KitVision toolkit: supporting the creation of cognitive activities for tangible tabletop devices

Abstract

Purpose This work presents KitVision, a software toolkit based on the End-User Development paradigm to create and to customize tangible tabletop interactive activities for clients with cognitive impairments. The KitVision toolkit has been developed with therapists in mind to engage them in the creation of therapeutic activities, which is the final aim of the work presented here. Methods The KitVision toolkit is based on a markup language specially designed to support the definition of cognitive therapeutic activities. It is composed of a graphic assistant, which allows therapists to develop their own activities, and a player, which allows the user to play the activities on a vision-based tangible tabletop. Two different evaluations have been carried out: an in-lab evaluation, that aimed to test the usability of the KitVision toolkit, and a second evaluation, in which an occupational therapist performed the whole process of creating a tangible activity with the toolkit in her workplace. Results The in-lab evaluation allowed us to detect and correct some usability problems in the KitVision graphic assistant before the second evaluation in a therapy center. As a result of this second evaluation, the occupational therapist decided to have a tabletop permanently installed in her therapy center. Conclusions The potentialities of the KitVision toolkit as an End-User Development tool were assessed after the occupational therapist had spent 1\xa0year using the toolkit on her own, after which she was able to include the activities that she had developed in her daily therapy sessions.