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BackgroundAging of the global population is slowly paving the way for new markets for care products and services. The desire of older people to maintain their independence while remaining at home is boosting the development of ambient assisted living (AAL) solutions. Lack of user awareness of AAL solutions paired with an insufficient use of user-centered and participatory design approaches in the development of these products has hindered the uptake of these solutions by end users. ObjectiveThis study aims to describe the usability and users’ experiences within a novel platform, ActiveAdvice, aimed at offering advice and a holistic market overview of AAL products and services. MethodsUsability tests were performed on the developed platform among identified prospective end users, with 32 older adults and informal carers from 4 European countries being part of the user tests. The usability and appeal of the web interface design, information flow, and information architecture were analyzed by collecting both objective and subjective measures. These would include pretest and posttest surveys, along with a series of think-aloud tasks to be performed within the platform. ResultsThe outcomes suggest that the ActiveAdvice platform’s objectives and functionalities are mostly aligned with the needs and expectations of end users, who demonstrated interest in using it, stressing its purpose along with its simple and intuitive interaction. Task completion rates were high, and participants had good satisfaction rates when navigating the platform. However, the tests still advocate for an improved design at some points and better disclosure of information. ConclusionsOur findings shed light on a few peculiarities of interface design, information architecture, user needs, and preferred functionalities, which should be applied to future developments of similar platforms with related services. The AAL field could benefit from tools supporting the dissemination of available AAL solutions and how they can improve one's quality of life. These tools may benefit not only older adults but also caregivers, business owners, and governmental employees.

Gastric cancer is a serious disease that most people usually do not know they have until they start to get symptoms. Gastroenterology imaging is an essential tool for this battle, since an early diagnosis typically leads to a good prognosis. However, this is a rapidly evolving technological area with novel imaging devices such as capsule, narrow-band imaging or high-definition endoscopy. Adapting to these technologies has a high time-price cost, even for experienced clinicians, motivating the appearance of interactive environments that can accelerate these training processes. The GEMINI (Gastroenterology Made Interactive) project aims to create an interactive clinical decision support system (CDSS) that can be used to help with the diagnosis within a gastroenterology room during real endoscopic examinations. We used human computer interaction (HCI) support methodologies in order to identify interaction opportunities. As a final conclusion, the most promising avenue for interactions with CDSS is probably using mobile devices such as tablets, controlled by a nurse at the physician's request. As future work, we will prototype and evaluate such a system in a real hospital environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]