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World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies

WorldCIST'19 2019: New Knowledge in Information Systems and Technologies pp 706–715Cite as

Usability Evaluation of a Virtual Assistive Companion

Part of the Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing book series (AISC,volume 931)

Abstract

As a result of the great technological advances in the last decades, new solutions are emerging to avoid social isolation and to delay the institutionalization of older adults, as is the case of virtual assistants. This paper presents the usability evaluation of a Virtual Assistive Companion (VAC), the CaMeLi. The usability evaluation was based on a multi-method approach that comprises self-reported usability, usability reported by an evaluator and critical incidents registration. The usability tests were performed with 46 participants with an average age of 64 years. The results showed a good usability and satisfaction level, although usability reported by evaluators and critical incidents registration suggest that some functionalities need to be improved in order to facilitate the VAC interaction and understandability.

Keywords

  • Usability evaluation
  • Usability testing
  • Virtual Assistive Companion
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Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.

Notes

  1. 1.

    https://perso.telecom-paristech.fr/~pelachau/Greta/.

  2. 2.

    http://www.virtask.nl/wordpress/en/.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the GrowMeUp project, funded by the European Commission within the H2020-PHC-2014, (Grant Agreement: 643647) and by the DAPAS project co-funded by the European AAL Joint Programme (Active and Assisted Living — ICT for ageing well, Call 2017) and by FCT (Portuguese Funding Authority) - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P. (AAL/0005/2017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cáritas Diocesana de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Ana Luísa Jegundo, Carina Dantas, João Dutra & Ana Leonor Almeida

  2. Instituto Pedro Nunes, Coimbra, Portugal

    João Quintas

  3. Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Hilma Caravau, Ana Filipa Rosa, Ana Isabel Martins, Alexandra Queirós & Nelson Pacheco Rocha

Authors
  1. Ana Luísa Jegundo
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  2. Carina Dantas
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  3. João Quintas
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  4. João Dutra
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  5. Ana Leonor Almeida
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  6. Hilma Caravau
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  7. Ana Filipa Rosa
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  8. Ana Isabel Martins
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  9. Alexandra Queirós
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  10. Nelson Pacheco Rocha
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ana Luísa Jegundo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Engenharia Informática, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Álvaro Rocha

  2. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Prof. Hojjat Adeli

  3. Faculdade de Engenharia/LIACC, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Luís Paulo Reis

  4. DIMES, Università della Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy

    Sandra Costanzo

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Jegundo, A.L. et al. (2019). Usability Evaluation of a Virtual Assistive Companion. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Reis, L., Costanzo, S. (eds) New Knowledge in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST'19 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 931. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16184-2_67

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