Chaiwoo Lee

Older Adults’ Experiences with Technology: Learning from Their Voices

When developing technologies for older adults, it is important to have them involved in the design process to identify needs, expectations and requirements correctly and comprehensively. However, communication gaps often exist, which call for the need to have continuous relationships with the target segment. In this study, older adults who have previously participated in a home technology study are interviewed to comfortably talk about their thoughts and experiences. User comments on various technologies are analyzed in relation to various stages of technology use. This paper discusses design implications, as well as topics for future research. The study can be expected to contribute to setting strategic design goals.

Enhance Communication between Parents and Mature Children by Sharing Medication Information

Aging in place is a sustainable strategy for aging societies all over the world, although there are still various issues to be resolved. One of those issues, the isolation of the elderly, is expected to be tackled by technology. We identify three concepts for designing systems to assist the elderly in communicating with their families: provide trigger for communication, provide control of communication, and effortless communication. We develop the e-Home system on the three concepts. e-Home is a communication system that includes home monitoring; it offers shared sticky notes and video-telephony for communication media while monitoring medication compliance. We conduct a two-month field study of four households, studying e-Home use and its impact on the subjects’ communication habits. The results show enhanced communication in all households.

Generational Differences in Adoption and Use of Information and Communications Technology

The increase in adoption and use of information and communications technology (ICT) by older adults calls for a more detailed understanding of their perceptions, experiences and decisions. Based on responses from a large-scale survey, this study investigates older adults’ adoption and use of two ICT examples – mobile phones and PCs. Detailed open-ended responses from a national sample are quantitatively coded and analyzed with frequency analysis. The results of this study suggest that older adults’ decisions on adoption and use of ICT are affected by multiple factors, including assessment of value, relevance with past experiences, compatibility with lifestyle, and affordability. Furthermore, findings from a comparative analysis suggest that perceived importance and effects of various adoption factors are different between generations, as well as between technology types and between stages of adoption – purchase, initial use and continued use. A summary of research and design implications is presented along with a discussion of the results.

User Perceptions Toward In-Vehicle Technologies: Relationships to Age, Health, Preconceptions, and Hands-On Experience

Associations between user characteristics and system features to technology adoption have been discussed in various domains. However, less is known about how different factors potentially affect the adoption of in-vehicle smart technologies. This study builds and tests a research model that describes the relationships of individual characteristics, preconceptions, and task performance and perceptions measured during a system experience to attitudes and expectations toward in-vehicle technologies. Based on empirical data from three research cases—voice-control interface, active parallel parking assist, and cross traffic alert—this study finds perceptions of a hands-on system experience to have strong associations with postexperience attitudes and expectations. Individual characteristics including age and health, general preconceptions, and task performance were found to have weaker relationships. Based on the findings, this article discusses implications for research in the emerging domain of smart technologies in automobiles, as well as for practice in design and delivery of in-vehicle technologies.

Comparative Usability Study of Two Space Logistics Analysis Tools

Future space exploration missions and campaigns will require sophisticated tools to help plan and analyze logistics. To encourage their use, space logistics tools must be usable: a design concept encompassing terms such as efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction. This paper presents a usability study of two such tools: SpaceNet, a discrete event simulation tool and a comparable spreadsheet-based tool. The study follows a randomized orthogonal design having within-subjects evaluation of the two tools with 12 volunteer subjects (eight subjects with space backgrounds, four without). Each subject completed two sessions of testing, each with a 30-45 minute tutorial and a two-part space exploration scenario. The first part tests the creation a model to verify a simple uncrewed mission to lunar orbit. The second part tests the evaluation of an existing model to improve the effectiveness of a crewed mission to the lunar surface. The subjects completed a questionnaire after each session and a semi-structured interview following the second session. The study results indicate that the SpaceNet tool is more efficient for portions of the model creation task including modeling multi-burn transports and the spreadsheet tool is more effective for the model evaluation task. Qualitative evaluation indicates subjects liked the graphical nature and error-detection of the SpaceNet tool, but felt it took too long to edit information and appeared as a “black box.” Subjects liked the ability to view the entire model state within the spreadsheet tool, however were concerned with limited dynamic state feedback and underlying modeling assumptions. Future tools should combine the best features, including allowing modification of the entire model from a single interface, providing visibility of underlying logic, and integrated graphical and error-checking feedback.

Acceptance of Automated Driving Across Generations: The Role of Risk and Benefit Perception, Knowledge, and Trust.

The eventual adoption of automated vehicles seems inevitable. With the potential to reduce traffic accidents caused by human error [1], decrease congestion, increase mobility, and yield more efficient use of commuting time, most major automakers as well as several technology companies have invested in their development. Policymakers and manufacturers need to understand people’s risk and benefit perceptions around automated vehicles in order to understand their likelihood of adoption, as well as to communicate about vehicles’ potential benefits and to address risks effectively. This study draws on data from a survey of 1,765 adults in the United States with an embedded experiment to examine risk and benefit perceptions around automated vehicles across different generations to understand how factors such as people’s generational age, knowledge and trust affect attitudes toward acceptance and use. Generations differed in driving behaviors and perceptions of driving-related technologies. Participants’ attitudes toward automated vehicles were predicted by age group and gender, but not by experimental condition. Independent of condition, however, exposure to the intervention did have an effect on attitudes: participants’ risk perceptions decreased after viewing an informational video, while their benefit perceptions increased. Consistent with earlier research, trust, knowledge, and risk and benefit perceptions are related to acceptance of automated vehicles. Our results also show, however, that informational materials that may enhance positive feelings about the technology can increase people’s benefit perceptions. This work provides a basis for further research into the acceptance of automated vehicles and the risks associated with them as they approach consumer markets.

Development of a job rotation scheduling algorithm for minimizing accumulated work load per body parts

BACKGROUND For the successful implementation of job rotation, jobs should be scheduled systematically so that physical workload is evenly distributed with the use of various body parts. However, while the potential benefits are widely recognized by research and industry, there is still a need for a more effective and efficient algorithm that considers multiple work-related factors in job rotation scheduling. OBJECTIVE This study suggests a type of job rotation algorithm that aims to minimize musculoskeletal disorders with the approach of decreasing the overall workload. METHODS Multiple work characteristics are evaluated as inputs to the proposed algorithm. Important factors, such as physical workload on specific body parts, working height, involvement of heavy lifting, and worker characteristics such as physical disorders, are included in the algorithm. For evaluation of the overall workload in a given workplace, an objective function was defined to aggregate the scores from the individual factors. A case study, where the algorithm was applied at a workplace, is presented with an examination on its applicability and effectiveness. RESULTS With the application of the suggested algorithm in case study, the value of the final objective function, which is the weighted sum of the workload in various body parts, decreased by 71.7% when compared to a typical sequential assignment and by 84.9% when compared to a single job assignment, which is doing one job all day. CONCLUSIONS An algorithm was developed using the data from the ergonomic evaluation tool used in the plant and from the known factors related to workload. The algorithm was developed so that it can be efficiently applied with a small amount of required inputs, while covering a wide range of work-related factors. A case study showed that the algorithm was beneficial in determining a job rotation schedule aimed at minimizing workload across body parts.

Relationship between Drivers' Self-Reported Health and Technology Perceptions Across the Lifespan

This study examined relationships between individual user characteristics and perceptions about technology -- experience, adoption, ability to learn, and trust. Based on responses from a diverse sample of 610 individuals with driving experience, it was found that perceived health and well-being were strongly associated with experience and perceptions around technology, including attitudes toward established and new vehicle technologies. A comparison of results from a correlation analysis showed the effects of perceived health and well-being to be stronger and more significant compared to demographic characteristics and medical conditions. The findings suggest a need for a better understanding of user characteristics, rather than relying on observable traits.

Process-oriented evaluation of user interactions in integrated system analysis tools

When computer-based tools are used for analysis of complex systems, the design of user interactions and interfaces becomes an essential part of development that determines the overall quality. The objective of this study is to investigate the processes and results of user interactions with integrated analysis tools to synthesize design implications for future tool development. In this study, two space exploration logistics tools are compared in a controlled user experiment. Through a comparative usability analysis, this study evaluated user performance and perception to provide design implications for future integrated analysis tools. For a comprehensive evaluation, multiple methods were used for data collection, including observation, questionnaire and interview. In addition to a result-oriented performance analysis, a process-oriented approach was used for analyzing patterns in user behaviors and errors. Results are presented with reference to the related features embedded in the interfaces of the two tools. Based on the comparative results, synthesized design insights for hierarchical structure, model transparency, automation, and visualization and feedback are discussed for integrated analysis tools in general.

Sharing is caring: The potential of the sharing economy to support aging in place

ABSTRACT This article explores innovative applications of sharing economy services that have the potential to support a population aging in place, especially the “oldest old,” aged 85 and older, and their caregivers. A mixed-methods study conducted by the MIT AgeLab examined perceptions of and experiences with sharing economy services, ultimately finding opportunities and barriers to use. Thus, although sharing economy services have potential to support aging in place, to do so successfully will require reconstructing how older adults, family caregivers, aging service professionals, gerontology educators, and gerontology students conceptualize and deliver care to an aging population. We suggest examples for gerontology educators to integrate into their classrooms to further cultivate an appreciation among students of multiple approaches to intervention, including those that leverage sharing economy and technology-enabled platforms to support older adults and their caregivers.