title: Three Case Studies on Methods of Working with Older People on the Design of New Technologies.
abstract: The proportion of older adults in the population is rapidly increasing and the proportion of younger adults to care for them is decreasing. Part of the solution to support older adults in living independently is to provide them with appropriate assistive technologies. To develop technologies that are effective for older adults we need methodologies that are appropriate for working with this user group. Yet there is little systematic research on how to work with older adults and how to adapt methods already used with younger adults. This paper reports on three case studies which investigated the use focus groups, expert evaluations and user evaluations with older adults. In the case of focus groups, the size of the focus group was investigated; for expert evaluations, an existing set of heuristics for evaluating apps for older adults was investigated; for user evaluations, a low-fidelity prototype design was evaluated using think-aloud protocols.
authors.affiliation: Human Computer Interaction Research Group, Department of Computer Science, University of York, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Zaidatol Haslinda Abdullah
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Sani
authors.affiliation: Human Computer Interaction Research Group, Department of Computer Science, University of York, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Petrie
authors.affiliation: Human Computer Interaction Research Group, Department of Computer Science, University of York, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Swallow
authors.affiliation: Human Computer Interaction Research Group, Department of Computer Science, University of York, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004867:Equipment Design; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012656:Self-Help Devices