Using Digital Technology to Design a Simple Interactive System for Nostalgic Gaming to Promote the Health of Slightly Disabled Elderly People.

An interactive digital gaming system with simple tangible interfaces is proposed for use by slightly disabled elderly people to promote their health and enjoyment of playful aging. The system simulates a rice threshing machine with nostalgic and entertaining functions expected to bring better life quality to older adults. Initially, pieces of literature were reviewed to derive relevant design principles. A prototype system was constructed accordingly and refined according to the invited older users' comments. The refined system was performed subsequently by slightly disabled elderly people, followed by a questionnaire survey conducted to collect their opinions. The opinion data were analyzed statistically by SPSS and AMOS to be reliable and valid. In addition, interviews were conducted with the users and experts were invited to collect comments on the system's usability, which were then evaluated to reveal several findings about the system's effectiveness: (1) digital products related to life experiences are more acceptable to slightly disabled elderly people, promoting their willingness to play games to achieve active aging; (2) simple system interfaces requiring no complicated limb functions are appropriate for the slightly disabled elderly people; and (3) digital gaming has the effects of training slightly disabled elderly peoples' cognitive and motor abilities as well as strengthening their body and mind.

Transitioning to Remote User-Centered Design Activities in the Emergency Medical Field During a Pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to transition our user-centered research and design activities in the emergency medical domain of trauma resuscitation from in-person settings to online environments. This transition required that we replicate the in-person interactions remotely while maintaining the critical social connection and the exchange of ideas with medical providers. In this paper, we describe how we designed and conducted four user-centered design activities from our homes: participatory design workshops, near-live simulation sessions, usability evaluation sessions, and interviews and design walkthroughs. We discuss the differences we observed in our interactions with participants in remote sessions, as well as the differences in the interactions among the research team members. From this experience, we draw several lessons and outline the best practices for remotely conducting user-centered design activities that have been traditionally held in person.