Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the following questions. First, what are the experiences of family caregivers in caring for community-dwelling stroke survivors? Second, what services help or do not help the caregivers in managing their caregiving role? Design/methodology/approach -A qualitative study was conducted with a total of six focus group interviews with 29 stroke caregivers selected using convenience sampling in a local community centre. All interviews were recorded and transcribed for content analysis. Findings -The results pointed to three main themes working together to facilitate desirable outcomes in caregiving and prevent elder abuse: factors contributing to caregiver stress and factors that have a buffering effect on caregiver stress and unmet needs identified from caregivers' experiences.Research limitations/implications -The authors found that there were a number of factors contributing to caregiver stress. The findings matched with the concept that caregiver stress should not be considered as the primary cause of elder abuse. Findings provided information for further research to investigate positive coping and adjustment for stroke survivors, caregivers and their families. Practical implications -Policy makers and service providers may consider specific policies and tailor-made services to enhance the effectiveness of current practice. The themes emerging from the study could be further reviewed in a longitudinal way to explore the cost-effectiveness, the outcomes and trajectory of interventional programmes. Social implications -Education would be essential to let the public understand caregivers' difficulties and needs. Prevention of elder abuse may be approached with a range of risk factors for both perpetrating and being elder abuse victim. Originality/value -From the findings of the study, the authors found that there were service gaps within policy and interventions. Concrete suggestions for improving the public's attitude and public facilities/ transport for the disabled were captured in the study. In addition to personal resilience, caregivers had a strong wish for a supportive environment and services that would facilitate a better caregiving outcome.

According to usability experts, the top user issue for Web sites is difficult navigation. We have been developing automated usability tools for several years, and here we describe a prototype service called InfoScent™ Bloodhound Simulator, a push-button navigation analysis system, which automatically analyzes the information cues on a Web site to produce a usability report. We further build upon previous algorithms to create a method called Information Scent Absorption Rate, which measures the navigability of a site by computing the probability of users reaching the desired destinations on the site. Lastly, we present a user study involving 244 subjects over 1385 user sessions that show how Bloodhound correlates with real users surfing for information on four Web sites. The hope is that, by using a simulation of user surfing behavior, we can reduce the need for human labor during usability testing, thus dramatically lower testing costs, and ultimately improving user experience. The Bloodhound Project is unique in that we apply a concrete HCI theory directly to a real-world problem. The lack of empirically validated HCI theoretical model has plagued the development of our field, and this is a step toward that direction.

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