Martijn H. Vastenburg

Flowie: A persuasive virtual coach to motivate elderly individuals to walk

The use of context-aware technology in the home enables new ways to stimulate elderly in increasing their exercise levels, and consequently prevent age-related health issues amongst an increasing elderly population. This paper describes the design of a persuasive virtual coach that encourages seniors to walk more. In order to incorporate the user values and needs in the design concept, a user panel of elderly people was actively involved in the design process. A range of persuasive principles and interaction metaphors were evaluated with the user panel, resulting in a design concept that was approved and appreciated by the user panel. The design concept combines a pedometer with wireless connectivity with a touch-screen photo frame. As a first step towards a longer evaluation, an experimental prototype was tested in the field with two participants for 11 days each. Whereas the participants of the exploratory intervention did appreciate the virtual coach and they did feel more motivated to exercise, the quantitative figures did not yet show an increase in physical activity in time; a possible explanation could be the limited activity-sensing capabilities of the prototype in combination with the changing weather conditions in the course of the user study. Furthermore, the participants would like to see a system with a better awareness of the context of use, such that the system can better select the right timing for motivational cues. These findings will be used to improve the design concept and perform a longitudinal user study in the field.

Considerate home notification systems: a field study of acceptability of notifications in the home

A field study in ten homes was conducted to understand what influences users’ acceptability of notifications in the home environment. The key finding is that perceived message urgency is the primary indicator of acceptability of notifications in the home—if people think a message is urgent, they want the message to be shown immediately, regardless of what they are doing at the time of notification. The study also shows that the acceptability of low-urgent and medium-urgent messages could be improved by taking into account mental activity load at the time of notification. No effect of physical activity was found on acceptability. The results suggest that to improve the scheduling of notifications in the home, notification systems need a mechanism assessing both the message urgency and the mental activity load, whereas physical activity can be ignored. From a methodological point of view, it is difficult to measure acceptability of notifications in a realistic setting, given the need to balance experimental control with realistic context. The present paper suggests a way to introduce controlled notifications and subjective measurements of acceptability in homes.

Considerate home notification systems: A user study of acceptability of notifications in a living-room laboratory

Recent field experiments on acceptability of notifications in the home showed that people generally want to be informed of urgent messages as soon as possible, whereas non-urgent messages should not be presented at all. A possible way to improve the acceptability of a notification might be to adjust the presentation mode and the timing of notifications to the message content and to the state of the user. For example, acceptability might be improved by considering user activities when selecting the best time to present the message. The relation between acceptability, presentation mode and timing has not been formally studied in a controlled home setting before. This paper presents the results of a user study, in which 10 participant couples were asked to engage in everyday home activities, and to subjectively rate factors that were expected to influence acceptability. The study was situated in a living-room laboratory in which the user activities and the timing of notifications were controlled. Questionnaire data was evaluated using cluster analysis in order to construct a semantic model that describes the relationship between user, system and environment. The key findings in the present study are: (1) acceptability could be improved by adjusting the level of intrusiveness of the presentation to message urgency: urgent messages should be presented intrusively, medium-urgent messages unobtrusively, and (2) non-urgent messages should be postponed until the message urgency has increased, or skipped if the message urgency never exceeds the predefined presentation threshold. Surprisingly, the user activities at the time of notification were not found to influence acceptability. These findings have resulted in a model of acceptability of notifications for the design of future home notification systems.

Designing Acceptable Assisted Living Services for Elderly Users

With todays technology, elderly users could be supported in living independently in their own homes for a prolonged period of time. Commercially available products enable remote monitoring of the state of the user, enhance social networks, and even support elderly citizens in their everyday routines. Whereas technology seems to be in place to support elderly users, one might question the value of present solutions in terms of solving real user problems such as loneliness and self-efficacy. Furthermore, products tend to be complex in use and do not relate to the reference framework of elderly users. Consequently, acceptability of many present solutions tends to be low. This paper presents a design vision of assisted living solutions that elderly love to use. Based on earlier work, five concrete design goals have been identified that are specific to assisted living services for elderly users. The vision is illustrated by three examples of ongoing work; these cases present the design process of prototypes that are being tested in the field with elderly users. Even though the example cases are limited in terms of number of participants and quantitative data, the qualitative feedback and design experiences can serve as inspiration for designers of assisted living services.

SnowGlobe: the development of a prototype awareness system for longitudinal field studies

Awareness systems are a novel class of communication systems that enable people to be conscious of each other in a peripheral way. To better understand how people experience these systems over time, and how they blend in the user context, longitudinal field studies are needed. Although tangible awareness systems are considered to be more intimate and aesthetically pleasing than screen based awareness systems, they are not often evaluated in a longitudinal setting. This may be due to several factors that complicate the field evaluation of such systems, including the robustness and reliability of the prototype. This paper describes how the challenges of designing and evaluating a prototype have been addressed in the design of SnowGlobe. The system was evaluated in a longitudinal field setting with 12 users. The prototype enabled extensive data collection on the user experience and usage of such a tangible awareness system.

Adaptive Experience Sampling: Addressing the Dynamic Nature of In-Situ User Studies

Experience sampling techniques can be used to study user experiences with products in a natural setting and over time. Nowadays, researchers can use selective sampling to link the timing and questions to relevant product events and contextual events. Existing research has focused on maximizing the quality and quantity of feedback, while at the same time minimizing interruptions and maintaining the motivation of the participants. In practice, however, the optimal timing and content of questions also depends on the changing interests of the researcher, a topic that has not yet been addressed. This position paper introduces ‘adaptive experience sampling’, i.e. a method that enables researchers and designers to change the focus of their experience sampling study on the fly. Using adaptive experience sampling, researchers and designers can better link the sampling to their gradually growing insights.

Designing an Interactive Messaging and Reminder Display for Elderly

Despite the wealth of information and communication technology in society today, there appears to be a lack of acceptable information services for the growing elderly population in need of care. Acceptability is not only related to human factors such as button size and legibility, but rather relates to perceived value and harmony in relation to existing living patterns. This paper describes the design of an asynchronous interactive communication system based upon a bulletin board metaphor. A panel of end-users was involved in various stages of the design process. To improve ease of use, functionality exposed to elderly users is limited, while caregivers are given extended control. A pilot field study with a working prototype showed a high degree of user acceptance. The user centered approach resulted in a design concept that was acceptable for the elderly participants.

PMRI: development of a pictorial mood reporting instrument

Mood capturing techniques are being used in research settings (e.g., lab evaluation and experience sampling) and to facilitate mood communication in mediated interaction (e.g., instant messaging and blogging). Instruments currently available tend to be either limited in expression or overly demanding. In this paper we describe our work-in-progress on the development of PMRI, a rich and easy-to-use pictorial mood-reporting instrument.

Measuring user experiences of prototypical autonomous products in a simulated home environment

Advances in sensor technology, embedded processing power, and modeling and reasoning software, have created the possibility for everyday products to sense the environment and pro-actively anticipate user needs. There is however a risk of creating environments in which people experience a lack of control. The aim of this study is to explore the degree in which people are willing to delegate control to a pro-active home atmosphere control system. The findings suggest that participants are willing to delegate control to easy-touse systems, and they do not want to delegate control to complex and unpredictable systems. It is argued that the willingness to delegate should not be considered as a fixed degree, rather system initiative might depend on the situation at hand or on changes in time. Design research on mixed initiative systems faces a methodological challenge, in terms of measuring user experience of autonomous prototypes in a controlled way, while still preserving the sense of a realistic experience. The paper describes advantages and disadvantages of testing in a simulated home environment versus testing in the field.

A user experience-based approach to home atmosphere control

The complex control problem of creating home atmospheres using light, music, and projected wall-art can be reduced by focusing on desired experience, rather than product functions and features. A case study is described in which subjective interpretations of living room atmospheres were measured and embedded into a prototype display system. A personalization mechanism is proposed to manage individual differences in atmosphere ratings, enabling a user model to evolve over time. To create a meaningful and simple control mechanism for a wide range of users, three interfaces were developed and studied, ranging from concrete to abstract control and from structured to exploratory navigation.