高齡者使用數位化產品之使用性初探研究 —以「智慧藥盒與服藥提醒系統」為例

Abstract

With the population structure change, Taiwan has been gradually shifting from the aging society to an aged society in this decade. Therefore, living needs of the elder population have caught utmost attention from government, industry, as well as academia. To facilitate improvement of elders' living ability and quality of life, technology is often considered as a solution for senior citizens to live an independent, healthy and comfortable life. However, a general lack of experiences of the elders toward technological tools usually results in hesitating about using these new electronic or digital products. This study therefore is sought to develop understandings of what kind of design the genrontechnological products possess would meet the needs and wants of, and be easy of use for the senior citizens. The current study explores the usability of ”Smart Pill Box System”, a digital pill organizer and reminder product, and to understand expectations of senior citizens toward this kind of product. Results of this usability study show that the elder participants confirmed the importance and effectiveness of primary functions of this Smart Pill Box System including Emergency Alert, Medication Reminder and Pillbox Searcher. Although they all learned how to operate this system without problems, they also reported feedbacks for improvement are mainly about the simplification and easiness of user interface design. This usability study lastly concludes by the suggestions for both researches and practices in gerontechnology . Meanwhile, it is hoped that results of this study can be extensively applied especially in digital product design to advance the usability of gerontechnology as well as to improve quality of life of elders.