BackgroundRhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) is an effective technique to improve gait and reduce freezing episodes for Persons with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD). The BeatHealth system, which comprises a mobile application, gait sensors, and a website, exploits the potential of the RAS technique. This paper describes the tools used for co-designing and evaluating the system and discusses the results and conclusions.MethodsPersonas, interviews, use cases, and ethnographic observations were used to define the functional requirements of the system. Low fidelity prototypes were created for iterative and incremental evaluation with end-users. Field trials were also performed with the final system. The process followed a user centered design methodology defined for this project with the aim of building a useful, usable, and easy-to-use system.ResultsFunctional requirements of the system were produced as a result of the initial exploration phase. Building upon these, mock-ups for the BeatHealth system were created. The mobile application was iterated twice, with the second version of it achieving a rating of 75 when assessed by participants through the System Usability Scale (SUS). After another iteration field trials were performed and the mobile application was rated with an average 78.6 using SUS. Participants rated two website mock-ups, one for health professionals and another for end-users, as good except from minor issues related to visual design (e.g. font size), which were resolved in the final version.ConclusionThe high ratings obtained in the evaluation of the BeatHealth system demonstrate the benefit of applying a user centered design methodology which involves stakeholders from the very beginning. Other important lessons were learned through the process of design and development of the system, such as the importance of motivational aspects, the techniques which work best, and the extra care that has to be taken when evaluating non-functional mock-ups with end users.
Abstract:Family policy was a key component of the 'New' Labour government's family, social, and education policy, and a range of family focused initiatives and interventions designed to 'support' families and improve individual, family, and social outcomes were introduced. The post-May 2010 coalition government's family policy exhibits elements of policy continuity.There have been class-based critiques of this approach to social policy, which have argued participating parents was also interviewed using semi-structured interview schedules. The evidence from the evaluation showed the heterogeneous class nature of the PEIP cohorts, which over the roll-out of the initiative, incorporated a larger number of middle-class parents.The qualitative data indicated that parents had positive participant perceptions of PEIP courses, characterised by 'mutual reach', and did not experience the courses in classed terms. The evidence from the data collected for the national evaluation suggests that it is difficult to conceptualise the PEIP, in class terms -such an approach requires, at the least, major qualification.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.