Marie Sjölinder

Mind the body!: designing a mobile stress management application encouraging personal reflection

We have designed a stress management biofeedback mobile service for everyday use, aiding users to reflect on both positive and negative patterns in their behavior. To do so, we embarked on a complex multidisciplinary design journey, learning that: detrimental stress results from complex processes related to e.g. the subjective experience of being able to cope (or not) and can therefore not be measured and diagnosed solely as a bodily state. We learnt that it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to make a robust analysis of stress symptoms based on biosensors worn outside the laboratory environment they were designed for. We learnt that rather than trying to diagnose stress, it is better to mirror short-term stress reactions back to them, inviting their own interpretations and reflections. Finally, we identified several experiential qualities that such an interface should entail: ambiguity and openness to interpretation, interactive history of prior states, fluency and aliveness.

Participatory Design With Seniors: Design of Future Services and Iterative Refinements of Interactive eHealth Services for Old Citizens

Background There is an increasing social isolation among the elderly today. This will be an even larger issue in the future with growing numbers of elderly and less resources, for example, in terms of economy and staff. Loneliness and social isolation can, however, be addressed in several ways using different interactive eHealth services. Objective This case study investigated novel eHealth services for the elderly, and their usage of a social interactive device designed especially for them. Methods In this work, we used an innovative mobile communication device connected to the television (TV), which worked as a remotely controlled large interactive screen. The device was tested by 8 volunteers who visited a senior center. They were between 65 and 80 years of age and lived in their own homes. Throughout the 1.5 year-long project, 7 design workshops were held with the seniors and the staff at the center. During these workshops, demands and preferences regarding existing and new services were gathered. At the end of the project the participants’ experience of the device and of the services was elaborated in 3 workshops to get ideas for improved or new meaningful services. During the data analyses and development process, what seniors thought would be useful in relation to what was feasible was prioritized by the development company. Results Regarding daily usage, the seniors reported that they mainly used the service for receiving information from the senior center and for communication with other participants in the group or with younger relatives. They also read information about events at the senior center and they liked to perform a weekly sent out workout exercise. Further, they played games such as Memory and Sudoku using the device. The service development focused on three categories of services: cognitive activities, social activities, and physical activities. A cognitive activity service that would be meaningful to develop was a game for practicing working memory. In the social activities category, the seniors wanted different quizzes and multi-player games. For physical activities, the seniors desired more workout exercises and suggestions for guided walking routes. A new category, “information and news”, was suggested since they lacked services like senior-customized global and local news. Conclusions This study showed the importance of input from a group of seniors when designing new services for elderly citizens. Besides input to interactive eHealth service development for seniors, this study showed the importance of a social context around such work. The seniors were very engaged throughout the project and workshops were frequently visited and the seniors became friends. The high amount of input from the seniors could be explained in terms of social inclusion; they belonged to a group and each member was considered important for the work. The friendly workshop atmosphere facilitated new ideas and redesign of the services.

Age difference in the use of an on-line grocery shop: implications for design

Navigation in hypermedia is a difficult task, and more so for some than for others. We have studied age differences in completing shopping tasks in a hierarchical on-line grocery store. Our results revealed that the elderly subjects needed twice as much time as the younger subjects to purchase the products. Furthermore, the elderly subjects had difficulties in finding their way back to products they have previously visited. We propose that design of on-line stores should take into account how elderly learn and navigate physical spaces. Through enhancing the process of creating personal landmarks and memory cues, elderly might find the on-line shopping experience both easier and subjectively less time consuming.

Indoor and Outdoor Social Alarms: Understanding Users' Perspectives

The elderly population is increasing and there is a need to provide care and safety at a high level with limited resources. New social alarm solutions may contribute to safety and independence for many elderly. However, it is important to understand the needs within the user group. This work studied social alarms in a broad sense and from several user perspectives. In the first study, social alarm use and its aspects were investigated. To understand where there may be problems and weaknesses, users, caregivers, managers of municipalities, and personnel at alarm centers were interviewed. The interviews helped identify a number of problems. For municipalities, the processes of procuring new alarms and managing their organization were found to be complex. The effect of this was that the same social alarm systems had been ordered over and over again without taking into account new user needs or new technical solutions. For alarm users, one large problem was that the alarms had very limited reach and were designed for indoor use only. This has resulted in users hesitating to leave their homes, which in turn has negative effects due to lack of physical activity and fewer social contacts. One important result from the first study was the need for a social alarm solution that worked outdoors. In a second study, needs regarding outdoor social alarms were investigated. The results from this study showed that wearable outdoor alarms must be easy to use, provide communication, and be well designed. Finally, these alarms must work both indoors and outdoors, and the user should not have to worry about where he/she is or who is acting on an alarm.

Socio-Technical Challenges in Implementation of Monitoring Technologies in Elderly Care

Although new monitoring technologies (MT) supporting aging in place are continuously developed and introduced on the market, attempts to implement these technologies as an integrated part of elderly care often fail. According to the literature, the reason for that may be the prevailing technical focus applied during development and implementation of monitoring technologies in real settings. The aim of this paper was to investigate the socio-technical challenges that arise during implementation of monitoring technologies in elderly care. We used a qualitative case study and semi-structured interviews to investigate socio-technical (S/T) challenges in implementation of monitoring technologies generally and social alarms especially. Based on our findings we suggest a framework for classification of S/T challenges arising during implementation of monitoring technologies in elderly care and in this way this paper contributes to a better understanding of these challenges.

Effects of Using Care Professionals in the Development of Social Technology for Elderly

In some situations when developing technology for elderly, the intended users are too fragile and cannot participate themselves in the design process. The aim with this study was to investigate the use of care personnel as mediators for the elderly in the design process. The system that was developed was an information and communication technology system for sharing information and for keeping in touch with friends and family. Initially the care personnel misunderstood the need of technology among the elderly. During the project the care personnel changed their view and suggested new ways of using the technology. When the devices where placed in the rooms of the elderly the usage was low, but when the system was used in the dining areas as something to gather around, e.g. to show each other pictures of friends and family, the system became a success.

To Meet the Needs of Aging Users and the Prerequisites of Innovators in the Design Process

The aim of this paper is to analyze cases where participatory design with different stakeholder groups was a beacon in the development of innovations. An important aspect was a strong foundation both in the needs of the elderly and in the feasibility from the market side. Three cases were analyzed from aspects as: environment and development phase of product; participation of different stakeholders; and proxy involvement of care professionals. The impact of this approach is a benefit for aging end-users as well as increased feasibility for the innovation companies, as a result when collaboration of different stakeholders focuses on balancing the demands of the users and the prerequisites of the industry.

To Capture the Diverse Needs of Welfare Technology Stakeholders – Evaluation of a Value Matrix

Welfare technology (WT) is often developed with a technical perspective, which does not involve important ethical considerations and different values that come up during the development and implementation of WT within elderly care. This paper presents a study where we have applied an ethical value matrix to support systematic ethical assessments of WT intended for personal health monitoring. The matrix consists of values in a checklist and a number of stakeholders and it is possible to analyze which values are emphasized by which stakeholders. The aim was to assess the matrix and find out how the matrix supports identification of values and interests that drive the various stakeholders in the development and implementation of WT. We have realized that several values specified by different actors as especially important were not included in the matrix and that the values in the matrix did not visualize or enable identification of value conflicts.

Using Care Professionals as Proxies in the Design Process of Welfare Technology – Perspectives from Municipality Care

Bringing real users into the design process is often seen as a successful way of creating useful IT systems. However, when it comes to designing for elderly, this is not always possible since many elderly suffer from age-related decline, both with respect to physical and cognitive abilities. This paper elaborates on the approach of working with proxies, in this case elderly care personnel. Different groups of people (N = 117) working with elderly and well familiar with needs and contexts around elderly were engaged in this study. Using a questionnaire and a more in-depth workshop we explored with municipality care professionals their experiences as well as the need to create a framework to improve such a proxy approach, and whether a method using care professionals as mediators could be possible to establish in elderly care. The results described in this paper are complementary to ours and others previous knowledge and show promising commitment and willingness to work in accordance with the proposed method.

A User-Centered Ethical Assessment of Welfare Technology for Elderly

Welfare technology (WT) is often developed with a technical perspective, and little consideration is taken regarding the involvement of important ethical considerations and different values that come up during the development and implementation of WT. Safety, security and privacy are significant, as well as the usability and overall benefit of the tool, but to date assessments often lack a holistic picture of the WT as seen by the users. This paper suggests a user-centered ethical assessment (UCEA) framework for WT to be able to evaluate ethical consequences as a part of the user-centered aspects. Building on established methodologies from research on ethical considerations, as well as the research domain of human-computer interaction, this assessment framework joins knowledge of ethical consequences with aspects affecting the “digitalization with the individual in the center”, e.g. privacy, safety, well-being, dignity, empowerment and usability. The framework was applied during development of an interface for providing symptom information to Parkinson patients. The results showed that the UCEA framework directs the attention to values emphasized by the patients. Thus, functionality of the system was evaluated in the light of values and expected results of the patients, thereby facilitating follow-up of a user-centered assessment. The framework may be further developed and tested, but in this study it served as a working tool for assessing ethical consequences of WT as a part of user-centered aspects.