Stay in touch : an in context evaluation of a smartphone interface designed for people with dementia

Assistive technology can play an important role in supporting people with dementia and their caregivers. For this study a smartphone interface with new functionalities is evaluated in context. This evaluation aimed at how elderly affected by dementia and their caregivers used it and how they experienced using such a device.In this study ten couples participated, in which both received a smartphone. They were free to use the phone over a period of three weeks as they desired. During this period objective and subjective data was logged. After this period, the smartphones were discussed with the users.The results showed everybody tried actively to use the phone but only few maintained using it. The main difficulties occurred with the smartphone itself, forgetting to take it along and/or with charging the battery. Most functionality seemed to be desired by the participants, also by those that could not properly use them via the smartphone. This suggests a need for the improvement of the design of assistive technology for this particular group.