1

The World population is growing older

and it is estimated that, by 2060, 30%

of the population in Europe will be over

65 years old (Eurostat, 2011).

Simultaneously, trends suggest that

smartphones will be the dominant

status quo. Hence, and due to the

current stepping into retirement of the

’Baby Boom’ generation, smartphones

will soon enough reach seniors.

Nowadays, smartphones are not

inclusively designed to bear older

adults’ needs in mind. However, if

designed with and for older adults,

smartphones have the potential to be

central in three main areas:

n Prevention of isolation;

n Promotion of autonomy and

enhanced quality of life;

S4S SMARTPHONES FOR SMART SENIORS

S4S website: www.smartphones4seniors.org

Fig1.

Contact

Rua Alfredo Allen, 455

4200-135 Porto, Portugal

+351 220 430 300

info@fraunhofer.pt

www.fraunhofer.pt

2

n Improvement of health conditions.

The S4S project was devised to tackle

the unsolved problems and boost the

potential benefits of smartphones in

older adults’ lives by creating a set of

applications tailored to seniors’ needs.

Process The project covers all the stages for the

design of user-friendly applications.

Through questionnaires, focus groups

or diary studies, the project partners

have unveiled older adults’ unmet

needs, and grasped this particular

group’s everyday habits and

expectations regarding the use and

perceived usefulness of smartphones in

daily life. This resulted in personas and

scenarios which were further used all

along the design process.

Applications to: n Prevent isolation

n Promote quality of life n Improve health Partners: The S4S is a National

project involving seven

partners: Microsoft,

Optimus (mobile

operator), Fraunhofer

AICOS, two universities

(Lisbon and Aveiro) and

two SMEs (Devscope

and Wit).

3

Beyond primary users (older adults)

involved in context mapping, the

project involves secondary users and

caregivers, such as gerontologists.

For the purpose of covering the three

major areas identified as crucial, the

project developed different

applications: game for fall prevention,

easy web search using natural

language, social interactions (e.g. easy

access to social networks), checking

phone balance, activity register,

appointments and reminders,

medication management and alerts.

Furthermore, the applications make use

of advanced text-to-speech and

speech-to-text technologies which were

purposefully tailored to be appealing to

older adults. The project also took into

account the cumbersome process of

authentication and set-up, which is

particularly challenging for older adults.

Therefore, S4S has created its own

remote management solution to allow

a connection between the older adult

4

and a caregiver, which not only allows

the caregiver to access relevant data

(e.g. monitoring health), but also to

share data from one application to the

next, so as to free users from having to

repeatedly input the same information

on different applications. This, then,

provides an optimized user experience.

Users & Usability The project’s commitment to address

older adults’ real needs and to provide

real usable applications is proved by

thorough usability tests. These allow

the comprehensive validation and

refinement of all graphic user interfaces

(from icons, over font type, to colours),

the patterns, wording choices and

navigation, within all applications.

S4S is a project developed with and for

older adults, with confirmed usability,

and real-life application towards

improving older adults’ quality of life

and welcoming seniors to take part in

the information society.

S4S logo.

Fig2.