Abstract
The condition of forced isolation due to the Covid-19 Pandemic clearly highlighted the importance of social support. Indeed, the absence of interaction with families and friends in the presence can lead to feelings of loneliness, abandonment, psychological discomfort, anxiety, and depression, especially for the elderly. On this premise, adopting a user-centered approach, an app for social and professional support SAFE TALK was created and evaluated recruiting end users. The participatory activities involving elderly informed the design of the app prototypes, while at a second stage two samples of target users (i.e., elderly and psychologists) were considered in the evaluations of the SAFE TALK app. The performance, usability, accessibility, and user experience of the app were tested. Findings showed that despite a slightly lower performance of the elderly, both groups of individuals positively evaluated the usability, accessibility, and user experience of the app. SAFE TALK was appreciated by the elderly as a potential supportive tool in case of forced isolation to reach their social sphere and eventually a professional. Psychologists reported the relevance of the app as a tool to remotely support people in conditions of need.
L. Gamberini and P. Pluchino equally contributed to this work and share first authorship.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the POR FESR 2014–2020 Work Program of the Veneto Region (Action 1.1.4) through the project No. 10288513 titled “SAFE PLACE. Sistemi IoT per ambienti di vita salubri e sicuri”.
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Gamberini, L. et al. (2023). Accessible and Inclusive Mobile Application for Social Support and m-Health in Forced Isolation: SAFE TALK. In: Antona, M., Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14021. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35897-5_37
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