Abstract
The development of Active Assisted Living (AAL) technologies requires a clear understanding of the distinct needs and challenges faced by senior citizens. Yet, these relevant insights are often missing, which makes the application of User-Centered Design (UCD) approaches an even more important factor significantly influencing the success of these envisioned solutions. The goal of the work presented in this paper was therefore to identify UCD approaches commonly used with AAL projects, and to evaluate their compatibility with the elderly target group. A mixed-methods approach composed of an online survey targeted at European AAL Projects, and a guided interview study with experts, revealed that AAL projects often apply techniques which are popular and well-known in the design and development community, but not specific to UCD. Furthermore, we found that many UCD techniques are unknown, even to experts, or simply too complicated to be used with elderly users.
Keywords
- User-Centered Design
- Active Assisted Living
- Design techniques
- Elderly users
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Barth, S., Weichelt, R., Schlögl, S., Piazolo, F. (2020). UCD in AAL: Status Quo and Perceived Fit. In: Stephanidis, C., Antona, M., Gao, Q., Zhou, J. (eds) HCI International 2020 – Late Breaking Papers: Universal Access and Inclusive Design. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12426. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60149-2_35
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