Aging population implies an increase in demand for health care services. This hopefully could be solved by e-health, even if some issues arise about technology acceptance and adoption among the elderly. In this article, the authors illustrate HomeCare4All project as a case study to apply Human Centered Design (HCD) process in the field of digital health services, aiming at designing trustworthy mobile applications for elderly people to book healthcare services at home. This paper focuses on the early analytic steps of the HCD process and describes the context of use and the definition of user needs through the use of social research techniques and technological studies. The authors, in fact, show the findings of a state of the art analysis carried out about healthcare services and platforms; then they report the results of a empirical survey, conducted through a questionnaire administered to end users. Thanks to these studies, the authors can choose the device that suits best to the user needs and they can define the relevant requirements, which will guide the further steps of design process.

Aging population implies an increase in demand for health care services. This hopefully could be solved by e-health, even if some issues arise about technology acceptance and adoption among the elderly. In this article, the authors illustrate HomeCare4All project as a case study to apply Human Centered Design (HCD) process in the field of digital health services, aiming at design trustworthy mobile applications for elderly people to book healthcare services at home. Starting from the results achieved from the early step of design, this paper describes the following steps of the creation of a design solution by identifying use cases, defining information architecture and prototyping an app mockup. The prototypes are then evaluated through a double usability test sessions with users, implementing an iterative design process. In conclusion authors advance suggestions for designing trustworthy mobile interactions for elderly people or people unaccustomed to technology, showing the importance of involving end users in the various stages of the design process.

In discussing the city suitability to people's needs, generally a special attention has been given to people with special needs, e.g. the elderly. In this sense, most of the research about accessible cities has focused on the architectural design of public spaces, aiming at ensuring the access to urban places through the removal of architectural barriers. However, as technologies have been diffusing in many different city services, it also should be given attention to the constraints derived from this unavoidable change affecting the elderly life. The focus is on the potential of the technologies for improving the elderly city experience. In this paper the authors, starting from the principles of the transgenerational design, focus on how the technologies applied to the public transportation services could improve citizen experience and promote really inclusive mobility services.

The Technology could have a greater impact on the life of people, especially for disabled people. In this paper we focus on smart objects designed for the autistic people. In fact the IoT technologies are proving their suitability for these users. So we made a review and a qualitative analysis of the actual offer of these objects, adding also items for disabled people and not specifically designed for autistic people. Its general aim is try to understand if the smart objects could be useful for the autistic people and how they do this. As result, we present a proposal of classification of the smart objects for the autistic people, based on the symptoms of the Autism on which the object could have an effect.

The assumption at the basis of this work is that people are an essential part of the city and that its different elements are adapted to the desires of citizens who live in. In order to do that it is important to apply adequate methodologies and tools that help to identify the user needs and to design solutions with people. In this paper we propose to apply the concept of “usability”, borrowed from the Human-Computer Interaction field, to the city environment in order to adopt a user perspective about the interaction with a specific territory. So, we identify the equivalences between the main features of the website quality models and those present at the city level, through a usability framework composed by a series of elements to consider for trying to create a human-centered city.

In this paper, the authors support the idea that tablet is the ideal tool to assist and enhance the elderly living by providing them with value-added services. Currently the risk is that a poor design interface may exclude this substantial part of the population from using useful technologies because of their specific age category requirements. So, after an analysis of the related academic literature and an assessment both of elderly needs and tablet limits and potential, the authors select a set of considerations and suggestions for the design of tablet applications for elderly, in order to facilitate the interaction.

Communication is made of both verbal and non-verbal components. The latter often provide much more meaning than people realize. Nowadays communication is more often technology mediated, this occurrence is transforming rules and channels of human communication. In this paper we illustrate the design of a new communication device, CubeMate, which can be used as nonverbal mood interface in various contexts of shared space (house, office, shared flat). The design of CubeMate follows the Interaction Design process. Its design, embracing Weiser’s Calm Computing, focus on the Calmness, using a non-verbal output that doesn’t overburden users attention. During two Maker Faire we have collected unstructured feedbacks and qualitative evaluations through a prototype trial. On the basis of these considerations we could identify achievable improvements and define several and cross application fields.

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) changes analogical radio in a new media where images, video and hypertext contents are added to the "traditional" audio services. The shift to the digital broadcasting technology has shown several advantages such as an enhancement in the audio quality, an increased number of available stations and availability of brand new services. At the same time, this transformation (or remediation) implies new modalities and a higher complexity of user interaction with the innovative services. The current study focused on the evaluation of new modalities of station search by a categorization of the program type. A specific design proposal was prototyped and tested with users. A simulation of an in-vehicle context of use was used as experimental scenario in this study. Participants' ocular activity was recorded with the aim at monitoring users interaction with the radio system while driving. Also, participants' user experience of DAB was compared to the users of the analogical car radio. Generally, results showed an improved user experience of DAB system and an overall suitability of the program type categorization as search modality in digital radio. Finally, implications for hands-free radio system in automotive are discussed.

The apparently cooperative binding of 8-(5-thioacetamidofluorescein)-cGMP (SAF-cGMP) to cGMP-binding sites of the rod outer segments is regulated by Ca2+ in the 0.1-1 microM activity range. High Ca2+ reduces, and low Ca2+ increases the affinity of SAF-cGMP binding. This regulation involves only intrinsic membrane components. It is proposed that an allosteric regulation of cGMP binding by Ca2+ can contribute to photoreceptor potential adaptation.