Understanding the needs of various stakeholders throughout the design process is key for creating consumer health applications that are usable, effective, and useful for the people that use them. This paper discusses the findings of an exploratory study aimed at understanding the current practices, information needs, and challenges of older adults (65 years and older) when selecting over-the-counter (OTC) medication. The context of this study lies in understanding older adults with the purpose of identifying opportunities for a consumer health application to assist them with selecting an appropriate OTC medication based on their health history.This research contributes to the understanding of the current practices of older adults as related to OTC medication selection. In addition, this paper provides a discussion of opportunities for future applications to help facilitate this task for older adults.

Spoken dialog systems, including interactive assistants, have emerged as a viable option for presenting technical communication. Thus has contributed to interests in improving the effectiveness and design of such systems through natural language. Traditional methods of natural language processing include parts-of-speech tagging, syntactic parsing, and statistical models. This paper introduces a new conversational question answering methodology, Answer First (A1) that bypasses traditional methods and removes the need for preprocessing of queries. General TermsDocumentation, Human Factors, Theory.

Senior citizens represented the fastest growing demographic worldwide. As indicated in the Year 2000 US Census, there were 35 million people 65 or older in the US and by 2030, it was estimated that there were about 70 million older adults in the US alone. With the older population growing rapidly and being increasingly exposed to computers and technology, it is important that they are aware of what computers can do for them (e.g., Email, document creation, games, Internet and educational training). This study was conducted to identify best practices for designing and creating applications for a senior population while also promoting computer and Internet use among seniors. The longitudinal study employed a mixed method approach to data collection and analysis and included the use of standardized surveys, measures of physical fitness and physiology, observations in their retirement community and interviews. Auburn University faculty in the College of Engineering engaged senior citizens to participate in workshops designed to develop their skills in computing. Results of the study indicated virtual classrooms in SecondLife as a viable tool for senior adult education. The potential significance of this project was to create a valid, reliable and reproducible model for outreach to retirement communities and senior activity centers

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