Vizier

We were involved, alongside the University of Geneve, Dublin City University, and other partners associated with Assisted Living for elderly people, in the development of some of Vizier’s components. That’s a Proof of Concept of a platform that connects existing online services, off-the-shelf sensors, and devices to a user-friendly interface.

Our role was closely connected to the development of an intuitive, simple tablet interface, being a key success factor in the acceptance and long-lasting use of this IT solution by the elderly.
The platform is the system’s brain that decides when to take action.
It processes input from home and personal sensors, and online applications, according to the user’s preferences, and triggers the action of the tablet.

Here are some examples:

• Motivating the user to go for a walk after noticing a certain amount of sedentary time.
• Filtering local activity suggestions by the user’s location and preferences.
• Suggesting to take an umbrella to their appointment.

Simple, yet incredibly valuable.

To win users for Vizier, the App had to be highly desirable in the first place.
Features like audiobooks, recipes, music, and games are a must in the first version that went to market, targeting the younger generation of older adults. The focus was set on proving the concept and its key elements.
The Mobile App was developed in a hybrid environment, first deployed solely in Android, to be easily installed in the pilot testers, but allowing it to be deployed later in iOS or Web.

The following functionalities were developed:

• Digital agenda;
• Local activity suggestion;
• Reminders (medication, household tasks, etc);
• Centralized messaging (1 mailbox for all mail and short messages);
• Contacts;
• Prospective memory strategy learning – Memory Club;
• Smartwatch step tracking.

Besides the App itself, LOAD was also involved in the backend, regarding users and services management and integration with the third parties involved (sensors, messaging platforms, etc).