Design Aspects for Elderly Using a Health Smart Home

Abstract

The part of the population above 70 years is increasing\nrapidly. This will put an immense pressure on the eldercare,\nwith scarce resources to accommodate for such a\ndemographic situation. Therefore the importance of\nenabling the elderly to live in their own home as long as\npossible is crucial. The health smart home area is able to\nfacilitate such living. While developers still believe in the\npotential of such technology, the level of adoption among\nthe elderly is low. This study focuses on discussing some\ndesign implications that is of importance for systems\naddressing this social group. In order to achieve this, five\nqualitative interviews was conducted with elderly between\nthe ages of 70 and 85. The elderly was asked questions\nwithin three main aspects of a health smart home: social\nrobots, health and security. A number of quality attributes\nwere identified in the study and all of them fall under the\ntwo major categories, acceptability (Usability,\nAffordability) and trustworthiness (Safety, Security,\nReliability, Privacy). The insight from the study may serve\nas a basis for further discussions of design implications for\nthe health smart home area.