Eldercare SmartHome

A smart home service design for eldercare

August 2018 - August 2019, 1 year UX project (Master Thesis)

Eldercare | IoT | Smart Home | Service Design | Virtual Reality

Summary

Smart Home seems to be a solution for population aging. However, we don't know the elderly's thought of smart home and technology. To understand their attitude toward IoT technology, I built a smart home simulation with virtual reality to let the elderly experience future service in the smart home.

The primary purpose of the research is to understand the elderly's acceptance of the IoT and smart home technology. Besides, as we used virtual reality to be a novel testing tool for older adults, we want to evaluate whether VR can be a possible solution for experiencing service in the future.

My Role

As a UX researcher/designer/engineer in this project, I cooperate with NTU iNsight UX team and participated in all the process.


    Main Tasks
  • Investigated the elderly's needs with Empathy Map and Journey Map
  • Formulated a reasonable scenario in a smart home for simulation
  • Engineered a Virtual Reality(VR) smart home
  • Recruited and Interviewed 10 older adults with Focus Group and Participatory Design methods
  • Pioneered in the development of VR for elderly testing
  • Produced a research report with the insight of the IoT future in the eldercare field

    • Method

      Preliminary research
  • Empathy Map
  • Journey Map
      • Ideation
  • Service Blueprint
      • Prototype
  • Sketch Up
  • Vritual Reality with Unity
      • User research
  • Participatory Design
  • Focus Group Interview
  • KANO analysis

    • Teammates

    NTU iNsight UX Team

    Chuin-Shan Chen (Instructor)

    Chia-Yi Chen (Instructor)

    Debbie Chen (UX Researcher / Engineer)

    Deliverable Results

    UX Research Report

    VR Smart Home Simulation

    Challenge

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 11 million , or 28% of people aged 65 and older, lived alone at the time of the census. Lots of research indicated that senior isolation increases the risk of accidental death.

    At the same time, smart home seems to be a appropriate solution to solve this problem. However, will the elderly accept it?

    Solution

    To tackle these challenges, we decided to use VR Smart Home Service Simulation for the elderly due to its unique immersive experience.

    Project Process

    ×
    Project Process

    Preliminary Research

    End User Interview

    We had conversations with solitary elderlies.

  • We heard falls in the elderly is a severe issue that needs to be solved when living alone.
  • We learned most of the falls occur during the night time bathroom trips.
  • We learned how they thought and felt when they faced their fall experience.
  • We realized what is their pain and gain toward the fall issue.
    • Empathy Map
    ×
    Empathy Map
    Journey Map
    ×
    Journey Map

    Preliminary Research

    Expert Interview

    Interviewed with experts, we got lots of professional knowledge from smart home technology and interior design for the elderly.

  • We learned major six categories of assisted smart home technology for seniors.
  • We learned how to design a user-centered technology environment for seniors with the detail of technology installation and ergonomics.
    • Smart Home Technology
    Interior Design for Technology

    Ideation

    Service Design and Scenario

    Combined with all the insights and knowledge we got from preliminary research, we constructed a smart home service that can prevent the elderly from fall when they go to the bathroom during the night.

  • First, we found out what technology can deal with users' pain points. We decided to use voice assistant, smart lighting system, smart mat, water leak sensor, and emergency notification system for the service.
  • Second, we created a reasonable scenario for seniors to experience.
  • To illustrate all the detail of the service, we use Service Blueprint to document the four main parts(Elderly Action, Interaction, Internal Interaction, and Implementation) of the service.
    • Scenario
    ×
    Scenario
    Technology can solve pain point
    ×
    Technology can solve pain point
    Service Blueprint
    ×
    Service Blueprint

    Prototype

    Smart Home Modeling and VR environment Building

    Smart Home Modeling
    VR Environment Building
    1 / 5
    Correspondence between virtual and real environment
    2 / 5
    Smart Lighting System in bedroom and bathroom
    3 / 5
    Detection zone for voice assistant(bathroom entrance, toilet, bed)
    4 / 5
    Smart Mat
    5 / 5
    Emergency notification system detection zones

    Qualitive User Research

    Recruit

    To recruit appropriate interviewees, we set some criteria to filter the users.


      Criteria
  • The age need to be 50 or above.
  • They should not have the VR experience before.

    • We recruited 3 groups with 10 seniors in the end.

    Process

    Step 1

    Focus group interview with the topic of fall experience sharing

    Step 2

    Experiencing the VR scenario

    Step 3

    Focus group interview and participatory design with the topic of the smart home service they experienced before

    Result

    The elderly viewpoint toward smart home service

    Focus Group Interview Result

  • The vast majority of users believe this service is excellent, and the overall experience process is complete for them to understand every detail.
  • They thought this service could definitely reduce the chance of falling and solve the fear of falling.
  • However, not everyone thinks this service is necessary.

    • KANO Analysis

    In terms of KANO Analysis, we can split our service into 9 features. Although all 9 features turned out to be Attractive Features , there are still some insights in there.

  • We can see that users think the voice assistant for waking up and going to sleep, smart lighting system, and emergency notification are the most attractive features for them to use.
  • The second attractive features are the guidance with Smart Mat and the voice assistant for water leak alert.
  • The last priority is the voice assistant for waiting for a while to avoid dizzy before standing up. Users seem to have no patience to pause and think it might be unnecessary.

    • Key Insights

    Gender Difference

    Interestingly, we found that women are more open-minded with the help of new technology, but men are more think that technology help is unnecessary.

    Emergency alert make them relief

    All users appreciate the combination with the emergency notification system and smart mat, which can reduce injuries and notice their trusted family or friends immediately.

    Tolerance of Voice Assistant

    We used lots of voice assistant to notice seniors. However, some people thought it could be annoyed. How to design moderate notification is another topic, or we can use some music as an alternative.

    The elderly viewpoint toward VR as a testing or communication tool

    Focus Group Interview Result

    Surprisingly, all users are interested in using VR to test and think it is the most real testing tool to use right now.

    Although there are still some hardware obstacles we need to face and improve, like the headset is too heavy to wear, and the scene will move and hard to align with the real object.

    However, after having a conversation with seniors, we can assume that VR can be a potential solution for us to use in the future.

    Key Insights

    Communication

    With the complete service detail and dynamic adjustment, users think VR can be an excellent communication tool for smart home service design.

    Intuitive

    To design an application for seniors, we always need to keep in mind that it should be intuitive and simple to prevent them from mistakes and frustration.

    Hardware decision

    Although some obstacles can't be solved right now, we can choose wireless, light, and thin devices to make them feel more comfortable.

    Project Reflection

    Overview

    After I finished my master defense, my professor all gave me positive feedback and thought this is a novel idea, which can be an innovative solution to introduce new product, espacially toward the elderly.

    My professor thought maybe I can also consider about the AR for another solution, it may solve the VR hardware problem.

    While they also suggested that I can make a smart home service design package in Unity, which can improve the pace for product introduction and facilitate designers to build the 3D environment and interaction.

    Next step and future consideration:

    1. Inclusive Design: In the process, some participants mentioned that the current service designed for the healthy elderly. Still, we should consider the needs of the elderly who are invisible or inaudible. More careful and comprehensive, such as using text narration, vibration and light reminders, etc., can be regarded as ways to replace the voice.

    2. Repair process design: The most distinctive feature of smart technology is the need to connect to the network and electricity. Therefore, many users also asked whether there will be a notification if the machine fails in the future. Otherwise, if they rely too much on technology, if devices are broken or have no electricity, seniors will be anxious about whether there will be any accidents, so the countermeasures for technological failures also need to be planned in the future.s

    3. Considering age and degree of physical degradation: Some users suggested that it should be more detailed to analyze each age group's physiological degradation and give different intelligent technology auxiliary services. They think that the demand for smart technology will decrease with age. Because smart technology may not solve the problems faced by the older generation but from many interior design improvements, such as installing armrests or removing dangerous places with sharp corners.