User Requirements Analysis of an Embodied Conversational Agent for Coaching Older Adults to Choose Active and Healthy Ageing Behaviors during the Transition to Retirement: A Cross-National User Centered Design Study

Santini, Sara; Stara, Vera; Galassi, Flavia; Merizzi, Alessandra; Schneider, Cornelia; Schwammer, Sabine; Stolte, Elske; Kropf, Johannes

doi:10.3390/ijerph18189681

Cited by 16 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Similarly, Santini et al [ 29 ] examined user requirements for a Virtual Coach (VC) system to motivate senior citizens to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Data was collected from older workers aged 55 years and above through two-wave cross-national focus groups in Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding User Requirements for a Senior-Friendly Mobile Health Application

et al. 2022

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The advancement of mobile technologies has motivated countries around the world to aim for smarter health management to support senior citizens. However, the use of mobile health applications (mHealth apps) among senior citizens appears to be low. Thus, drawing upon user expectations, the present study examined user requirements for a senior-friendly mHealth application. A total of 74 senior citizens were interviewed to explore the difficulties they encounter when using existing mobile apps. This study followed Nielsen’s usability model to identify user requirements from five aspects, namely learnability, efficiency, memorability, error, and satisfaction. Based on the results, a guideline was proposed pertaining to usability and health management features. This guideline offers suggestions for mHealth app issues related to phrasing, menus, simplicity, error messages, icons and buttons, navigation, and layout, among others. The study also found that speech recognition technology can help seniors access information quickly. The proposed guideline and findings offer valuable input for software and app developers in building more engaging and senior-friendly mHealth apps.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding User Requirements for a Senior-Friendly Mobile Health Application

et al. 2022

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“…A few conversational assistant PA coaches, including chatbots and avatars, were evaluated, and overall, they assisted with increasing PA [13,16,21,23,24,27,55,63]. Most of them involved exergames with the avatar.…”

Section: Physical Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Conversational Agents and Avatars for Cardiometabolic Risk Factors and Lifestyle-Related Behaviors: Scoping Review

Lyzwinski¹,

Menon²,

Elgendi³

2023

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background In recent years, there has been a rise in the use of conversational agents for lifestyle medicine, in particular for weight-related behaviors and cardiometabolic risk factors. Little is known about the effectiveness and acceptability of and engagement with conversational and virtual agents as well as the applicability of these agents for metabolic syndrome risk factors such as an unhealthy dietary intake, physical inactivity, diabetes, and hypertension. Objective This review aimed to get a greater understanding of the virtual agents that have been developed for cardiometabolic risk factors and to review their effectiveness. Methods A systematic review of PubMed and MEDLINE was conducted to review conversational agents for cardiometabolic risk factors, including chatbots and embodied avatars. Results A total of 50 studies were identified. Overall, chatbots and avatars appear to have the potential to improve weight-related behaviors such as dietary intake and physical activity. There were limited studies on hypertension and diabetes. Patients seemed interested in using chatbots and avatars for modifying cardiometabolic risk factors, and adherence was acceptable across the studies, except for studies of virtual agents for diabetes. However, there is a need for randomized controlled trials to confirm this finding. As there were only a few clinical trials, more research is needed to confirm whether conversational coaches may assist with cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and physical activity. Conclusions Conversational coaches may regulate cardiometabolic risk factors; however, quality trials are needed to expand the evidence base. A future chatbot could be tailored to metabolic syndrome specifically, targeting all the areas covered in the literature, which would be novel.

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“…The European AgeWell project [ 29 ] focused on developing an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) to support young seniors age actively and healthily. For this purpose, an ECA/virtual coach was developed in the form of an avatar running on a smartphone [ 30 , 31 ]. In addition, a robot was implemented for training purposes, including training in the use of the ECA.…”

Section: Project Background and Robo-coachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coaching Robots for Older Seniors: Do They Get What They Expect? Insights from an Austrian Study

Schneider

Bousbiat

2023

IJERPH

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To support the increasing number of older people, new (assistive) technologies are constantly being developed. For these technologies to be used successfully, future users need to be trained. Due to demographic change, this will become difficult in the future, as the resources for training will no longer be available. In this respect, coaching robots could have great potential to support younger seniors in particular. However, there is little evidence in the literature about the perceptions and potential impact of this technology on the well-being of older people. This paper provides insights into the use of a robot coach (robo-coach) to train younger seniors in the use of a new technology. The study was carried out in Austria in autumn 2020, involving 34 participants equally distributed among employees in their last three years of service and retirees in their first three years of retirement (23 female; 11 male). The aim was to assess participants’ expectations and perceptions by examining the perceived ease of use and user experience of the robot in providing assistance during a learning session. The findings reveal a positive impression of the participants and promising results for using the robot as a coaching assistant in daily tasks.

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User Requirements Analysis of an Embodied Conversational Agent for Coaching Older Adults to Choose Active and Healthy Ageing Behaviors during the Transition to Retirement: A Cross-National User Centered Design Study

Cited by 16 publications

References 58 publications

Understanding User Requirements for a Senior-Friendly Mobile Health Application

Understanding User Requirements for a Senior-Friendly Mobile Health Application

Conversational Agents and Avatars for Cardiometabolic Risk Factors and Lifestyle-Related Behaviors: Scoping Review

Coaching Robots for Older Seniors: Do They Get What They Expect? Insights from an Austrian Study

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