The experience of Tangible Media for low-literacy older adults. Design of artifacts to take management of medicines

Abstract

The home medical devices, as well as much of products developed for seniors, present inadequacies to attend their specific needs. This situation is much more severe for people with low literacy. Such problems are related to the usability of the artifact or individual, social and cultural issues. The problems identified are related issues usually attributable to the devaluation of individual, social and cultural experience of the people. It is considered that the tangible media can be an alternative to provide a better experience and engagement of elders with low literacy in the use of their medicines. This is possible through the use of usual objects, then, close to the cognitive aging universe. In this way, they could test the human abilities and the multi-sensorial richness, obtained over a lifetime of interaction with the physical world. This article will address the motivations and the methodological tools to conduct an investigation into the experience of poli-medicated seniors with domestic medical artifacts based on tangible technologies.