Questionnaire: 2nd Draft

Ok guys sorry for the delay but I now have the 2nd draft of the questionnaire with some revisions made to questions 8, 9 & 10 as suggested by you. Let me know what you think.

1. What is you age?

• Less than 65
• 65 - 70
• 71 - 75
• 76 - 80
• 81 - 85
• 86 - 90
• Over 90

2. Which of the following best describes your current living situation?

• Live alone
• Live with partner/spouse
• Live with family
• Live in sheltered accommodation
• Live in a care home

3. How do you consider your independence to be ?

• Very Important/vital
• Quite importnat
• No preference
• Not importnat
• Not at all important

4. On an avergare week, how often do you leave your home?

• Never
• Once a week
• 2-3 times a week
• 4-5 times a week
• Everyday
• More than once a day

5. Which of the following best describes your current family situation?

a)

• No family
• Partner/spouse

b)

• Parent(s)
• Sibling(s) (with or without children/grandchildren)
• 1-2 children (with or without grandchildren)
• 3-4 children (with or without grandchildren)
• 5 or more children (with or without grandchildren)

If you have not ticked anyting in in section b, please skip questions 6-8

6. Where does your family live? (Please tick all that apply)

• Within the same general area (walking distance)
• Within 2 - 10 miles
• Within 11 - 30 miles
• Within 31 - 60 miles
• In the UK
• Outside the UK

7. Which family members live closest to you?

• Parent(s)
• Sibling(s)
• Children

8. Which of the following best describes how often you see your family? (Please tick all that apply)

• Never
• Once a year
• Once every 6 months
• Once every 3 months
• Once a month
• Once a fortnight
• Once a week
• Several times a week
• Everyday

9. Do you worry that if you have an accident at home, you would be unable to get help?

• Yes
• No
• Not sure
• Depends on the situation

10. If there was a device that exisited to help you improve with your day to day life, would you like to have it in your home and use it?

• Yes
• No
• Maybe
• Depnds on the device

If you have ticked no, please ignore the rest of the questions

11. Which of the following functions of a device would help you retain your independence in your own home?

• Personal alarm/panic button
• Automatic lighting systems
• Automatic opening closing curtains
• Shopping home delivery service
• Reminders service for important events
• Fire sensors with automatic appliance shut off
• Fire sensors with sprinkler system
• Gas/carbon monoxide detectors
• Automatic cooker shut off when leaving home

12. Which of the following best describes your mobility in your home?

• I use a walking frame
• I use a walking stick
• I use a whellchair and I am not able to walk
• I walk unaided but not far
• I walk completely unaided

13. If you live in a home with stairs, do you use a stair lift?

• Yes
• No
• Not applicable

14. Are there any other additional suggestions/concerns/comments you would like to contribute?

Meeting summary and notes

Okay, so four of us met with Mike today. I'll just try and summarise what was covered:

• We need to make sure we're covering the formal stuff. This page on the module page seems to cover what we need. Task analysis still needs fleshing out.
• So far, our prototype seems to be fine, but we need to get it finished so we can try it out on our users.
• The video footage, showcasing a couple of scenarios and how the system would respond, seems to be a good idea. Mike also suggested a cognitive walkthrough of the system from the perspective of one of our personas. When it's done, video footage can be placed on youtube and embedded in the blog posts.
  

To-do list for this week

• Andy's still missing a few sets of screens for the prototype. If you haven't got them to him yet, please do so as quickly as possible so we can get the prototype finished!
• Although we have use cases, they need to be construed in a more formal task analysis format. Since I did the use cases, I may as well do that as well.
• Prepare questions to pose to our personas for feedback on the prototype, if we're going to do this in conjunction with the video footage.
• Add 'technical ability' and 'goals' to your personas, if you haven't already.
• With regards to the video footage, I have access to a digital camera that should suffice for the task. I also can get hold of a flat-cap and, if needed, a walking stick :) But we still need to decide which scenarios we're going to play out. Mike suggested focusing on a couple of good ones, and writing out the rest. We can probably derive them straight from the use cases, or the task analysis when I post it up.

Discuss/volunteer for tasks away!

Meeting Tomorrow

In case people haven't seen it yet, we have a meeting at 12.45 tomorrow with Mike in the usual place.

On another note, based on what the lecture was on - do people think our personas are detailed enough? I think they mostly are, but perhaps we all ought to include things like technical ability and goals... This week we need to test our prototype on our personas, so we need to ensure that they are as detailed as possible so we can get into character. I personally think if we have one person pose some questions regarding the prototype, then everyone could answer them in character? (As was suggested in the lecture).

Broadband?

Just a though, we've talked all along about connecting the box up to the phone line for the emergency contacts, but what about the shopping (amongst other things)?

We could connect it all up through the phone line on a broadband connection, my concern with this is that most old people don't have broadband... would we install a broadband connection with the sole purpose of this system?

Questionnaire response - Margaret Hadley

Sorry for the delay! I've also added some comments on a few of the posts since Wednesday - please continue the discussions there :)

1. What is your age?
71 – 75

2. Which of the following best describes your current living situation?
Live with partner/spouse

3. How important do you consider your independence to be?
Quite important

4. On an average week, how often to you leave your home?
Everyday

5. Which of the following best describes your current family situation?
a) Partner/spouse
b) Siblings(s) (with children/grandchildren)
5+ children (with grandchildren)

6. Where does your family live?
Within 2-10 miles (immediate family)

7. Which family members live the closest to you?
Children

8. Which of the following best describes how often you see your family?
Several times a week (NB: Inserted an option here as none of the others were appropriate)

9. Do you worry that if you have an accident at home, you would be unable to get help?
No (manually-written: "Worry my husband might while I'm out")

10. If there was a device that existed to help you improve with your day to day life, would you like to have it in your home and use it?
Yes (manually-written: "depends on many things!")

11. Which of the following functions of a device would help you retain your independence in your own home?
Personal alarm/panic button
Gas/carbon monoxide detectors

12. Which of the following best describes your mobility in your home?
I walk completely unaided

13. If you live in a home with stairs, do you use a stair lift?
No

14. Are there any other additional suggestions/concerns/comments you would like to contribute?
I wouldn't want all wires and such around my house. And I don't like computers. Will there be cameras, as I don't want people able to watch my every move! It's my house! What if I leave the house and the system goes funny while I'm gone and my husband is asleep? Who will fix/stop it?

Questionnaire Response - Arthur Smith

1. What is your age?

76-80


2. Which of the following best describes your current living situation?

Live alone


3. How important do you consider your independence to be?

Quite important


4. On an average week how often do you leave your home?

Everyday


5. Which of the following best describes your current family situation?

Siblings(s) (With or without children/grandchildren)


6. Where does you family live?

Within 2-10 miles
In the UK


7. Which family members live closest to you?

(Left blank)*


8. Which of the following best describes how often you see your family?

Once a month


9. Do you worry that if you have an accident at home, you would be unable to get help?

Yes


10. If there was a device that existed to help you improve with you day to day life, would you like to have it in your home and use it?

Yes


11. Which of the following functions of a device would help you retain your independence in your own home?

Personal alarm/Panic button
Shopping home delivery service
Fire sensors with sprinkler system


12. Which of the following best describes your mobility in your home?

I use a walking stick


13. If you live in a home with stairs, do you use a stair lift?

(left blank)**


14. Are there any other additional suggestions/comments/concerns you would like to contribute?

I would like to know if there is an effective way of communicating with my nieces from long distances.


* Question 7 was left blank as there was no option for nieces.
** Question 13 was left blank because neither answer applied, persona does not live in a house with stairs.

Menu Screen Prototype

Right, I've added my design for the menu screen to our inspiration tray - it's black and white at the moment and I used Verdana as the font as I think thats the more common font on the internet. Any comments on how it could be improved?

Questionnaire response - Walter Crompton

1. What is your age?
76 – 80

2. Which of the following best describes your current living situation?
Live alone

3. How important do you consider your independence to be?
Very important/vital

4. On an average week, how often to you leave your home?
2-3 times a week

5. Which of the following best describes your current family situation?
1-2 children (with or without grandchildren)

6. Where does your family live?
Outside the UK

7. Which family members live the closest to you?
Children

8. Which of the following best describes how often you see your family?
Once a year

9. Do you worry that if you have an accident at home, you would be unable to get help?
No

10. If there was a device that existed to help you improve with your day to day life, would you like to have it in your home and use it?
Yes

11. Which of the following functions of a device would help you retain your independence in your own home?
Automatic lighting systems
Automatic opening/closing curtains
Shopping home delivery service
Reminders service for important events

12. Which of the following best describes your mobility in your home?
I use a walking stick

13. If you live in a home with stairs, do you use a stair lift?
Not applicable (Live in bungalow)

14. Are there any other additional suggestions/concerns/comments you would like to contribute?
Will this intrusive system be able to monitor my every move? How will my privacy be protected?

Installation

Installation is a pretty key idea for the piece of mind of any prospective user, we've already discussed that someone will need to come into the house/flat to set up the system. Before we complete the prototype this needs to be designed and added to the video.

Proposed Phases (Installation Steps):
1) Engineer comes to install the hardware
2) Engineer installs the sensors
3) Engineer installs the T.V. box
4) Engineer configures the system to the house
5) Engineer shows the customer how to use the system

I just thought a bout the stages as they are above, please post any ideas of other phases to be added or removed and also details on possible animations to represent them.

Meetings 21/2/07

Just a quick summary and comments on what we spoke about today (yesterday as I post):

1) I spoke with Russel about the stop motion animation as an idea for our prototype, I got a few pointers about how to go about how to make it a user centered prototype. This was mainly to only show features and aspects that the prospective user will be interested in... He also mentioned about installation of the system and so perhaps a knock together of a few shots showing an idea of that.

2) We've got quite far in the project and for the prototype we really need to have first set firmly the features we want to focus on the system having, this is so we can start to look at them in more detail and essentially design them in more detail. Perhaps we need to divide up the features such that a different person looks at one or two features and posts up any findings be they good or bad, this would allow other members of the group to offer solutions or other comments.

3) Our blog and its purpose... This is quite key, we as a group discuss everything in the meetings, solve it and go away to create it posting the results on the blog. This isn't helpful for people looking to see the process we've been through since it all happens when we meet up. Any ideas on how to make the blog serve the purpose its designed for(while not detracting from our current ability to solve problems), would be welcome.

Questionnaire Response - Lily Greenwood

1. What is your age? 76 - 80

2. Which of the following best describes your current living situation? Live alone

3. How important do you consider your independence to be? Very important/vital

4. On an average week, how often to you leave your home? Everyday

5. Which of the following best describes your current family situation?

* Sibling(s) (with of without chilren/grandchildren)

* 1-2 children (with of without grandchildren)

6. Where does your family live?

* Within 2-10 miles - Grandaughter, Sister

* In the UK - rest of the Family

7. Which family members live the closest to you?

Sister, Grand-daughter

8. Which of the following best decribes how often you see your family?

* Once a month - Son/Daughter in Law

* Once a fortnight - Grand-daughter, Sister

9. Do you worry that if you have an accident at home, you would be unable to get help?

* Yes

10. If there was a device that existed to help you improve with your day to day life, would you like to have it in your home and use it?

* Yes

11. Which of the following functions of a device would help you retain your independence in your own home?

* Personal alarm/panic button

* Automatic lighting systems

* Automatic opening/closing curtains

* Shopping home delivery service

* Fire sensors with automatic appliance shut off

* Fire sensors with sprinkler system

* Gas/carbon monoxide detectors

* Automatic cooker shut off when leaving home

12. Which of the following best describes your mobility in your home?

* I walk completely unaided

13. If you live in a home with stairs, do you use a stair lift?

* No

14. Are there any other additional suggestions/concerns/comments you would like to contribute?

I have a cat, I don't want him to set off any alarms!

Questionnaire Response - Henry Doughton

1. What is your age? 76 - 80
2. Which of the following best describes your current living situation? Live alone
3. How important do you consider your independence to be? Very important/vital
4. On an average week, how often to you leave your home? More than once a day
5. Which of the following best describes your current family situation? 1-2 children (with of without grandchildren)
6. Where does your family live? Within 2-10 miles, In the UK
7. Which family members live the closest to you? Children
8. Which of the following best decribes how often you see your family? Once a week, Once every 6 months (2 Children, 1 local & 1 not)
9. Do you worry that if you have an accident at home, you would be unable to get help? No
10. If there was a device that existed to help you improve with your day to day life, would you like to have it in your home and use it? Yes
11. Which of the following functions of a device would help you retain your independence in your own home? Automatic lighting systems, Fire sensors with automatic appliance shut off, Fire sensors with sprinkler system, Gas/carbon monoxide detectors, Automatic cooker shut off when leaving home
12. Which of the following best describes your mobility in your home? I walk completely unaided
13. If you live in a home with stairs, do you use a stair lift? No
14. Are there any other additional suggestions/concerns/comments you would like to contribiute? I have problems with my back, how can your thing help me?

Meeting 19/02/07

All team members present.

Andy, I'm unable to emailing the photos to your uni account - anywhere else I can try?

Today we discussed the design of our TV interfaces to be accessed via remote. The work has been split so each team member has one screen to design or some other piece of work.

We briefly discussed how shopping would work via the device. We considered the fact that if webservices were used, a single interface could be used for any supermarket. It was also suggested that one chain could make a bid for this service.

Discussing today, it was decided that the 'Reminders' section was probably unnecessary since the elderly are likely to use either a calendar or forget to use the service, which makes it redundant. It was decided that the one feature of that section regarding letting the system know when you leave the house, is probably best installed as a button or switch by the door (like a light switch) that can just be pressed as you leave.

Work to be completed
- Questionnaires to be filled out by Wednesday
- Screen Designs to be completed and emailed to Andy by the end of Wednesday if possible.

Andy - Stop-motion prototype video
Dan - Shopping Screen
Sam - Home Management Screen (Could you include a gas fire option in here?)
Anna - Welcome screen
Koulle - Research and ideas to do with sensors, placement and types required

Have I missed anything?

Icons & Text

OK so heres my thought, If people have bad eyesight how do we make sure they can see what there doing on the screen?

I like the idea of having expressive icons that will allow people to see what they're doing, perhaps with text underneath or just to the side of the icon. The icon being the actual highlighted button pressed on screen.

As an idea for bad eyesight are we going to have a setting for text size?

Questionnaire: 1st Draft

1. What is your age?

• Less than 65
• 65 - 70
• 71 - 75
• 76 - 80
• 81 - 85
• 86 - 90
• Over 90

2. Which of the following best describes your current living situation?

• Live alone
• Live with partner/spouse
• Live with family
• Live in shelter accommdation
• Live in a care home

3. How important do you consider your independence to be?

• Very important/vital
• Quite important
• No preference
• Not important
• Not at all important

4. On an average week, how often to you leave your home?

• Never
• Once a week
• 2-3 times a week
• 4-5 times a week
• Everyday
• More than once a day

5. Which of the following best describes your current family situation? (Please tick all that apply)

a)

• No family
• Partner/spouse

b)

• Parent(s)
• Sibling(s) (with of without chilren/grandchildren)
• 1-2 children (with of without grandchildren)
• 3-4 children (with or without grandchildren)
• 5+ children (with or without grandchildren)

(If you have not ticked anything in section b, please skip questions 6-8)

6. Where does your family live? (Please tick all that apply)

• Within the same genral area (walking distance)
• Within 2-10 miles
• Within 11-30 miles
• Within 31-60 miles
• In the UK
• Outside the UK

7. Which family members live the closest to you?

• Parent(s)
• Sibling(s)
• Children

8. Which of the following best decribes how often you see your family?

• Never
• Once a year
• Once every 6 months
• Once every 3 months
• Once a month
• Once a fortnight
• Once a week
• Everyday

9. Do you worry that if you have an accident at home, you would be unable to get help?

• Yes
• No

10. If there was a device that existed to help you improve with your day to day life, would you like to have it in your home and use it?

• Yes
• No

(If you have ticked no, please ingore the rest of the questions)

11. Which of the following functions of a device would help you retain your independence in your own home? (Please tick all that apply)

• Personal alarm/panic button
• Automatic lighting systems
• Automatic opening/closing curtains
• Shopping home delivery service
• Reminders service for important events
• Fire sensors with automatic appliance shut off
• Fire sensors with sprinkler system
• Gas/carbon monoxide detectors
• Automatic cooker shut off when leaving home

12. Which of the following best describes your mobility in your home?

• I use a walking frame
• I use a walking stick
• I use a wheelchair and I am not able to walk
• I walk unaided but not far
• I walk completely unaided

13. If you live in a home with stairs, do you use a stair lift?

• Yes
• No

14. Are there any other additional suggestions/concerns/comments you would like to contribiute?

NB: This is only a draft version of the questionnaire and only features the content. The finalised questionnaire for distribution will be a word processing document.

A few suggestions about organisation

I was looking at the blog today and was just thinking of ways I think would make it better organised:

Meeting minutes - I think it would be useful if the date and time of each meeting is included. Also maybe include who was present at each meeting.

Labels - I think every post should have an appropriate label so they are sorted out into categories. The labels I think we should have so far are:

• Meeting minutes - I think this one is obvious.
• Ideas/Suggestions - For random ideas and suggestions throughout the project (this post has this label).

And also have labels for each stage (each week) of the project such as:

• Brainstorm
• Analysis (Problem definition, user needs analysis, task analysis, Personas)
• Marketing (Interviews, questionnaires etc.)
• Prototyping

Images - There should be a link to the flickr account of our images in the "related links section". Also I think it would be a good idea if some of the images where actually posted on the blog, for example the pictures we had of our brainstroming session should be put on the brainstorming post.

Tell me what you all think.

Use cases/scenarios

Brainstorming, mostly. The task decomposition really helps you think about how the system will handle particular events. I've tackled a few of the key cases that kept cropping up throughout our discussions of possible features:

Use Case 1: Achieve assistance following an accident at home
Actor: User
Goal: Easy access to help which should arrive in a timely manner

1. User has accident

• 1a. User is incapacitated
• 1a1. Motion sensors detect no movement in home. Additional conditions: home is not empty, sufficient time has passed
  

2. Personal alarm activated

• 2a. User presses alarm button on remote control. OR
• 2b. Motion sensors trigger alarm after additional conditions met.
  

3. Appropriate help contacted

• 3a. User's family paged/called.
• 3b. Emergency services contacted.
  

Use Case 2: User requires shopping
Actor: User
Goal: Acquire shopping

1. User becomes aware of a need for more supplies.
2. User decides what is needed.
3. User takes action to acquire shopping.

• 3a. User leaves home to shop manually. OR
• 3b. User orders through system.
• 3b1. User selects store and items through Web/TV interface.
• 3b2. User confirms order.
  

4. Shopping received.

• 4a. User returns home with shopping. OR
• 4b. Shopping is delivered to user's home.
  

Use Case 3: User leaves lights/equipment on
Actor: User
Goal: Enforce safety/energy efficiency of home.

1. User leaves the home/an area of the home without disabling equipment.

• 1a. Lights left on. AND/OR
• 1b. Fire left on. AND/OR
• 1c. Appliances left on.

2. Sufficient time passes without user intervention.
3. Equipment automatically shut off.

• 3a. Lights switched off. AND/OR
• 3b. Fire switched off. AND/OR
• 3c. Appliances shut off.
  

Use Case 4: User requires an event reminder
Actor: User
Goal: Avoid missing important events.

1. User becomes aware of an upcoming event/need.
2. User logs required reminder with system.

• 2a. User records a message themselves. OR
  
• 2b. User selects a preset message.
  

3. At appropriate time, reminder is launched.

• 3a. Audio message played? OR
  
• 3b. Textual message displayed on screen?
  

Use Case 5: Environmental emergency within home
Actor: System
Goal: Remove threat/contact help/ensure safety

1. Sensors detect an environmental emergency.

• 1a. Smoke alarm detects fire. OR
  
• 1b. Carbon monoxide sensors detect emissions.

2. Emergency services contacted.

• 2a. Message sent to fire service. OR
  
• 2b. Ha, who gets contacted in the event of carbon monoxide emissions? :O Fire service also? Ambulance seems a bit pre-emptive.

3. Any appropriate local actions taken.

• 3a. User alerted.
• 3a1. Audio message played/warning sound.

These may be useful for testing 'events' out on our prototype. Any input welcome!

Sample Questions for Questionnaire

1. Age:

• <65
• 65 – 70
• 71 - 75
• 76 – 80
• 81 – 85
• 86 – 90
• > 90
  

2. Which of these most closely matches your current living situation?

· Live alone
· Live with partner/spouse
· Live with family
· Live in sheltered accommodation
· Live in a care home

3. How important do you consider your independence to be?

• Very Important/Vital
• Important
• No preference
• Not Important
• Not at all Important
  

4. In an average week, how often do you leave your home?

• Never
• Once a week
• 2-3 times a week
• 4-5 times a week
• Every day
• More than once a day
  

5. Which of the following best describes your current family situation?

• No family (Skip Question 6)
• Spouse/Partner (Skip Question 6)
• 1+ Siblings (with or without children/grandchildren)
• 1-2 Children (with or without grandchildren)
• 3-4 Children (with or without grandchildren)
• 5+ Children (with or without grandchildren)
  

6. Which of these best describes how often you see your family (on average)?

• Never
• Once a year
• Once every six months
• Once every three months
• Once a month
• Once a fortnight
• Once a week
• Every day
  

7. Which of these devices do you think would help you to retain your independence in your own home? (Tick all that apply)

□ Personal alarm/Panic Button
□ Automatic lighting systems
□ Automatic curtains closing
□ Shopping home delivery service
□ Reminders service for important events
□ Fire sensors with automatic appliance shut off
□ Fire sensors with sprinkler system
□ Gas/Carbon Monoxide Sensors
□ Automatic oven shut off when you leave the house

8. Which of the following best describes your mobility in your own home? (Tick all that apply)

□ I use a Walking Frame
□ I use a Walking Stick
□ I use a Wheelchair
□ I walk unaided but not far
□ I walk completely unaided

9. If you live in a home with stairs, do you use a stair lift?

· Yes
· No

10. Do you worry that if you were to have an accident, you would be unable to get help?

• Yes
• No

NB: Have to phrase questions so as not to scare people!

Test House

Just a thought to go along with all the other random ideas:

A Test House, I was thinking of throwing together some rough plans for a house. At the moment probably just a rough blueprint and possible furniture layout. This may give us something to work with in the designing and prototyping of the project.

Let me know what you think.

Work Splitting

As yet, we don't have a meeting Wednesday but I think we should meet up anyway to prototype and finish off last weeks work.

As a reminder, we've split up the work we've got to do in the following categories:

Interviews (Video, Questions) - Andy and Anna
Questionnaires - Koulle and Dan

Sam, I put you down to do some background research and define key use cases, but you can join one of the other groups if you want to. We may need someone else to interview in character!

Something to Consider

I've just had this thought. I'll elaborate further when I'm not about to go off into Uni!

If we have this technical home help system, what happens if there is a power cut? Will our system to be resilient against failure? We don't want all the alarms being set off when the power comes back on. Will the system have a memory system it can reload settings from? Will it have some sort of backup power supply?

We need to keep all these in consideration or the system might have fatal flaws!

EDIT:

So we discussed this in today's meeting, I'll summarise briefly!

How to deal with the Power Cut:
We considered the possibility of having a backup generator or something but decided that this was far too much overkill to run something that is essentially a sort of home security system. We decided batteries were unrealistic too as this is high-maintenance, requiring the users to buy batteries regularly. As a solution to this problem, we thought that some sort of residual capacity battery would work - as mains power goes off, this battery kicks in and lasts for about an hour or so - which would hopefully provide enough time for the power to go back on.

Preventing Alarms from Going Off:
We need an automatic method of reloading the settings so that a system reset does not occur and set all of the alarms off in one go. A delay in activating any alarms systems was suggested, leaving a period of perhaps 10 minutes for any settings to be reloaded and then turning on each alarm system one by one with a delay in each so that there isn't alarm overkill all at once. (Priority base the order)

Other Issues Raised:

• How much power will this system use? Elderly people have more heating and electric allowance in winter but we want it to be cheap to maintain so that it doesn't eat up loads of power.
  

• It was suggested that if the box (or however this device is contained) has one plug and all the sensors link to it either via wires or wireless, then space is saved by using one plug only. This is also a safety issue, saving any accidents from tripping on stray wires.
  

Thinking About Questionnaires

Just some notes from the last lecture, apologies for not getting this up sooner. Further notes in the required reading are available on the module webpage. (Linked to the right).

Steps for Questionnaires:
1. What is the Questionnaire about? Define your goals.
2. Determine your Sampling Group.
3. Write it.
4. Give it.
5. Interpret Results.

I've been thinking about these and will bring some of my ideas to our meeting today. Since we will find it difficult to find elderly people to give this questionnaire to, we will have to complete them in character as our personas. Thus, out sampling group is rather small, but it is focussed at the elderly - in our previous meeting we suggested >75.
As far as I can see, our goals for this questionnaire are to discover what features the elderly would want in a piece of technology that will allow them to keep their independence for longer. Any comments?

PERSONA: Walter Crompton

Name: Walter Crompton

Age: 76

Family: Walter married at age of 20 to Norma Abbot, resulting in just a single daughter, Joan. Now 51, Joan lives abroad in Canada and is therefore only able to visit Walter occasionally, although they keep in regular telephone contact. Walter has three grandchildren, all of whom were born and live in Canada.

Unfortunately, Walter’s wife died 8 years and he never re-married. Norma was responsible for most of the household duties such as cooking and cleaning, as a result Walter has been finding it difficult to adjust. He now lives alone and currently resides in a small 2 bedroom bungalow in the town of Bewdley, Worcestershire.

His daughter, Joan, would ideally like to see Walter placed in an elderly care home so she can be assured of his wellbeing, but he stubbornly refuses.

Mobility/Health: Limited mobility after undergoing hip-replacement surgery 6 years ago and now requires a walking stick to move around. Consequently, he finds it difficult to travel long distances and gets quickly out of breath. Hearing and eye-sight are respectable for a man of his age, although he requires glasses for reading and watching TV.

Hobbies: Walter is a keen trivia fan, being a member of a local pub quiz team for a number of years. He often likes to remind his fellow team members that he was a contestant on the 1988 TV quiz final of ’15 to 1’ (although he selectively forgets to mention he was knocked out in the first round).

Likes: Independence, TV Trivia shows, football and gambling.

Dislikes: Being told what to do.

Behaviour patterns: Walter is a proud and stubborn man who dislikes being considered a ‘charity case’. He is likely to become uncooperative and deliberately obstructive if people try force any sort of control on his life.

He is a man of limited patience and will often become frustrated when faced with new challenges.

Average Day in the Life: Having been in retirement now for a number of years, Walter’s day to day life generally revolves around his three favourite activities, TV, football and the pub.

He has no strict routine and on a typical day he will wake between 7 and 9 am. After his normal breakfast of marmite on toast and a pot of tea, he likes to settle in front of the TV where his schedule is dictated by the radio times. Lunch will generally consist of a quick sandwich.

In the afternoon he will often go to the bookies to have a quick flutter on the horses, before heading to his local pub where he will spend the evening.

The highlights of the week are generally Tuesday evenings where he participates in his local pub team quiz. Saturday afternoons are normally spent at his beloved Kidderminster Harriers where he has only missed a handful of games in the last 30 years.

Back story: Walter was born on the 23rd April 1930. He comes from a traditional working class background where money was always tight and he had very little in the way of luxuries. He left school at 15 to go to work in a local factory, employed as an engineer to look after the machinery. He was eventually promoted to foremen and remained there all his working life until being made redundant in 1990.

Although he has no immediate family who live in the area, having lived in Worcestershire all his life, he has built up a close group of friends who he has become increasingly dependent on in his later years.

One of My favorite words...

Ergonomics

Ok this isn't going to be be ranting on about absolutely nothing and wasting your time, this is actually quite important. Having spent a number of years dodging blocks of wood thrown around in D.T classes I did manage to pick up one or two useful design tips. Ergonomics is basically the study of making something that is comfortable to use but in the same way practical for the task required. I think this particularly important in the way we design something.

PERSONA - Henry Doughton

Name: Henry Doughton

Age: 78

Family: Two Sons (David, Edward) - David lives locally but is often away on business and his wife (Alice) tries to check in at least once a week to make sure there isn't anything that needs sorting. Edward lives 3 hours away (by car) and is often unable to visit because of the scale of the journey required.

Mobility/Health Problems: He suffers from poor eyesight, which he has had for years and is of little consequence to him. Secondly he suffers from some joint pains but nothing too serious, this is added to the a small hearing problem brought about by what can only be described as the ravages of time.

Hobbies: He is still very active and likes nothing more than spending long periods of time in the pub with his friends talking about anything that happens to be in the news. This providing that there isn't any form of sport that he considers watching on.

Likes: Sport, Drinking, Talking and not having to get up every morning to go to work.

Dislikes: Help, Being Lazy (He would never admit that he himself might be termed as lazy), Things that make him feel old

Behavior Patterns: He is a very stubborn individual who believes he can do everything for himself and doesn't need any help. He has a heart of gold and does lots for his family (providing they don't suggest a better way to do it)

Average Day in the Life: Now no longer tied down to a 9 – 5 routine Henry tends to wake up around 9 and generally gets up shortly afterwards. Having showered, shaved and got dressed he takes a walk to the shop to pick himself up a copy of the Telegraph and goes back home to make his breakfast and read the paper. This keeps him entertained until lunch where he makes himself a sandwich and eats it in front of the T.V. After lunch he goes down to the pub (called The Fox and Hounds) where he meets up with all the other locals and winds away the afternoon talking to them and watching the T.V. After all the excitement in the pub he often stops off on the way home to get himself a nice piece of cod and chips, which he eats before going to bed.

Back Story: Henry is a retired clerk who worked at a publishing company, previously he was in the army and spent a few years after the war stationed in Berlin and West Germany. Having recently lost his wife (Sarah) to a long period of suffering from cancer he has found that he has a lot more free time on his hands because he isn't having to care for his wife or take her to the hospital. Through the loss he has been surrounded by his family and friends but as they try to move on with their lives he has found himself increasingly lonely.

Technical Skills and Abilities: Henry retired before the real onset of computers and as such isn't computer literate in any way. He can use a T.V., microwave and a standard house phone without any troubles.

PERSONA: Arthur Smith

Name: Arthur Smith

Age: 77

Family: Single, never married and never had any children. Arthur lives in a one-bedroom flat in North London. He had an older brother, Jeffrey who died several years ago. He has two nieces, Sarah (19) and Ashley (26), daughters of his brother Jeffrey. Sarah has just started her first year at University in Leeds studying a degree in English Literature and Ashley lives in North London and works as an IT consultant which often demands long working hours on a daily basis. Sarah and Ashley visit Arthur as often as possible but it is becoming increasingly difficult.

Mobility/Health Problems: Has a bad foot so needs to use a walking stick, some slight hearing problems, wears glasses for reading, sensitive skin.

Hobbies: Chess, draughts, backgammon and various other strategy games. Reading newspapers and novels. Writing fictional stories.

Likes: Politics, telling stories about his life experiences, keeping healthy, visiting his nieces.

Dislikes: The UK government.

Behaviour Patterns: Arthur is a member of his local chess club were he regularly attends to play chess with his fellow members. The chess club also regularly travels to take part in various tournaments around the country including the prestigious UK Chess Challenge where Arthur won the 1996 championship. Arthur rarely travels to tournaments now due to his bad foot. He also coaches young members of the chess club.

Day to Day Life: Arthur does not have a strict routine that he sticks to on a daily basis as he is generally quite relaxed about these sort of things but there are certain things that he insists on doing as part of his daily routine. Arthur usually gets up at around 7am and has a bowl of fruit salad for breakfast at 8am whilst reading the daily newspaper. He then does his daily shopping at 9am.

Arthur has his lunch at midday which usually consists of a sandwich and a cup of tea. Afterwards he usually goes for a walk in the park as part of his daily exercise, on days where the weather is good, he will sit on a bench and admire the scenery. Arthur visits his brother's grave to pay his respects and give his love. Arthur insists that he goes to his local chess club a least twice a week, mainly to coach junior members. Arthur attends the chess club at 3pm and stays their for a couple of hours.

Arthur has his dinner at 6pm. For the rest of the day, Arthur occupies himself by doing various activities such as reading novels, watching TV and having his nieces come and visit him. Arthur showers and goes to bed at 9pm.

Back Story: Arthur was born in April 1929 in North London and has lived their all his live. He lived in a house with his Father, his Mother and his brother Jeffrey. Arthur was a bright boy but never enjoyed school and so at the age of 16, he served in the Army for most of his life before retiring and settling back in his home city now living a happy and relaxing life.

Technical skills, knowledge and abilities: Having served in the army most of his life, Arthur has a vast amount of experience with various kinds of technology including weaponry, logistical support, communications, medical and industrial all of which played a big part in the military. As a result, Arthur has a lot of appreciation of technology even though he has limited experience and knowledge of modern technology, he is always willing to learn more about them and their benefits. Arthur can operate TVs, DVD players, digital cameras and the like. Arthur can also use the basic functions of a personal computer thanks to the help of his two nieces such as typing a letter and surfing the internet though knows next to nothing when it comes to the technical side of a computer such as set-up, installation, configuration or technical problems where he has to rely on his nieces to deal with such issues.

Goals

Arthur has a few goals in life that are very valuable to him:

• To live as long as possible
• To live a happy life
• To have the best relationship possible with his nieces
• To coach youngsters into chess champions

Stuff!

I lose at useful titles.

Anyway, I was thinking about Russell's "inspiration tray" idea thingy, and decided to try an experiment. How about an online one? I've made a Photobucket account for the team - I don't know whether we'll use it at all, or how useful it will be, but it only took 5 minutes to set up so I'll email the access details out, and if anyone needs any help uploading to it, just ask.

Link to the album

To get it started, I've added some relevant images to it. Russell suggested random stuff is also added to inspiration trays, but it's harder to be deliberately random than you'd expect! If nothing else, it might be a good place to throw design-related imagery around to get the creative juices flowing. Could we get it added to the side bar of useful links, maybe?

I really liked the 'novelty motion detector'. It made me think how we could possibly integrate the system into the decor of the home, to make the user feel less like they're surrounded by advanced technology.

On another note, I also came across this website while I was googling: http://www.svsmarthomes.com/

It's an existing system, but its function is more to digitise all the common functions of a home into one centre, and it's targeted more at modern families than old people specifically. Nonetheless, it has some useful images of the interface and such that might trigger ideas, and also give us a better overview of actual, existing technology for the kind of thing we want to design.

PERSONA: Margaret Hadley

Name: Margaret Hadley

Age: 75

Picture: Image

Family: Margaret lives with her husband David in a small council house in the Black Country, where they have lived for 45 years. They have been married for 54 years and have a large family, with five middle-aged children and plenty of grandchildren. Both husband and wife also have a sister and brother respectively, though neither live in the same area. In general, they receive many family visits and Margaret also enjoys going out to visit her sister, children and grandchildren in kind.

Mobility/Health Problems: Margaret is generally in great condition for her age, despite both herself and David being quite heavy smokers. She is out and about most days and active about the house if not; her husband is less mobile, with severe arthritis in his hands and circulatory problems from the smoking in his legs. His excursions outside of the house are far less regular and frequent than Margaret's and he can't travel far without help.

Hobbies: As an active and independent lady, Margaret enjoys dancing, spending time with her family, and relaxing in her garden, where she likes to feed the blue tits and sparrows. Her youngest son, Tony, helps her maintain the garden now that David can no longer do it.

Likes/Dislikes: She likes smoking, dancing, her garden, family visits, cooking good old fashioned substantial British food, and generally enjoying her retirement. Her independence is very important to her; she hates charity, financial or otherwise, and never accepts it, often becoming irate if pushed to take it.

Behaviour Patterns: Margaret is out most days of the week. She regularly takes the bus to visit her daughters, in particular, for a cup of tea and a chat, her sister and her grandchildren. On Fridays she goes to a local dancing session with her friends. Sundays are usually her busiest, as she cooks a full traditional Sunday roast for any family member who might be in need of one, as well as herself and her husband, and often has a full house on that day. She does all the housework herself, having been a traditional housewife since being married.

Average Day in the Life: Margaret always follows the idea of ‘early to bed, early to rise’, and enjoys getting the most out of her day. She typically will wake up anytime between 6am and 7.30am. Cooking hot, substantial meals for herself and her husband is a standard in their household, so their breakfast rarely involves cereal or other mundane foods; often it involves bacon or sausage, and may even be a full English breakfast.

Now retired, David spends most of his time enjoying the peace and quiet at home. Margaret often and spontaneously goes shopping for fresh veg and quality meat or fish for the substantial number of full, cooked dinners she enjoys producing for both herself, her husband, and any family members who might visit. Margaret’s daytime activities vary, but other than this she often walks or takes the bus to visit her children and grandchildren. Fridays are reserved for a regular dancing session at the old community hall with her long-time friends. Every Sunday, she cooks a traditional Sunday roast for any family member (within reason!) who might be in need or want of one.

Margaret is held in high esteem by her family members, many of whom live very close, so she is regularly visited and often has a “full house”. However, come evening, she wrestles control of the TV from her husband, switches away from the horse-racing and sports, and sits down to a quiet evening when everyone is gone. It is unusual if either she or David are in bed any later than 10pm.

Back Story: Margaret married at 19. As a traditional working-class Brummy, her focus on family and life as a housewife have been perpetuated throughout her life, while her husband was the standard bread-winner. Now that David has retired, he is generally housebound, but Margaret still takes pride in keeping her house spick and span and enjoying her family's company.

Goals: She enjoys her independence, and would like very much to keep it. Although she has a large family with many of them willing to help her out, she hates the thought of relying on them – Margaret can often be very stubborn and very proud about such things, and will never do things like borrow money or accept charity; for example, one son-in-law fetches the newspapers for her on a Sunday when she’s cooking the Sunday dinner, but she will always insist on paying him for it. Her husband, suffering more in his old age and certainly dependent on both her and any help in general, is becoming more housebound and requires more care than she fears she may be able to give on her own.

Computer Skill, Knowledge and Abilities: Margaret managed to figure out the DVD player she received one Christmas to be able to watch her similarly gifted Catherine Cookson collection on it. Although she will complain all the way and is easily frustrated if she can’t work it out, given the right incentive, she will persist at learning new technology. Similarly, she understands and can manipulate the basic functionality of a mobile phone – she has one for emergency use.

I added the 'technology' aspects in because they seemed relevant to the system design. Perhaps we should add it to the template?

PERSONA: Lily Greenwood

Name: Lily Greenwood

Age: 79 (Born in January 1928)

Family: Widowed and lives alone in a small one bedroom-ed flat with her pet cat Whisky in Birmingham. She has one son Jack, who lives in London with his wife Mary. They have three children: Jennifer (25) , Mark (22) and Kate (20). Jack works for a big company and has to travel abroad for his job quite a lot. Mary is a teacher at a secondary school. Mark and Kate are at University in Liverpool and Birmingham respectively, Jennifer is working in Manchester. Jack and Mary try to visit once a month. Kate is quite close so tries to visit once every two weeks.

Mobility/Health Problems: Wears glasses, has a bad back so she can't bend down. Slight arthritis in her fingers.

Hobbies: Baking, Knitting, Bingo, Helping other people.

Likes: Her independence, going for walks, visiting her grandchildren.

Dislikes: Rainy weather and rudeness.

Behaviour Patterns: She is a member of a local WI, and regularly attends meetings and fundraisers. She always has a cake for visitors. She goes to church on Sundays, and collects her pension on Tuesdays.

Day to Day Life: Lily has quite a set routine, which only varies slightly each day. She wakes at 6 o’clock, and feeds the cat, making herself breakfast afterwards. At 8 o’clock, she goes for a walk to the park. On her way home, she will occasionally stop on the High Street to do her shopping.

Lunch is at 12, accompanied by tea and a slice of cake afterwards. Her afternoons are filled either with going out to attend WI meetings or events, or she will spend the afternoon at home, baking, reading or watching the afternoon matinee film on television. She has a particular love of black and white musicals.

She eats her dinner at 5pm on the dot, and watches a bit more television in the evenings. Her son tends to ring her at 7, after which she goes to bed and read before getting sleep.

Back Story:
Lily was born Lily Potter in London, and was evacuated when she was 11 to a village outside Birmingham with her elder sister Mary. After the war, their mother moved out to join them. Lily met John Greenwood when she was 21 working at a small accounting firm as a secretary. He worked in a big factory. They were married when Lily was 23 in 1951. When she was 25, they had a son whom they named Jack. John tragically died when she was 30 in an accident at the factory. She never remarried but returned to work at the same job until she was 60 in order to support herself and her son.

Technical Expertise
Lily has worked as a secretary for many years, so she has good typing skills. Being an independent woman means she is willing to learn how to do things for herself. She is a dab hand at programming the video! Her granddaughter Kate has taught her how to use the computer for basic tasks such as email and typing but she does not possess one of her own.

Goals
Lily's goals in life are few but simple:

• To continue to live independently in her own home
• To see her grandchildren married
• To help people in the community, specifically single mothers, in ways where she had to do things for herself.
  

I've edited it a bit from earlier to flesh out the family a bit. What do you think? I can always make her younger and the family younger?

Team Meeting

All team members present.

So today we met up and discussed how we were progressing with our personas. In order to have a similar template to work with, we decided that the following categories would be used when writing about them:

• Name
• Age
• Family - Detail needed here so we can perhaps get into their heads as well?
• Mobility/Health Problems
• Hobbies
• Likes/Dislikes
• Behaviour Patterns
• Average Day in the Life
• Back Story
• Goals?
  

We had a discussion about the personas so far. At the moment, we will have 5, though we thought that this may need to be cut down later if we need too. However, a bonus of having slightly more enables us to compromise better on features, and find an average that will suit many people.
We discussed how we would pitch this product to our personas and thought that there might be a need to pitch it to their families first and then have a seperate, reassuring pitch for the elderly themselves. Due to this, we need to know a bit about their close family so that we could think how to sell it to them.
As a last point we discussed what other features might be useful. Sam came up with the idea that an automatic door sensor that alerts the user when they try to leave the house to any appliances that are still on or opened windows. It was noted that this could be triggered any time the door is open, so we would need to consider this carefully. Another suggestion was that we could have an automatic switch that after a length of time (longer than that the appliance was required for) would turn off appliances as a safety feature.

TO DO:
Finish off and post personas.

Problem Definition

One of the main problems we would like to address with our project is that of the loss of independence many elderly users suffer when they are no longer able, or considered able, to live safely on their own.

This is a problem which affects many old people. Care homes are a potential solution, but involve

• removing an elderly user from their home
• 24 hour intrusive care
• a reliance upon careworkers, with all the interpersonal issues that may bring e.g. an elderly person doesn't like their careworker, or is highly embarrassed at having to need one at all
• possible restrictions upon an elderly person's activities and essentially a restriction of their freedoms
• a general loss of independence, which may indirectly lead to other problems including self-esteem and anxiety issues
  

Initial Analysis of the Extent of this Problem

"Siegfried was 41 when she decided to move to a nursing home. "But the nursing home was like hell. I hope I die anywhere but there," she said.

It took her two years and eight months to work her way back out of the nursing home, but Siegfried persisted. She moved out initially with a roommate who also wanted to live independently."
[link]

Although Siegfried's need for assistance with her lifestyle stemmed from a disability, many elderly users are faced with similar decisions, or even worse, under pressure from families who are unable or unwilling to provide the care they need and encourage the move to a care home.

Elderly people often value their independence. Whether or not they recognise their own difficulties with living independently, moving to a nursing home is still often a decision that is made grudgingly, and "research has shown that moving vulnerable old people shortens their lives" [link]. They elderly may also be struggling on in their own homes purely because there are no available care homes they can go to; news of mass nursing home closures due to lack of funds and staff have been known to surface in the news. Stories, both inflated and unexaggerated, of care home abuse also decrease the level of trust a family or elderly person is likely to have in nursing homes in general.

The elderly already face problems such as depression where they feel isolated or lonely. Some evidence suggests that living at home can also lead to feelings of isolation. There are social drives to resolve this, such as getting the elderly involved in community activities, but in the meantime, elderly users still face difficulties if they want to live in their own homes.

Barriers to Independence

Linking into the previous post on the constraints of the target audience, a number of things form a barrier to an elderly person's independence.

• Mobility - users who struggle to get around, for whatever reason, may have trouble attaining the resources they need to live on their own. Things such as shopping are routine for most people, but elderly users may find this a struggle. A number of reputable supermarkets now offer home delivery services etc., which highlights the need for a solution to this problem. Similarly, a lack of mobility may prevent elderly people from leaving their home to visit friends, family or their favourite places.
• Vision - being unable to see clearly would have quite an effect on living in your own home. Imagine being unable to read bills or other important letters and documents that came to your home, instructions on packaging or in manuals for devices etc. It may also increase the risk of an accident, as the user will be less aware of their immediate surroundings and any risks therein.
• Hearing - problems with hearing may reduce the chance of a user hearing a fire alarm, for example, thus putting them at risk. Or they may miss a knock at the door or phone call, quite harmless indirectly, but potentially causing difficulties and confusion.
• Memory - as discussed, this is not necessarily an issue for all elderly users. But if it is, the impact can be quite big. Forgetting important household tasks, phone numbers, dates, or bill paying deadlines etc. could cause difficulties with living alone unaided, and leaving the gas or fire on is potentially dangerous.
  
• Learning new things - again, not necessarily an issue. But living alone combined with other elderly constraint factors may increase the difficulty an elderly user has with, for example, setting up their tv, fixing their video, taping their favourite programs, or working household appliances. These are essentials to independence, and if not manageable alone, may require assistance from relatives etc.
• Motor skills - reduced flexibility and coordination may make otherwise simple tasks, like using a TV remote, quite difficult.
• Living conditions - a user who has no family, or at least any family willing to help out now and again, might find living alone a struggle. Studies suggest that feelings of isolation also encourage illnesses such as depression in elderly people.

In our ideas thus far, we've decided we would really like to tackle some areas that limit an elderly person's independence in their own home, to improve their quality of life. When we construct our personas, we will hopefully issue some questionnaires to them to see how many of these theoretical problems are valid, and possibly prioritise them.

Target Audience notes

Just summarising what we've looked at in terms of target audience in our meetings and discussions so far. The brainstorm we made when we discussed this can be found here.

Target Audience

Age group: Our focus is on the elderly, approximately 65+, and primarily those who still live in their own accommodation. This potentially defines the problem area we wish to tackle, due to the lifestyle constraints an elderly person may have to endure.

It is important not to stereotype elderly people, as sources like this suggest, but even if constraints are not as widespread or severe in all elderly users as stereotypes like to suggest, there are certainly a number that may affect elderly users and, if relieved or helped in some way, could greatly improve their quality of life.

Typical constraints:
This was a really useful resource for looking into our target demographic. Some of the information and stats below I've drawn directly from it.

• "Not as fit as I used to be" - the general wear and tear of old age can make activities a younger user might find easy unfairly taxing.
• Lack of mobility - joint ailments and other health issues may limit an elderly user's mobility. Some users may simply become tired or out of breath quickly, while others might have hip problems etc. that mean walking even short distances is a pain.
• Vision - degeneration of eyesight may cause difficulties for many users. "Vision is the most common physiological change associated with longevity. While eyeglasses and corrective surgery can help correct nearsightedness and cataracts, others are faced with irreversible deterioration of their eyesight." The most common difficulties seem to be those such as reduced fields of vision, being unable to focus on near tasks (presbyopia), and trouble distinguishing between particular colours and light.
  
• Hearing - elderly users may experience reduced hearing sensitivity. Again, the scale of intensity will vary, but some sources estimate as many as a third of elderly users (in America) may suffer with hearing difficulty. That's a fairly large portion of the user group.
• Memory - the notion that elderly users are very likely to have poor memory is partly grounded in folk wisdom. There is, however, potential for memory loss in a gradual decline as a person ages, particularly the short term. It can be more prominent in elderly users due to factors such as stress, easily-triggered fatigue and other concerns reducing concentration, as well as more obvious causes such as Alzheimer's Disease. This links to the equal part folk myth that . . .
• Learning new things - is difficult for elderly people. Or is it? And if elderly users show an aversion to getting to grips with new concepts or skills, is it necessarily due to a genuine inability? Elderly users may be most comfortable with concepts they're already familiar with, or be genuinely intimidated by what might appear at first glance to be complicated new methods and technologies. The previous link also suggests that low self-esteem and lack of confidence, due in part to these entrenched perceptions of elderly people as being stubborn and technophobic, might deter them from trying to learn anything new. Therefore, while I think it's important to be aware that memory loss does occur in elderly users, it's not always as extreme as it's made out to be, particularly in terms of preventing them from learning anything new.
• Motor skills - may be reduced by conditions such as arthritis, or a general reduction in the accuracy of hand-eye coordination etc. This has the potential to severely affect interaction with whatever system or design we eventually produce.
  
• Living conditions - inevitably as we grow older, our friends and family do too, to the extent that many might no longer be with us when we reach a particular age. Remaining family will often be younger, and although each case is different for each user, this may impact on their quality of life. Elderly users living alone may be quite isolated and have limited contact with family, friends or other social groups. Others may still be quite surrounded by relatives and close friends. It's important that we recognise the range of potential scenarios so as to include as many user subgroups as possible.