Background: During the process of decision-making for long-term care, clients are often dependent on informal support and available information about quality ratings of care services. However, clients do not take ratings into account when considering preferred care, and need assistance to understand their preferences. A tool to elicit preferences for long-term care could be beneficial. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative descriptive study is to understand the user requirements and develop a web-based preference elicitation tool for clients in need of longterm care. Methods: We applied a user-centred design in which end-users influence the development of the tool. The included end-users were clients, relatives, and healthcare professionals. Data collection took place between November 2017 and March 2018 by means of meetings with the development team consisting of four users, walkthrough interviews with 21 individual users, video-audio recordings, field notes, and observations during the use of the tool. Data were collected during three phases of iteration: Look and feel, Navigation, and Content. A deductive and inductive content analysis approach was used for data analysis. Results: The layout was considered accessible and easy during the Look and feel phase, and users asked for neutral images. Users found navigation easy, and expressed the need for concise and shorter text blocks. Users reached consensus about the categories of preferences, wished to adjust the content with propositions about well-being, and discussed linguistic difficulties. Conclusion: By incorporating the requirements of end-users, the user-centred design proved to be useful in progressing from the prototype to the finalized tool ‘What matters to me’. This tool may assist the elicitation of client’s preferences in their search for long-term care.
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This paper introduces the design principle of legibility as means to examine the epistemic and ethical conditions of sensing technologies. Emerging sensing technologies create new possibilities regarding what to measure, as well as how to analyze, interpret, and communicate said measurements. In doing so, they create ethical challenges for designers to navigate, specifically how the interpretation and communication of complex data affect moral values such as (user) autonomy. Contemporary sensing technologies require layers of mediation and exposition to render what they sense as intelligible and constructive to the end user, which is a value-laden design act. Legibility is positioned as both an evaluative lens and a design criterion, making it complimentary to existing frameworks such as value sensitive design. To concretize the notion of legibility, and understand how it could be utilized in both evaluative and anticipatory contexts, the case study of a vest embedded with sensors and an accompanying app for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is analyzed.
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Purpose: The purposes of this study were, first, to (re)design the user-interface of the activity tracker known as the MOX with the help of input from elderly individuals living independently and, second, to assess the use of and experiences with the adapted Measure It Super Simple (MISS) activity tracker in daily life. Methods: The double diamond method, which was used to (re)design the user-interface, consists of four phases: discover, define, develop, and deliver. As a departure point, this study used a list of general design requirements that facilitate the development of technology for the elderly. Usage and experiences were assessed through interviews after elderly individuals had used the activity tracker for 2 weeks. Results: In co-creation with thirty-five elderly individuals (65 to 89-years-old) the design, feedback system, and application were further developed into a user-friendly interface: the Measure It Super Simple (MISS) activity. Twenty-eight elderly individuals (65 to 78-years-old) reported that they found the MISS activity easy to use, needed limited help when setting the tracker up, and required limited assistance when using it during their daily lives. Conclusions: This study offers a generic structured methodology and a list of design requirements to adapt the interface of an existing activity tracker consistent with the skills and needs of the elderly. The MISS activity seemed to be successfully (re)designed, like the elderly who participated in this pilot study reported that anyone should be able to use it.
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The vast literature on accountability in the public sector (usually called ‘public accountability’originating from political science and public administration tends to emphasize the positive dimension of holding authorities to account. As formulated by one prominent scholar in the field, ‘[a]ccountability has become an icon for good governance’: it is perceived as ‘a Good Thing, and, so it seems, we can’t have enough of it’ (Bovens, 2005: 182, 183). Accountability has, thus, become one of the central values of democratic rule – varying on a well-known American slogan one could phrase this as ‘no public responsi bility without accountability’.
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Geospatial technologies have the potential to transform the lives of older adults by providing them with necessary tools to navigate their local communities, access services, connect with others, and access valuable information. However, the usability and accessibility of such technologies often fall short of the needs of older adults. Many existing geospatial tools are not designed with the needs and preferences of older adults in mind; this can lead to usability challenges and limit their usage. This paper explores a participatory approach in developing an inclusive geodata-collection tool that is specifically tailored to older users’ needs. The paper also highlights the importance of incorporating user-centered design principles, participatory design methods, and accessibility guidelines throughout the entire geodata-tool-development process. It also emphasizes the need for ongoing user engagement and feedback in order to ensure that the tool remains relevant and usable in the evolving digital landscape. This participatory approach has resulted in a tool that is easy to use and accessible for older adults; it is available in various languages, thus ensuring that the elderly can actively participate in the prototype’s creation and contribute to the collection of the geospatial information that reflects their lived experiences and needs.
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The context of a societal challenge provides insight into the complexity of the (eco-)system surrounding the current problematic situation: the environment, the stakeholders (including nature), the highlights and frustrations, the conflicts and dilemmas, and the opportunities for change. Why is this co-design session arranged? What problematic situation is encountered? Who (individual or group) took the initiative to act? Is there a specific reason to collaboratively start taking up this societal challenge? Does everyone in this session recognise the problematic situation? Why or why not?
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Like the professionals, design students tend to avoid the complexity of the user context, and moral issues are largely overlooked. This inspired us to explore whether we could engage design students in thinking about moral issues by exploring different ethical frameworks in their designing. As a case environment we chose smart-grid product service combinations. In this paper we first discuss the ethical frameworks of four selected philosophers’: Plato, Rousseau, Kant, & Mill. Then we will describe the student design process, the resulting four smart grid service concepts and the user insights that came from a user evaluation. We discuss how this approach allowed the students to get insights in their own ethical stance and how they allowed users to reflect on possible futures. We also discuss how these ‘probing’ concepts were used within the larger smart grid project.
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From the publisher's website: Large groups in society, in particular people with low literacy, lack the necessary proactivity and problem-solving skills to be self-reliant. One omnipresent problem area where these skills are relevant regards filling in forms and questionnaires. These problems could be potentially alleviated by taking advantage of the possibilities of information and communication technology (ICT), for example by offering alternatives to text, interactive self-explaining scales and easily accessible background information on the questionnaires’ rationale. The goal of this paper was to present explorative design guidelines for developing interactive questionnaires for low-literate persons. The guidelines have been derived during a user-centered design process of the Dutch Talking Touch Screen Questionnaire (DTTSQ), an interactive health assessment questionnaire used in physical therapy. The DTTSQ was developed to support patients with low health literacy, meaning they have problems with seeking, understanding and using health information. A decent number of guidelines have been derived and presented according to an existing, comprehensive model. Also, lessons learned were derived from including low-literate persons in the user-centered design process. The guidelines should be made available to ICT developers and, when applied properly, will contribute to the advancement of (health) literacy and empower citizens to fully participate in society
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Abstract In this paper several meaningful audio icons of classic arcade games such as Pong, Donkey Kong, Mario World and Pac-Man are analyzed, using the PRAAT software for speech analysis and musical theory. The analysis results are used to describe how these examples of best practice sound design obtain their meaning in the player's perception. Some aspects can be related to the use of tonal hierarchy (e.g. Donkey Kong and Mario World) which is a western culture related aspect of musical meaning. Other aspects are related to universal expressions of meaning such as the theory of misattribution, prosody, vocalization and cross-modal perceptions such as brightness and the uncanny valley hypothesis. Recent studies in the field of cognitive neuroscience support the universal and meaningful potential of all these aspects. The relationship between language related prosody, vocalization and phonology, and music seems to be an especially successful design principle for universally meaningful music icons in game sound design.
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Large groups in society lack the necessary skills to be sufficiently self-reliant and are in need of personal assistance. These groups could be supported by information and information technology (ICT), but only if this technology is designed to fit their (cognitive) abilities. Inclusive design theory and methods have already been developed in research contexts, but there is still a gap between theory and practice. There is a need for a practical aid, that helps to create awareness of inclusive design among ICT developers, and offers easy-to-use information and tools to actually apply the methods for diverse target groups. This paper describes the first steps taken towards an inclusive design toolbox for developing ICT applications that offer cognitive support for selfreliance. Dutch ICT companies were interviewed and participated in a co-design workshop, leading to a number of initial needs, user requirements, and an on-line community, that form input for further development of the toolbox.
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