Participatory design of a social TV application for senior citizens - the iNeighbour TV project

Abstract

In this paper, we present the on-going work of the iNeighbour TV research project that aims to promote health care and social interaction among senior citizens, their relatives and caregivers. The TV set was the device chosen to mediate all the action, since it is a friendly device and one with which the elderly are used to interact. A study, conducted among the project’s target audience (TA), using a participatory design approach is addressed in the paper. Its purpose was to better characterize this type of users; identify relevant features; and evaluate usability and user interface requirements targeted to television (in an IPTV infrastructure). The analysis of the study results, which ensured the revision of the project’s features, is also presented along with a comprehensive description of the validated features. Some of these include: automatic user recognition system, medication reminder, monitoring system (of deviations from daily patterns), caregiver support, events planning, audio calls and a set of tools to promote community service.