Designing wearable technologies for users with disabilities: Accessibility, usability, and connectivity factors.

The increasing availability of wearable devices (wearables), "smart" home, and other next-generation wirelessly connected devices for work, home, and leisure presents opportunities and challenges for users with disabilities. As augmentative tools for engagement, control, and information, these technologies should not only be usable, but also be accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities. In order to better capture the dimensions of inclusivity of wearable devices, the authors have conducted a review of pertinent literature with respect to a range of representative applications and examples of currently available technologies.

Human-Centered Design Study: Enhancing the Usability of a Mobile Phone App in an Integrated Falls Risk Detection System for Use by Older Adult Users.

Background: Design processes such as human-centered design (HCD), which involve the end user throughout the product development and testing process, can be crucial in ensuring that the product meets the needs and capabilities of the user, particularly in terms of safety and user experience. The structured and iterative nature of HCD can often conflict with the necessary rapid product development life-cycles associated with the competitive connected health industry.

Objective: The aim of this study was to apply a structured HCD methodology to the development of a smartphone app that was to be used within a connected health fall risk detection system.

A Human-Centered Design Methodology to Enhance the Usability, Human Factors, and User Experience of Connected Health Systems: A Three-Phase Methodology.

Background: Design processes such as human-centered design, which involve the end user throughout the product development and testing process, can be crucial in ensuring that the product meets the needs and capabilities of the user, particularly in terms of safety and user experience. The structured and iterative nature of human-centered design can often present a challenge when design teams are faced with the necessary, rapid, product development life cycles associated with the competitive connected health industry.

Objective: We wanted to derive a structured methodology that followed the principles of human-centered design that would allow designers and developers to ensure that the needs of the user are taken into account throughout the design process, while maintaining a rapid pace of development.