mHealth

Creating tools for user-centered healthcare (mHealth)

CO-ALERT: A Tool for Personalizing COVID-19 Emergency Alert Messages to Support Older Adults. In Proceedings of the Asian CHI Symposium 2021 (AsianCHI’21). ACM, Zoom, May 2021.

Older adults are more likely to die when infected with COVID-19. People aged 50 or older have a death rate of 30 to 220 times that of the 18 to 29 age group.Each country strives to lower the infection rate by quickly providing the public infectious disease information through emergency alert messages. However, existing emergency alerts messaging systems provide redundant precautions. Also, the National Emergency Alert (NEA) messages are sent through the base transceiver station, the area where the actual COVID-19 confirmed case occurred and the area where the message was received do not match. In this paper, we present CO-ALERT, a tool that effectively provides older adults aged 50 or older with NEA messages. We developed CO-ALERT through a design thinking process to suggest solutions that effectively address the needs of potential target users. User-friendly interfaces of CO-ALERT enable older adults to view NEA messages based on their preferences. We hope the findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the experiences of older adults during COVID-19 pandemic.

Development and Usability Assessment of a Food Record App for Dietary Assessments among Older Adults with Type 2 Diabetes. JMIR Formative Research, January 2021.

Background: More than 1 in 4 people in the United States aged 65 years and older have type 2 diabetes. For diabetes care, medical nutrition therapy is recommended as a clinically effective intervention. Previous researchers have developed and validated dietary assessment methods using images of food items to improve the accuracy of self-reporting over traditional methods. Nevertheless, little is known about the usability of image-assisted dietary assessment methods for older adults with diabetes.

Objective: The aims of this study were (1) to create a food record app for dietary assessments (FRADA) that would support image-assisted dietary assessments, and (2) to evaluate the usability of FRADA for older adults with diabetes.

Methods: For the development of FRADA, we identified design principles that address the needs of older adults and implemented three fundamental tasks required for image-assisted dietary assessments: capturing, viewing, and transmitting images of food based on the design principles. For the usability assessment of FRADA, older adults aged 65 to 80 years (11 females and 3 males) were assigned to interact with FRADA in a lab-based setting. Participants’ opinions of FRADA and its usability were determined by a follow-up survey and interview. As an evaluation indicator of usability, the responses to the survey, including an after-scenario questionnaire, were analyzed. Qualitative data from the interviews confirmed the responses to the survey.

Results: We developed a smartphone app that enables older adults with diabetes to capture, view, and transmit images of food items they consumed. The findings of this study showed that FRADA and its instructions for capturing, viewing, and transmitting images of food items were usable for older adults with diabetes. The survey showed that participants found FRADA easy to use and would consider using FRADA daily. The analysis of the qualitative data from interviews revealed multiple categories, such as the usability of FRADA, potential benefits of using FRADA, potential features to be added to FRADA, and concerns of older adults with diabetes regarding interactions with FRADA.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates in a lab-based setting not only the usability of FRADA by older adults with diabetes but also potential opportunities using FRADA in real-world settings. The findings suggest implications for creating a smartphone app for an image-assisted dietary assessment. Future work still remains to evaluate the feasibility and validity of FRADA with multiple stakeholders, including older adults with diabetes and dietitians.

A Study on Utilizing COVID-19 Emergency Notification through a Design Thinking Process. In Proceedings of the HCI Korea 2021, Zoom, January 2021.

코로나 바이러스의 장기화에 따라 정부에서는 역학조사 지원 시스템, 자가격리앱, 그리고 지자체에서 발송하는 안전 안내 문자와 같이 여러 제도를 사용해 추가적인 확진자 발생을 막고 있다. 특히 안전 안내 문자는 코로나 바이러스 확진자 이동 경로를 국민에게 신속하게 전달함으로써 동선이 겹치는 사람들에게 GPS 기반 문자 알림을 주고 예방수칙을 준수하도록 경각심을 주는 역할을 하고 있다. 그러나 2020 년 10 월 발송된 안전 안내 문자는 3,300 여 건으로 안전 안내 문자를 수신하는 사람들에게 상황의 시급성이 충분히 강조하지 못하고 있다. 이 경우 코로나 바이러스 확진자 동선과 관련된 중요한 정보가 전달되지 못해 2 차 감염이 일어날 수 있으며 지역 사회에 큰 피해를 초래할 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 사람들이 안전 안내 문자로 필요한 정보를 충분히 얻고 있는지를 알아보고 디자인적 사고 방법론을 통해 타겟 사용자들이 관련 정보를 더 손쉽게 얻을 수 있는 방안을 제시한다.

Bounce: Designing an EKG Monitoring Application using a Wearable Sensor through a Design Thinking Process. In Proceedings of the HCI Korea 2021, Zoom, January 2021.

최근 심장질환 환자 수가 지속적으로 증가하는 추세를 보이고, 세계 보건기구 (WHO)에 따르면 심장질환은 세계적으로 사망률이 가장 높은 질환이다. 더불어 모바일 애플리케이션의 성공적인 대중화와 세계적인 고령화 현상 등의 이유로 현재 심장 건강모니터링 연구는 활발하게 진행되고 있다. 하지만, 그 중 많은 연구는 타겟 사용자인 심장 질환자의 니즈를 고려하지 않았다는 한계를 갖는다. 본 논문에서는 디자인적 사고 방법론을 통해 타겟 사용자인 심장질환자가 실제로 갖는 문제를 발견하고, 발견한 문제에 대한 해결 방법을 제안한다.

BYE-TAL: Designing a Smartphone App for Sustainable Self-Healthcare through Design Thinking Process. In Proceedings of the Asian CHI Symposium 2020 at CHI’20. ACM, Honolulu, HI, USA, April 2020.

It is not easy for people to consistently take care of their health without motivation. Existing smartphone apps have assisted with people managing their health, but there still remain questions about whether target users’ needs were addressed to support the users. We report on each stage of a design thinking process for redesigning experiences of people who are in their 20s to 40s for managing their health. Especially, we were able to empathize with our target users by making the empathy map. This helped us to identify real users’ needs. Outcomes from each stage of the design thinking process show that the process is applicable to other domains when people create a smartphone app to address the needs of their target users effectively.

Mutiv: Music-based Mobile Application to Support Joggers. In Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics, Chicago, IL, October 2016.

Regular jogging help people maintain their health. However, it is burdensome to keep working out without clear motivation. Although mobile applications has been developed to overcome the challenge, little is known about the guildelines for designing mobile applications that address the needs and barriers of joggers. In this study, we identified joggers’ needs and barriers and used them to produce ten principles for designing mobile applications. We then created Mutiv, a web-based prototype of the mobile application based on the principles and evaluated the satisfaction of the joggers of the prototype.