Smartphones with touchscreen-based interfaces are increasingly used by non-technical groups including the elderly. However, application developers have little understanding of how senior users interact with their products and of how to design senior-friendly interfaces. As an initial study to assess standard mobile touchscreen interfaces for the elderly, we conducted performance measurements and observational evaluations of 20 elderly participants. The tasks included performing basic gestures such as taps, drags, and pinching motions and using basic interactive components such as software keyboards and photo viewers. We found that mobile touchscreens were generally easy for the elderly to use and a week’s experience generally improved their proficiency. However, careful observations identified several typical problems that should be addressed in future interfaces. We discuss the implications of our experiments, seeking to provide informal guidelines for application developers to design better interfaces for elderly people.

Frailty is an age-related condition characterized by a decline in physical capacity with an increased vulnerability to stressors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was considerable progression in frailty in older adults. Therefore, an online frailty check (FC) is required for continuous screening, especially acceptable to older adults. We aimed to co-design/co-develop an online FC application with FC supporters who were facilitators in a pre-existing onsite FC program in the community. It consisted of a self-assessment of sarcopenia and an 11-item questionnaire assessing dietary, physical, and social behaviors. Opinions obtained from FC supporters (median 74.0 years) were categorized and implemented. The usability was assessed using the system usability scale (SUS). For both FC supporters and participants (n = 43), the mean score was 70.2 ± 10.3 points, which implied a “marginally high” acceptability and a “good” adjective range. Multiple regression analysis showed that the SUS score was significantly correlated with onsite–online reliability, even after adjusting for age, sex, education level, and ICT proficiency (b = 0.400, 95% CI: 0.243–1.951, p = 0.013). We also validated the online FC score, which showed a significant association between onsite and online FC scores (R = 0.670, p = 0.001). In conclusion, the online FC application is an acceptable and reliable tool to check frailty for community-dwelling older adults.

Support systems have been developed to facilitate the active participation of the visually and hearing impaired, as these impairments limit information acquisition and activities. However, efforts to improve the quality and quantity of information presented to persons with disabilities are still in the developmental stage due to the unique perception and recognition styles in persons with visual and hearing impairments. By clarifying such perception and recognition mechanisms and the current status of assistive technologies, researchers can develop support schemes taking advantage of the abilities of people with visual and hearing impairments, and extend their information processing. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to organize the unique characteristics of perceptual ability and communication strategies reportedly acquired by persons with visual and hearing impairments and the information assurance methods based on sensory substitution. For the visually impaired, we describe a visual substitution system that focuses on sound and tactile information, in addition to their sensory substitution functions. We also introduce example applications through support methods in parasports and computer games. For the hearing impaired, we review communication methods and support strategies using information devices.