Designing Smart Home Technology For Fall Prevention In Older People

Transcript

Falls in older people constitute one of the major challenges in healthcare. It is important to design technologies that can help prevent falls and improve falls management. Smart home technology could be of importance in this context, but the technology has to be user-centred or adapted to be useful in this particular context. This study assessed usability of paper and interactive prototypes of a smart home touch screen panel. The study implemented five scenarios related to fall risk, fall assessment and exercise guidance, designing a smart home interface for independent living in general and fall management in particular. A usability evaluation showed that older people had positive experiences when using the touch screen interface. The study demonstrated the need for user-centred interfaces for older people in the context of falls prevention.