A Field Study of Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment using Tablets for Communication at Home

Abstract

This article describes how a tablet-based communication technology designed for older adults was explored for its adoption and impact on family relationships. A case study methodology was employed to collect and analyze interviews, field notes, observations and messaging activity over a 12 week period. Twelve participants, eight with a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score suggestive of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), were paired with a student to learn and use InTouch. 1212 messages were sent, from which text, audio, photo, and video data types were used 705, 280, 143 and 84 times, respectively. Most participants voiced that personalized text messaging was not the easiest feature to use, but was their preferred mode. Two participants used audio more than text, highlighting a need for feature customization. Older adults view a simplified tablet-based interface as a valuable means of enhancing communication with friends and family. With guided weekly support older adults learned to use this technology independently and integrated its use into their daily lives.

Investigating socially assistive systems from system design and evaluation: a systematic review

“…Therefore, the great majority of the target users in this category were older adults and people who had motion disabilities. Typical communication technologies were applied to establish direct social contact including video/audio chatting ([ 66 – 69 , 73 – 76 ]) and messaging ([ 23 , 54 , 66 , 68 , 69 , 75 ]). Eight studies developed online platforms where people could create their own profiles, build relationships with other users, and engage in social activities together ([ 21 , 66 – 71 ]).…”

“…Whereas in a participatory design approach, in addition to providing contextual information, end-users also actively share the role of designers to formulate the design solution together. In user-centered development, various techniques have been used to understand the needs, attitudes, or experiences of the end users, including interviews (e.g., [ 65 , 75 ]), ethnographic studies (e.g., [ 55 ]), focus group (e.g., [ 22 , 80 ]), trial and customization (e.g., [ 88 ]), feedback sessions (e.g., [ 90 ]), etc.. Whereas in a participatory design approach, besides the above mentioned techniques to gather user-centered insights, the end-users are also invited to participatory, or co-design workshops, to generate design concepts or solutions together with a group of stakeholders (e.g., see [ 73 , 91 , 92 ]).…”

“…The experimenter still needs to manipulate at least one independent variable. A total of 10 studies used field experiments to evaluate Socially Assistive Systems, which were targeted at older adults ([ 66 , 69 , 74 , 75 , 78 , 97 ]), people with deafness ([ 56 , 82 ]), physical disabilities [ 52 ], and visual impairments [ 53 ].…”

“…These studies were conducted in various field settings. The most common was the participants’ own homes and their living communities ([ 66 , 69 , 74 , 75 , 82 , 97 ]). Other places included institutions ([ 52 , 75 , 78 ]) and realistic situations for testing purposes ([ 53 , 56 ]).…”

Reference Framework for Measuring the Level of Technological Acceptance by the Elderly: A Case Study of Virtual Assistants

“…Its creators used a case study approach to better understand the factors that affect the experience of elderly with mild cognitive impairment while using the app (see Figure 2). They analyzed and compared their results to obtain patterns of use and thus be able to address the difficulties in a better way for the elderly in order to generate positive social experiences with the use of InTouch [14]. In [2], the authors make an important contribution to the field of user-centered exoskeleton design and prospective approaches to study the technological acceptance of such devices by older adults.…”