Taking the Tablets Home: Designing Communication Software for Isolated Older People at Home

Designing new technology for older people requires the ability to translate specific requirements from a heterogeneous group of people into a suitable application framework. As the proportion of older people continues to increase worldwide, the authors faced with a number of challenges to enable older people to remain at home and still have a quality of life. Many older people are technophobic, unfamiliar with modern computers or somewhat reticent about learning to use them, so ergonomic design is essential to ensure usability. The dependability model for assistive technology systems developed by Dewsbury et al has been developed as a basis for discussing and analysing home technology systems such as the Tablet software. By considering the needs of participants and directly reflecting them in the design process has led to a more efficient design which is clearly useable by the participants.