ICCHP 2008: Computers Helping People with Special Needs pp 18-21 | Cite as
Introduction to the Special Thematic Session: Human–Computer Interaction and Usability for Elderly (HCI4AGING)
Abstract
Industrialized countries are faced with severe demographical and social changes. Consequently, areas including Ambient Assisted Living are of increasing importance. The vision is to provide technologies for supporting (elderly) people in their daily lives, allowing them to stay longer within their own home aiming at living independent and self-determined. User Interfaces in such systems are mostly multimodal, because standard interfaces have limited accessibility. Multimodal user interfaces combine various input and output modalities (including seeing/vision, hearing/audition, haptic/tactile, taste/gustation, smell/olfaction etc) which are classical research areas in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability Engineering (UE). One of the advantages of multiple modalities is increased usability: the weaknesses of one modality are offset by the strengths of another. For example, on a mobile device with a small visual interface and keypad, a word may be quite difficult to read/type, however very easy to say/listen. Such interfaces, in combination with mobile technologies, can have tremendous implications for accessibility and can be a benefit for people. An important issue is that interfaces must be accessible, useful and usable. Traditionally, HCI bridges Psychology/Pedagogy and Informatics, while UE is anchored in software technology. Together, HCI&UE provide the emerging potential to assist the daily workflows in the realm of AAL. This special thematic session is devoted to promote a closer collaboration between Psychologists, Pedagogues and Computer Scientists.
Keywords
Human–Computer Interaction Usability Engineering User Interfaces Older AdultsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
- 1.Kleinberger, T., Becker, M., Ras, E., Holzinger, A., Müller, P.: Ambient Intelligence in Assisted Living: Enable Elderly People to Handle Future Interfaces. In: Stephanidis, C. (ed.) UAHCI 2007 (Part II). LNCS, vol. 4555, pp. 103–112. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 2.Emiliani, P.L., Stephanidis, C.: Universal access to ambient intelligence environ-ments: Opportunities and challenges for people with disabilities. IBM Systems Journal 44(3), 605–619 (2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 3.Mukasa, K.S., Holzinger, A., Karshmer, A.I.: Intelligent User Interfaces for Ambi-ent Assisted Living, Fraunhofer IRB 121 (2008)Google Scholar
- 4.Holzinger, A., Searle, G., Nischelwitzer, A.: On some Aspects of Improving Mobile Applications for the Elderly. In: Stephanidis, C. (ed.) Coping with Diversity in Universal Access, Research and Development Methods in Universal Access. LNCS, vol. 4554, pp. 923–932. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 5.Norman, D.A., Draper, S.: User Centered System Design. Erlbaum, Hillsdale (1986)Google Scholar
- 6.Holzinger, A.: Usability Engineering for Software Developers. Communications of the ACM 48(1), 71–74 (2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 7.Thimbleby, H., Thimbleby, W.: Internalist and Externalist HCI HCI 2007. British Computer Society (2007)Google Scholar
- 8.Thimbleby, H.: Press on: Principles onf Interaction Programming. MIT Press, Cam-bridge (2007)Google Scholar
- 9.Thimbleby, H.: User-Centered Methods Are Insufficient for Safety Critical Systems. In: Holzinger, A. (ed.) USAB 2007. LNCS, vol. 4799, pp. 1–20. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 10.Carroll, J.M.: Human-computer interaction: psychology as a science of design. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 46(4), 501–522 (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar