dietary intake based on an analysis of a food frequency questionnaire, along with the nutrition food-based advice that was automatically generated by the app for that individual. NPs were asked to use their professional judgment to consider the scenario, provide their three most relevant recommendations for that individual, then consider the app’s advice and rate their level of agreement via 5-star scales (with 5 as complete agreement). NPs were also asked to comment on the eNutri recommendations, scores generated and overall impression. The mean scores for the appropriateness, relevance and suitability of the eNutri diet messages were 3.5, 3.3 and 3.3 respectively