Incorporating Cognitive Training with Elderly People's Everyday Use of Smartphones.

Abstract

The ageing population is growing rapidly, and the risk of cognitive decline among this populace is alarming. Dementia patients represent one of the most significant groups among individuals experiencing cognitive decline. Despite having pharmacological medications available to support dementia patients, non-pharmacological interventions can be a better approach, considering the cost and undesired side effects. Mobile cognitive training applications (apps) have been introduced to elderly individuals, but adoption rates have not been high. One possible reason for this can be that they do not perceive such apps as useful. These apps are standalone apps that do not take users' real-life tasks into consideration. Hence, in this study, we aim to integrate cognitive training exercises with elderly’s everyday use of smartphones. First, we gathered user requirements by conducting literature review, app research and an interview with an elderly person. We then conducted four iterations of prototyping and evaluations, where feedback from participants in the evaluations was used to improve the prototypes developed in next iteration. Through the entire process, we generated some lessons learned that are applicable for designing such apps. Future work includes further development of this app to make it fully functional, and testing it in a longitudinal study.