Combining Motivating Strategies with Design Concepts for Mobile Apps to Increase Usability for the Elderly and Alzheimer Patients

Christian Eichhorn, David A. Plecher, Martin Lurz, Nadja Leipold, Markus Böhm, Helmut Krcmar, Angela Ott, Dorothee Volkert, Atsushi Hiyama, Gudrun Klinker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

This work focuses on design concepts, including the goal to motivate interaction with mobile applications for the target group elderly people and with an extended set of guidelines for Alzheimer patients. At the outset, understanding the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease is necessary when focusing on usability issues during interaction with touchscreen-based devices. Improving health via the use of mobile devices is a game changer in many areas. However, an urgent need exists for a fitting theory-based approach, which is missing in many applications, to facilitate the countering of threats such as diseases, age-related decline and situational factors. When assessing various projects, only focusing on how to utilize mobile devices to improve the life quality of the elderly is not adequate. An even more critical aspect is how to motivate them to actually use mobile devices, which is inevitable. Therefore, based on our guidance required in the development process, it must include intrinsic and extrinsic motivational strategies to target different user types for mobile applications. With that in mind, we review design strategies when developing for the elderly. Additionally, we offer useful recommendations to form a set of Design Guidelines that are structured to address the three major categories of age-related decline: Cognitive, Perceptual and Motor Abilities. We conclude with an innovative view on application development by introducing Enabling Applications, which focus on elderly people, Alzheimer patients and their caregivers alike.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHuman Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Healthy and Active Aging - 6th International Conference, ITAP 2020, Held as Part of the 22nd HCI International Conference, HCII 2020, Proceedings
EditorsQin Gao, Jia Zhou
PublisherSpringer
Pages47-66
Number of pages20
ISBN (Print)9783030502485
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020
Event6th International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population, ITAP 2020, held as part of the 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2020 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 19 Jul 202024 Jul 2020

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12208 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference6th International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population, ITAP 2020, held as part of the 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2020
Country/TerritoryDenmark
CityCopenhagen
Period19/07/2024/07/20

Keywords

  • Aging Society
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Design
  • Elderly
  • Gamification
  • Gerontechnology
  • Guidelines
  • HCI
  • Motivation
  • Nursing Home
  • Serious Games

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