Impact of the width and shape of the sliding board on design evaluation

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate how width affects the design evaluation of sliding boards with a new shape. Ten caregivers at a senior facility evaluated five types of boards every two weeks. The new shape board received high ratings as the width increased, with a SUS (System Usability Scale) score of 68.5 points (95% CI 60.6–76.4). Compared to the traditional rectangular board, which had a width of 250 mm and a thickness of 5 mm, the new shape board (with a central width of 163 mm and a thickness of 8 mm) received higher ratings by 0.68 points (95% CI 0.31–1.05)using a paired comparison method. The results of a quantitative study on the usability of sliding boards from the perspective of caregivers indicated that for similar board shapes with a length of 650 mm and a thickness of 8 mm, the evaluation increases as the width increases in the range of 130 mm to 163 mm at the center.

KEYWORDS:

• design evaluation
• non-lifting cares
• sliding boards
• SUS score
• transfer

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the elderly care facility caregivers and clients who took the time to participate in this study despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Disclosure statement

A conflict of interest exists. The authors have applied for design rights (Ryuji Katamoto et al., 2022) for the sliding boards used in this study.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research [No. 21K12558].