Representing older people: towards meaningful images of the user in design scenarios

Designing for older people requires the consideration of a range of difficult and sometimes highly personal design problems. Issues such as fear, loneliness, dependency, and physical decline may be difficult to observe or discuss in interviews. Pastiche scenarios and pastiche personae are techniques that employ characters to create a space for the discussion of new technological developments and as a means to explore user experience. This paper argues that the use of such characters can help to overcome restrictive notions of older people by disrupting designers' prior assumptions. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences using pastiche techniques in two separate technology design projects that sought to address the needs of older people. In the first case pastiche scenarios were developed by the designers of the system and used as discussion documents with users. In the second case, pastiche personae were used by groups of users themselves to generate scenarios which were scribed for later use by the design team. We explore how the use of fictional characters and settings can generate new ideas and undermine rhetorical devices within scenarios that attempt to fit characters to the technology, rather than vice versa. To assist in future development of pastiche techniques in designing for older people, we provide an array of fictional older characters drawn from literary and popular culture.</p

Patterns of place:an integrated approach for the design and evaluation of real and virtual environments

This chapter describes an approach to the development of virtual representations of real places. The work was funded under the European Union’s €20 m Future and Emerging Technologies theme of the 5th Framework Programme, “Presence”. The aim of the project, called BENOGO, was to develop a novel technology based on real-time image-based rendering (IBR) for representing places in virtual environments. The specific focus of the work presented here concerned how to capture the essential features of real places, and how to represent that knowledge, so that the team developing the IBR-based virtual environments could produce an environment that was as realistic as possible. This involved the development and evaluation of a number of virtual environments and the evolution of two complementary techniques; the Place Probe and Patterns of place

Painting the ideal home: using art to express visions of technologically supported independent living for older people in North East England

This paper describes the investigation of the development of future technological products to support older people in everyday living through the agency of a community art group. Recent research has identified a number of challenges facing designers seeking to use traditional participatory design approaches to gather technology requirements data from older people. Here, a project is described that sought to get a group of older people to think creatively about their needs and desires for technological support through the medium of paint. The artistic expression technique described in this article allowed the identification of issues that had also been found by previous research that used a range of different techniques. This indicates that the approach shows promise, as it allows information to be gathered in an environment that is comfortable and familiar using methods already known by the participants and which they find enjoyable. It provides a complement (or possible alternative) to standard protocols and has the potential benefit of extracting even richer information as the primary task for participants is enjoyable in its own right and is not associated with an interrogative process. Furthermore, it is argued that some of the key risks of traditional approaches are lessened or removed by the naturalistic setting of this approach

User-centred design of flexible hypermedia for a mobile guide: Reflections on the hyperaudio experience

A user-centred design approach involves end-users from the very beginning. Considering users at the early stages compels designers to think in terms of utility and usability and helps develop the system on what is actually needed. This paper discusses the case of HyperAudio, a context-sensitive adaptive and mobile guide to museums developed in the late 90s. User requirements were collected via a survey to understand visitors’ profiles and visit styles in Natural Science museums. The knowledge acquired supported the specification of system requirements, helping defining user model, data structure and adaptive behaviour of the system. User requirements guided the design decisions on what could be implemented by using simple adaptable triggers and what instead needed more sophisticated adaptive techniques, a fundamental choice when all the computation must be done on a PDA. Graphical and interactive environments for developing and testing complex adaptive systems are discussed as a further step towards an iterative design that considers the user interaction a central point. The paper discusses how such an environment allows designers and developers to experiment with different system’s behaviours and to widely test it under realistic conditions by simulation of the actual context evolving over time. The understanding gained in HyperAudio is then considered in the perspective of the developments that followed that first experience: our findings seem still valid despite the passed time

Applying a User-centred Approach to Interactive Visualization Design

Analysing users in their context of work and finding out how and why they use different information resources is essential to provide interactive visualisation systems that match their goals and needs. Designers should actively involve the intended users throughout the whole process. This chapter presents a user-centered approach for the design of interactive visualisation systems. We describe three phases of the iterative visualisation design process: the early envisioning phase, the global specification hase, and the detailed specification phase. The whole design cycle is repeated until some criterion of success is reached. We discuss different techniques for the analysis of users, their tasks and domain. Subsequently, the design of prototypes and evaluation methods in visualisation practice are presented. Finally, we discuss the practical challenges in design and evaluation of collaborative visualisation environments. Our own case studies and those of others are used throughout the whole chapter to illustrate various approaches

Formative evaluation of a UK community-based sports intervention to prevent smoking among children and young people: SmokeFree Sports

Background Smoking is a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in England. This formative research involved the evaluation of SmokeFree Sports (SFS), a novel community sport intervention to prevent smoking among children and young people (CYP). Methods SFS was implemented in five youth clubs situated in deprived communities, between February and June 2011, involving 246 CYP (6-18 years). Seventy-one CYP (median age=10.0 years, 56% male) and five youth club managers participated in this formative evaluation study, which utilised a mixed methods design. Results Smoking prevalence at baseline and post-intervention did not differ significantly (2.8% vs. 1.4%). However, positive educational effects were observed: A lower proportion of respondents believed that smoking cigarettes was associated with weight gain or loss (80.0% to 66.2%). A higher proportion of respondents felt that once a person started smoking it would definitely be difficult to quit (52.1% to 62%). Qualitative data revealed that CYP’s awareness of smoking factors increased while youth club managers provided suggestions for future implementation. Conclusions Sport may be a viable mechanism to educate CYP about elements of smoking and health. This study raises key characteristics for the implementation and evaluation of a definitive trial

Protocol for a multicentre randomised feasibility trial evaluating early Surgery Alone In LOw Rectal cancer (SAILOR)

Introduction There are 11,500 rectal cancers diagnosed annually in the UK. Although surgery remains the primary treatment there is evidence that preoperative radiotherapy (RT) improves local recurrence rates. High quality surgery in rectal cancer is equally important in minimising local recurrence. Advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided prediction of resection margin status and improvements in abdominoperineal excision of the rectum (APER) technique supports a reassessment of the contribution of preoperative RT. A more selective approach to RT may be appropriate given the associated toxicity. Methods and analysis This trial will explore the feasibility of a definitive trial evaluating the omission of RT in resectable low rectal cancer requiring APER. It will test the feasibility of randomising patients to i) standard care (neoadjuvant long course radiotherapy +/- chemotherapy and APER, or ii) APER surgery alone for cT2/T3ab N0/1 low rectal cancer with clear predicted resection margins on MRI. Radiotherapy schedule will be 45Gy over 5 weeks as current standard, with restaging and surgery after 8-12 weeks. Recruitment will be for 24 months with a minimum 12 month follow up. Objectives include testing the ability to recruit, consent and retain patients, to quantify the number of patients eligible for a definitive trial and to test feasibility of outcomes measures. These include locoregional recurrence rates, distance to circumferential resection margin, toxicity and surgical complications including perineal wound healing, quality of life and economic analysis. The quality of MRI staging, radiotherapy delivery and surgical specimen quality will be closely monitored. Ethics and dissemination The trial is approved by the regional ethics committee and Health Research Authority (HRA) or equivalent. Written informed consent will be obtained. Serious adverse events will be reported to Swansea Trials Unit (STU), the ethics committee and trial sites. Trial results will be submitted for peer review publication and to trial participants. Strengths and limitations of this study • A unique interventional study specific to low rectal cancer • Will explore the contribution of the modern abdominoperineal excision operation to cancer outcomes • Strict quality assurance processes for imaging, radiotherapy, surgery and pathology • Will establish if a future trial minimising radiotherapy use in low rectal cancer is feasible • Study is limited by short follow up perio

Designing for Experiences in Blended Reality Environments for People with Dementia

Blended Reality environments have the potential to provide scalable solutions that are affordable, adaptable and easily deployable to support people with dementia. Use of these technologies is associated with experience of presence which is an experience with technologically mediated perceptions that generates a feeling of being there and the illusion of non-mediation. Our study examines what constitutes an experience of presence for people with dementia when they interact with MRTs. An observational study with ten participants (MoCA = 18 to 23, Age = 63 to 88 years) played a game of Tangram on Osmo. Six of these participants also played Young Conker on HoloLens. The experiences of the participants in the digital space, the physical space, and their attention crossover between the two spaces were coded in Noldus Observer XT 14.1. The study found four main themes that have an impact on the experience of presence in PwD – correspondences, effortless access to physical and digital content, awareness of reality and emergence. Correspondences between physical and digital spaces require PwD to have constant information about the state and nature of physical and digital content. The transitions between physical and digital should be seamless. PwD demonstrated positive experiences with Osmo, an augmented Virtuality technology while their experience with HoloLens, augmented reality technology was negative. The factors impacting experience of presence were prominent in Osmo while they were mostly absent in HoloLens throughout the game play. The outcomes of this study have resulted in a set of recommendations and guidelines for designers to design correspondences for experience of presence. We are currently working on developing prototypes using these guidelines for evaluations with PwD.AGE-WEL

Evaluation of intracellular signalling pathways in response to insulin-like growth factor I in apoptotic-resistant activated human hepatic stellate cells

BACKGROUND: Human hepatic stellate cells have been shown to be resistant to apoptotic stimuli. This is likely dependent on the activation of anti-apoptotic pathways upon transition of these cells to myofibroblast-like cells. In particular, previous studies have demonstrated an increased expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and a decreased expression of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax during the transition of the hepatic stellate cell phenotype from quiescent to myofibroblast-like cells. However, the role and expression of other key anti-apoptotic and survival pathways elicited by polypeptide growth factors involved in the chronic wound healing process remain to be elucidated. In particular, insulin growth factor-I promotes chemotactic and mitogenic effects in activated human hepatic stellate cells and these effects are mediated by the activation of PI 3-K. The role of insulin growth factor-I as a survival factor in human hepatic stellate cells needs to be substantiated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the involvement of other key anti-apoptotic pathways such as PI-3K/Akt/p-Bad in response to insulin growth factor-I. RESULTS: Insulin growth factor-I induced activation of Akt followed by Bad phosphorylation after 15 minutes of incubation. These effects were PI-3k dependent since selective inhibitors of this molecule, wortmannin and LY294002, inhibited both Akt and Bad phosphorylation. The effect of insulin growth factor-I on the activation of two downstream targets of Akt activation, that is, GSK3 and FHKR, both implicated in the promotion of cell survival was also investigated. Both targets became phosphorylated after 15 minutes of incubation, and these effects were also PI-3K-dependent. Despite the activation of this survival pathway insulin growth factor-I did not have a remarkable biological effect, probably because other insulin growth factor-I-independent survival pathways were already maximally activated in the process of hepatic stellate cell activation. However, after incubation of the cells with a strong apoptotic stimuli such as Fas ligand+cycloheximide, a small percentage of hepatic stellate cells underwent programmed cell death that was partially rescued by insulin growth factor-I. CONCLUSION: In addition to Bcl-2, several other anti-apoptotic pathways are responsible for human hepatic stellate cell resistance to apoptosis. These features are relevant for the progression and limited reversibility of liver fibrosis in humans