Using MDE to Develop Suitable User Interfaces for Older Adults: A Case Study

Abstract

Software applications have been identified as potentially suitable tools to assist older adults in several aspects of their lives, like healthcare, emotional support and personal security. However, developing usable and useful applications for this population represents an important challenge, given that no systematic solutions have been proposed to support such a process. This article hypothesizes that a model-driven engineering (MDE) approach can help generate suitable user interfaces for elderly people, making the development process repeatable and allowing the systematic reuse of design knowledge about products for these end-users. To determine the validity of such hypothesis, the article presents the results of a case study where a healthcare supporting system for older adults, developed by using an MDE approach, was evaluated in four older adult care centers. The results obtained were highly positive, showing MDE as a possible path to address systematically the development of these applications.