Defining user requirements of a eHealth mobile app for elderly: the HomeCare4All project case study

Aging population implies an increase in demand for health care ser-vices. This hopefully could be solved by e-health, even if some issues arise about technology acceptance and adoption among the elderly. In this article, the authors illustrate HomeCare4All project as a case study to apply Human Cen-tered Design (HCD) process in the field of digital health services, aiming at de-signing trustworthy mobile applications for elderly people to book healthcare services at home. This paper focuses on the early analytic steps of the HCD process and describes the context of use and the definition of user needs through the use of social re-search techniques and technological studies. The authors, in fact, show the findings of a state of the art analysis carried out about healthcare services and platforms; then they report the results of a empiri-cal survey, conducted through a questionnaire administered to end users. Thanks to these studies, the authors can choose the device that suits best to the user needs and they can define the relevant requirements, which will guide the further steps of design process.