Using MDE to Develop Suitable User Interfaces for Older Adults: A Case Study

Yonatan Pineda Olarte,Ramón Hervás,Sergio F Ochoa,William J Giraldo,Fáber D Giraldo

doi:10.3390/proceedings2191201

Yonatan Pineda Olarte, Ramón Hervás + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2191201

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Abstract

Software applications have been identified as potentially suitable tools to assist older adults in several aspects of their lives, like healthcare, emotional support and personal security. However, developing usable and useful applications for this population represents an important challenge, given that no systematic solutions have been proposed to support such a process. This article hypothesizes that a model-driven engineering (MDE) approach can help generate suitable user interfaces for elderly people, making the development process repeatable and allowing the systematic reuse of design knowledge about products for these end-users. To determine the validity of such hypothesis, the article presents the results of a case study where a healthcare supporting system for older adults, developed by using an MDE approach, was evaluated in four older adult care centers. The results obtained were highly positive, showing MDE as a possible path to address systematically the development of these applications.

Highlights

IntroductionLatin America and the Caribbean have maintained the trend of increased life expectancy by more than 30 years [1]
The number of individuals aged 80 years or over is increasing quickly
Regardless of the effectiveness shown by these applications, researchers and developers identify the design of user interfaces for elderly people as a major challenge, given that most users in this population are digital illiterate or non-native digital users [4,6]

Summary

Introduction

Latin America and the Caribbean have maintained the trend of increased life expectancy by more than 30 years [1] This brings several challenges to healthcare services, because they have to address the needs for physical and mental health of this population. Regardless of the effectiveness shown by these applications, researchers and developers identify the design of user interfaces for elderly people as a major challenge, given that most users in this population are digital illiterate or non-native digital users [4,6] They are usually limited to use regular computer-based solutions, and ad hoc systems should be developed for them to ensure adoption of such technology

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