ABSTRACT

In most developed countries, the population is gradually ageing. Due to this, there is an increasing demand for technologies whose design is specifically oriented towards meeting the needs of the elderly. In this paper, we describe a web-based cognitive training tool for elderly people, called VIRTRAEL, which comprises 18 exercises presented in 13 working sessions. In order to reach a high degree of user acceptance, we have applied a user-centred development methodology and a guide defining a set of design principles and usability guidelines specifically intended for older people. Moreover, a usability questionnaire to assess VIRTRAEL has been especially designed to be completed by this type of users. Both guide and questionnaire can be easily applied in other software developments, and especially in those related to the specific domain of cognitive training for this user group. As a means to objectively measure the usability of VIRTRAEL, an EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) has been conducted on a 32-item questionnaire with 149 subjects. The results confirm that our proposal is usable and highlight some differences between user groups (female versus male users, and those who live alone versus those living with other people) that should be taken into consideration in future developments.

摘要

在大多数发达国家，人口正在逐渐老龄化。因此，对设计专门满足老年人需求的技术的需求不断增加。在本文中，我们描述了一种基于网络的老年人认知训练工具，称为 VIRTRAEL，它包括在 13 个工作会议中提出的 18 个练习。为了获得用户的高度认可，我们采用了以用户为中心的开发方法和指南，该指南定义了一套专门针对老年人的设计原则和可用性指南。此外，还专门设计了一份评估 VIRTRAEL 的可用性问卷，供此类用户完成。指南和问卷都可以轻松应用于其他软件开发，尤其是在与该用户组的特定认知培训领域相关的那些方面。作为客观衡量 VIRTRAEL 可用性的一种手段，EFA（探索性因素分析）对 149 名受试者的 32 项问卷进行了调查。结果证实我们的提议是可用的，并突出了用户组（女性和男性用户，独居和与他人住在一起的用户）之间的一些差异，这些差异应该在未来的发展中加以考虑。