An Evaluation of Graphical Formats for the Summary of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

Activities of Daily Living systems (ADLs) and the User Interface (UI) design principles used to implement them empowers the elderly to continue living a normal daily routine. The daily monitoring of activities for most Assisted Living (AL) systems demands/necessitates accurate daily user interaction, and the design principles for these systems often focus on the UI usability for the elder, not the caregiver/family member. This paper reviews Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) and ADLs UI designs and evaluates the usability of ADLs visualisation tools for caregivers. Results indicate that the UI presenting information in a bar graph format was the preferred option for respondents, as 60% chose this summarisation method over the alternative line graph UI, which had 38% of respondents selecting this format for information representation. Therefore, when designing Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) UIs, it is recommended that short periods of time are best presented in a pie graph format in combination with a bar graph format for representing extended timeline information to caregivers about their loved ones.