Section: New Results

Designing an Accessible and Engaging Email Application for Aging in Place

Supporting independent everyday functioning of older adults is a major challenge for aging in place. In particular, communication and social activities need support to prevent social isolation, cognitive and psychosocial well-being decline, and a risk of depression. This paper focuses on how technology can bring social support to isolated older-old adults (over 75 years old) and allow them to communicate with members of their social network. We present the design of an accessible and engaging email application dedicated to this population. We propose design principles based on the older adults' specificities and then use these principles to develop a tablet-based email application. We conducted a field study to evaluate our email application during 9 months. We equipped 13 community-dwelling old-older adults with a touchscreen tablet and our application at their home (compared to 13 control counterparts). This field study validates our design principles as shown by the effectiveness and efficiency gained by the participants in using our application. Moreover, we reveal the influence of health indicators in the usage behaviors and the long-term use of our application.