Safety navigation for Senior Citizens
A smart phone based navigation system with easy-to-use interface to be used by senior citizens and their relatives.
The number of elderly is increasing in the future. However, there is still a deficiency of technological innovations to support everyday life of the aged, which would allow them to live more independently at home. People with memory disorders are especially vulnerable and need a lot of attention from care providers to cope with activities of daily living. Previously developed applications have mostly been focused on health and activity surveillance. Their user interfaces have been hard to use for the elderly themselves and thus require support from other people.
The main goal of this study was to develop a smart phone based navigation system with easy-to-use interface to be used by senior citizen and their relatives. This system can be used remotely to ease and support the lives of elderly people with memory disorders.
Key actors
Role of design
The applicability of the designed navigation system was first evaluated using Value Creation in Smart Living Environment for Senior Citizen (VESC) constructive project design workshops (vesc.oulu.fi). This multidisciplinary group used living lab approach, where technology was designed and evaluated by and in co-operation with the end-users. Smart living environment technology was developed by taking into account aspects of human-computer interaction, communication, products and services as well as human interaction. In this study we focused on testing the designed navigation system prototype with scenario-based video with actors. In the video an actor (end-user) tested the navigation system prototype alone and with the help of personnel and family. The pros and cons of the produced video was analyzed using quality function deployment method (Akao et al., 1990.)
CONTACT (of the editor)
Mikaël Mangyoku – Organization: Cité du design – Email: mikael.mangyoku@citedudesign.com
