Design guidelines and usability for cognitive stimulation through technology in Mexican older adults

ABSTRACT

To develop software to stimulate cognitive functions of attention, memory, reasoning, planning, language, and perception in Mexican older adults, and to evaluate the usability of software based on system utility, information quality, and interface quality.

For the development of the cognitive stimulation software, an inductive-deductive methodology was used in three stages: Analysis (system requirements), design and coding (cognitive stimulation software), evaluation (usability results).

The usability of the software was assessed in 89 older adults between the ages of 60 and 84 years, through a usability questionnaire with evidence of reliability and validity.

Eight exercises about attention, seven on memory, three on reasoning, one about planning and language, and two on perception were developed. We evaluated the usability of the developed software using the Computer System Usability Questionnaire, obtaining medium-high usability in 76.2% of the participants regarding the system utility, in 77.7% concerning the information quality and, in 84.2% in the interface quality.

The software was developed considering aspects of usability and based on changes and losses associated with aging, as well as on the stimulation of cognitive functions related to instrumental activities of daily living, including exercises based on traditional pencil-paper exercises.

KEYWORDS:

• Design guidelines
• usability
• cognitive stimulation
• elderly

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments to the Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora (ITSON), National Institute of Older Adults (INAPAM) and to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) in Mexico, for support in conducting this study.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Consent

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Committee of Bioethics of the Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the Programa de Fomento y Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación at the Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora (ITSON) under Grant PROFAPI_2020_0044;Programa de Fomento y Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación [PROFAPI_2020_0044].