The document presents FlexInterface, a framework that provides flexible mobile interfaces to address diversity among elderly users. It aims to adapt existing solutions to meet the needs of more elderly individuals. The framework is based on Android and the adaptive middleware OpenCom. It allows interface elements to be loaded and changed at runtime based on a user's profile and interactions. An evaluation with elderly users found the flexible interfaces improved usability by making tasks easier to complete with less time and increased user satisfaction compared to a standard interface. Future work will explore adapting other applications and devices to serve additional user groups.

1. FlexInterface: a Framework to Provide
Flexible Mobile Phone User Interfaces
Addressing the elderly diversity
Sibelius Seraphini
Vinícius P. Gonçalves
Vânia P. A. Neris
Jó Ueyama

2. Outline
 Introduction;
 Key aims;
 Implementation of Flexible Interfaces
for Elderly;
 Evaluation of FlexInterface with
Elderly Users;
 Conclusions and Future Work.
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3. Context
 Increased use of Mobile Devices; (Nilsen, 2011)
 Aging population worldwide;
 893 million elderly people in the world; (UN, 2010)
 Even in the elderly population, there are differences
regarding education, experience with technology,
cognitive and physical abilities.
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4. Problematic
 Mobile phones interface are developed for young
people;
(Wood et al., 2005; Czaja e Lee, 2007; Goebel, 2007)
 Need to investigate solutions for elderly public:
 Taking into account the diversity of interaction skills among the
elderly.
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5. Key Aims
 Provide interfaces that meet the highest number of
elderly users;
 Make an existing solution to adapt to several user
profiles.
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6. Our Approach
 Develop flexible interfaces;
 Flexibility
 Changes on interface elements (color, size, positions, etc);
 Changes in the order of the interaction actions;
 We proposed a framework that supports the
development of flexible tailored interface design.
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7. Implementation of Flexible
Interfaces for Elderly

8. Our Architecture
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9. Android
 The world’s most widely used smartphone
platform (Canalys, 2011);
 Open Source;
 Design for touchscreen mobile devices –
smartphones and tablet computers;
 Independence of Handset Makers.
9 / 25(Android , 2011)

10. OpenCom
 Developed by Lancaster University;
 CBSD: Component Based Software Development;
 Reset components at Runtime;
 Adapts to the dynamics features of
the execution environment;
 Domain Independence;
 Device Independence;
 Low Overhead.
10 / 25(Ueyama et al., 2009)

11. FlexInterface
 Supports the development of the design of flexible
interfaces
 Based on the adaptive middleware OpenCom;
 Enables the application fits user
needs during their interaction with
the device;
 Interfaces elements are
components;
 Loaded, instanstied and
destroyed on demand.
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12. The FlexInterface Approach
 FlexInterface Generic Component;
 Two receptacles (required interfaces)
 FlowScreen
 Determine a sequence of screens used in a task for a user profile;
 Example: Record Name -> Record Phone -> Save Contact;
 ProfileChecker
 Select the most suitable user profile based on user’s interaction data;
 Reset the FlexInterface components.
FlexComp
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13. Evaluation of FlexInterface with
Elderly Users

14. Evaluation with Elderly Users
 Purpose of Evaluation:
 Observe and analyse the
interaction of elderly people
with flexible interfaces for
mobile phones and see if there
was improvement over the
non-flexible interface;
 Elderly from CRAS (Community
Center) - São Carlos/SP;
 Task:
 User should save a contact in
mobile phone address book
and call it following.
Pair Users Age
Education
Level
Cell phone
Usage
D1 1, 2 81, 84
Less than 4
years
Never
D2 3, 4 66, 60
Less than 4
years
Rarely
D3 5, 6 61, 60
More than 12
years
Daily
D4 7, 8 65, 69
Less than 4
years
Rarely
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15. FlexInterface for Elderly Users
 Two different profiles of elderly people
 Low Education profile – Elderly with less than 4 years of education;
 High Education profile – Elderly with more than 4 years of education;
 ElderlyFlex
 Extension of FlexComp
 One new receptacle (IKeyboard)
 IKeyboard
 Enables us to reset the keyboard at runtime
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16. FlexInterface for Elderly Users
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17. FlexInterface for Elderly Users
 ElderlyProfileChecker
 Collect data from the user’s interaction
 Sets the most suitable elderly user profile
 One Keyboard and FlowScreen Component for user
profile;
 Default, LowEducation and HighEducation
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18. FlexInterface for Elderly Users
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 Native Contact Application
Android
Contact Application Interface
 Flexible Contact
Application Android

19. FlexInterface for Elderly Users
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 Default Keyboard Adapted Keyboard
Keyboard Interface

20. Evaluation with Elderly Users
 Pair 1: “I can see well that button. I loved the green color!”;
 Pair 2 e Pair 4:
 “I’d rather hear the voice than having to type.”;
 “I loved talking to the phone. He talked to me!”;
 “Is this phone for sale?”;
 Pair 3 (Doctorate): “Having the color gray does not affect the task.”.
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21. Results of Evaluation
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22. Results of Evaluation
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23. Conclusions and Future Work
 FlexInterface framework can be used to adapt existing
solutions to meet a broader number of users (For
instance, Native Contact Android in our Evaluation);
 FlexInterface framework improve the usability of a
system (by a low overhead), since make tasks easy to
complete (less time required per task); and improve the
user satisfaction.
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24. Conclusions and Future Work
 Feasibility testing of the FlexInterface on:
 Others devices (tablets and / or notebooks);
 Others domains (webpages and /or desktop applications);
 Others types of Users (children).
 Improve the FlexInterface Model:
 Add specifics components to collect data from the user;
 Add components to adapt the interface based on the emotion
of the user;
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25. Thank You
sibelius@grad.icmc.usp.br
vpg@icmc.usp.br
joueyama@icmc.usp.br
vania@dc.ufscar.br