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UTOPIA NEWS
Summer 2003
UTOPIA Newsletter 4
The UTOPIA newsletter is produced by the UTOPIA consortium, a group of Scottish
universities working towards the design of usable technology for older people.
If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please contact us.
Overview
In this issue we would like to share with you some snapshots of our work.
If you are particularly interested in any of these and would like to find
out more, please contact the author of the relevant article or write to the
address on the back page.
Navigation - Finding your way around
Joy Goodman, 0141 330 3541
As part of UTOPIA, we are interested in how technology can support
and enhance life outside the home. One area of particular interest
is the use of technology to help people to find their way around.
In order to find out more about this, we held a workshop in June on navigation
and travel. Seven older adults attended and took part in discussions on where
and how they travel and ways in which travel directions are given.
In one activity, we showed participants different ways of giving navigation
information, such as photographs, maps and text. The two most popular methods
are pictured above – on the left, a simple close-up map with a sketch of a
landmark and, on the right, an arrow superimposed on a photograph. We also
found that people use a wide range of methods to find their way around.
Therefore, “one size fits all” solutions are unlikely to exist and the ability
to tailor the device for particular users would be especially valuable.
We used the results of this workshop to help us to design a simple navigation aid, one screen from which is shown on the left. We then tested this on the Glasgow University campus, comparing it with the standard map provided by the university. 16 older adults took part and seemed to find the experience enjoyable and interesting. We found that using the device allowed participants to find their way more quickly and with less mistakes, and that almost all participants preferred the device to the map. However, there are still improvements that could be made, and we hope to investigate further aspects of navigation in more detail in the near future.
Video Project
Roos Eisma, 01382 344668
During the summer we did a short video project with two people, Jenny and Bill,
in a residential home in Tayport. We were joined for this by Kirsty Stansfield,
an artist who has worked on a variety of projects, such as “Art in Hospitals”.
The project was held over a number of sessions. In the first one, each of the
participants was given a video camera to collect material about something they
liked. Bill chose to film the birds at the bird house in his garden, and Jenny
made a film of her flowers. In the next two sessions they used a laptop
computer to edit this material. Finally, Audrey talked to both participants
about their experiences.
With this project we wanted to explore a number of questions.
Firstly, we wanted to find out if this type of method can be used to
learn more about older people’s lives and environments, and if and how
this sort of non-verbal information is different from what you get
from talking to people. We also had some questions about the technology:
how easy is it to use the camera and the editing software? Should we develop
alternatives and how should these work?
Everybody involved really enjoyed the project, and we are
planning to follow up on it. We will try to get funding to develop
special software that should make it easier for the participants to
edit video material. We will also do another small scale pilot, probably
in Spring next year.
Mobile Phone Study
Oli Mival, 0131 455 2705
The mobile phone is one of the most widespread pieces of technology today.
In just 10 years, its use in the UK has grown from 1 in 60 people to 3
in every 4. However, surprisingly little research has been carried out
into the use of mobile phones by older people. We intended to change that!
In early August we had a workshop in Dundee, demonstrating various
features of mobile phones and introducing some of the most recent
and future releases. What was particularly interesting was how
enthusiastic all the participants were about learning how to get the most
from their mobile phones and how tricky this was with some of the models
present. We are currently preparing a report of our findings for some of the
major phone manufacturers as to what design flaws can be rectified and what
features should be included. We hope that this will start to make
companies sit up and take notice of the needs of their older users.
Thanks to everyone who took part - it was a very productive day!
Exercise and Technology Workshop
Audrey Syme, 01382 344787
An exercise and technology workshop was held to explore the feasibility of a
home based exercise application for older adults. We invited six
participants to discuss their general exercise activities, to give their
views on our initial ideas for an exercise application and to explore their
own ideas through a design activity. They also had the opportunity to see and
try out a few of the existing exercise related technologies, such as a “dance mat
game”.
Participants told us that exercise should be fun and sociable, that it
can keep you healthy, with physical and psychological benefits, and that
music accompanying exercise is almost always desirable!
We suggested the idea of two people doing the same exercise in different
locations, linked together using a camera, but this was not received positively
as participants preferred to exercise with others. However, they did like
the idea of exercising at home, with a physiotherapist monitoring exercises
(through a camera). It was felt by participants that any type of feedback
from the computer or a physiotherapist was a good idea. For example, the
computer could monitor movements to see if they were being done correctly.
We also suggested a game based exercise activity. This was felt to be a
good idea as it could increase motivation, but participants suggested
that variation in games would be required to avoid habituation and boredom.
Participants also had the opportunity, in two groups, to come up with
some ideas of their own. Both groups suggested exercise applications
that weren’t tied to looking at a computer screen. One group’s suggestion
was an application that could be moved around (for example, into the garden)
and the other suggested a virtual reality helmet, that would make you feel
like you were doing your exercise in a park, for example, rather than
in your living room.
Everyone reported enjoying the workshop, finding it stimulating,
interesting and fun and the part of the workshop which people enjoyed
the most was the demonstration of the technologies!
The comments and ideas we obtained at this workshop have been very useful
in proceeding to the next stage, where we will hold the same type of
workshop on location with housebound or less mobile older adults and
compare our findings.
HelpSweet*
Lachimi Tiwari, 01382 308661
At Abertay we’re interested in developing a platform to allow older users to
obtain ‘Help’ from other people using Instant Messaging technology.
To help us to do this, we held a Communications Technology Workshop in August.
13 older adults attended and discussed communication as well as being taught
how to use MSN Messenger (shown on the left). We found that when older adults
have problems with technology, they usually turn to friends and family,
rather than to help lines because of the high costs and the difficulties
in explaining their problems over the telephone. We also held a second
session in which we examined older users’ preferences and
attitudes towards obtaining help from others over the Internet.
Most participants preferred asking for help from people they knew
even when they were online.
Everybody involved in both sessions really enjoyed himself or herself,
and gave us productive feedback. We used the results
to help us to develop a simple version of MSN Messenger, HelpSweet.
We are currently in the process of carrying out tests to make the
new program usable and enjoyable for older adults.
*Thanks to John Berrecloth for suggesting the name Help Suite.
Cybrarian
Anna Dickinson, 01382 344787
Researchers from the UTOPIA project were employed by the Department for
Education and Skills (DfES) to test an internet system called Cybrarian.
Cybrarian was developed to be easier to use than most other ways of using
the internet: it has a very straight-forward email program and helps people
to search the World Wide Web by guiding them through the process.
We tested Cybrarian for the DfES with the help of 20 people over
the age of 50 and we are very grateful to them for
their help. At this stage it is only an early prototype but many
interesting results came out of the testing and these will improve the
final system. It's great to see that the government is taking the
issue of software complexity seriously!
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