Category: Usability research

COLABORATE participates in focus group

Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS led PortoPilot, a project which included conducting focus groups with seniors to identify their daily needs that can be tackled with digital solutions. Also, part of this study was the execution of a pilot with identified technologies to empower senior citizens and promote their well-being.

In this scope, Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS held a focus group to understand the interests of seniors and their attitudes towards technology. Our team of researchers distributed smartphones and taught them how to use some technologies, such as Whatsapp, games, YouTube and whatever they asked to learn. 10 seniors from the COLABORAR network took part of the pilot.

Our team conducted these focus groups to assess user needs, select solutions, set up the required technologies and provide support during the pilot study.

The goal was to collect and analyze data regarding seniors’ experience in using these technologies. PortoPilot ended in December of 2023.

COLABORAR network helps create technology for people with dementia

Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS recently launched another project: AUTONONOUS. This is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can be integrated into existing technologies, such as smartwatches, to help people with dementia carry out day-to-day activities and prolong independent living at home.

The project involves co-design activities and usability testing of the technology. Once again, the Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS volunteer network – COLABORAR – will be key in this regard. Throughout the AUTONOMOUS project and the development of the proposed solutions, there will be continuous close working between the researchers and people with dementia and their carers, be they family members, technicians or assistants from the institutions.

This solution, proposed by Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University and LUCA School of Arts, was selected as one of the semi-finalist winners of the Longitude Prize for Dementia.

Each of the 24 semi-finalists receives £80k grants as part of the overall £4m Longitude Prize on Dementia, driving the co-creation of personalised technologies to help people living with dementia enjoy independent and fulfilled lives. The Longitude Prize on Dementia is funded by Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK and delivered by Challenge Works.

Why technology research needs a network of users

A network of users is a group of people who have agreed to participate regularly in user studies. This enables researchers to have access to users who are representative of a target group of technology in development. User recruitment turns out much quicker and easier for researchers. Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS has its own network of users. Some practice Tai Chi, others prefer to play cards, some have the latest news, others remain faithful to the traditional cell phone, some take care of their grandchildren and the house and those who never miss an opportunity to travel. It is this diversity that makes our user network so special. We get different perspectives that we incorporate to create truly meaningful technology for people.

Informed consent in research

Those who participate in our activities already know. It is the moment when we inform the participants about the activity, explaining what it consists of (a questionnaire, a usability test, an interview), what is the objective and purpose, and framing it in the project in which it is inserted. Thus, participants have information about the activity and can freely decide whether they want to participate. We explain and respond to doubts or questions and provide a paper document, which they sign, and the person responsible for the project also signs.

Usability tests: 3 reasons to participate

Usability tests are crucial in the process of development of applications for mobile devices or of a website. For participants, there are benefits, too. We list tour top three benefits for participants.

  • 1 – Be the first to try new technology

Participating in usability tests allows you to discover applications and websites before their availability to the public. This is so much fun!

  • 2 – Express your opinion

We all like to get heard. In a usability test, researchers ask you to tell what aspects in the app please you and the aspects that annoy you. You can be sure researchers are truly interested in knowing what you think. This is because they can fix the issues you encounter while using the app or navigating the website, so that it has more quality when it is released to the public.

  • 3 – Be part of technological innovation

Your feedback helps shape the technology of the future. You will find it very rewarding in improving solutions in the field of well-being, health, security, agriculture, retail, energy, quality of life in old age and technology for communities.

To become a user tester, you can simply register here. When a study is available, we will invite you by phone or email.

Laboratory data collection

The COTIDIANA project intends to develop a mobile solution that allows the collection of data from people with rheumatic diseases. In line with this goal, a team from FhP-AICOS has recently been conducting some interviews and usability tests with Rheumatic patients (some of them from the COLABORAR network).

The aim is to understand the context of the disease and its limitations for the patients. Also, with the usability tests the goal is to gather feedback from the users, helping researchers to implement a more efficient and accurate solution. The volunteers were from ADARSOL day center.

AnathemaServices: design research to deal with taboo topics

Developing his master’s thesis – AnathemaService – at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, Diogo Coutinho is exploring design research methods to deal with taboo topics such as sexuality. In this sense, and in order to prepare the market entry of the Anathema app, three workshops were organized with 11 participants. These sessions aim to help understand what people value in a product, becoming a valuable tool in defining the customer journey. In each session, participants (volunteers from the COLABORAR network) were asked to perform various tasks, allowing to understand the most valued services and features.

“To tackle the problem of stigma, designers need to work directly with the stigmatizing topics that affect users, which is difficult as some of the methodologies used are inappropriate. AnathemaService aims to contribute to fill this gap by giving new strategies to deal with stigma in design research activities”, explains Diogo Coutinho.

COLABORAR network is back…and with a new codesign space!

After more than two years of social distance, the COLABORAR network is back!

As a way of resuming usability tests, in person, a session was held at the new FhP- AICOS’ co-creation space. This space is now used for usability tests with end users, as it happened recently within the scope of the Anathema project.

In a session held with 4 users (2 couples), one of the project’s partners, SexLab, moderated the first part, a focus group with seniors on important issues of intimate and sexual life in old age.

In the second part, FhP-AICOS moderated a co-design workshop in which seniors gave their feedback both on illustrations that could be used in the application and on quotations from the texts that were created for the program.

The first of many sessions to be held!

Anathema is a European project for the promotion of sexual health, coordinated by the research center Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS (FhP-AICOS) which aims to develop a digital platform and a mobile application as a way to implement programs of promotion of sexual health, according to a plan outlined in conjunction with psychologists and therapists. The Anathema project focuses on monitoring sexuality in adults over 55 and with chronic diseases.

Guidelines for longitudinal studies

In 2019, our HCD team, with extensive experience in longitudinal studies, published the article entitled “Challenges and Lessons Learned from Implementing Longitudinal Studies for Self-care Technology Assessment”. Now, and based on that article, our experts have prepared a summary, with some tips and advice on how to conduct a longitudinal study.

Please, click here to access the document.

Three tips to better manage a living lab

Actively and continuously engaging users is essential to drive a living lab that supports research projects. When a project identifies the need for users, whether it is to conduct user research or usability tests of innovative health and well-being mobile apps, COLABORAR should promptly provide users. Often we recruit the same user multiple times, if he/she fits in the inclusion criteria. Our statistics show that each participant have participated in 2.7 activities in average since the project started in November 2011. This implies that we are able to maintain the users in the network and it is one of the biggest challenges of managing a living lab.Throughout the last 8 years we tried and enhanced some strategies. Here are some of the lessons that have helped us being able to maintain volunteers “actives”, that is, willing to be invited to take part in research.

1 – Show appreciation of the importance of their contribution to research

2 – Maintain contact

3 – Building trust

We are pretty sure these tips will help you to successfully manage a living lab.