COMP Students Take Part in Improving Elderly’s Experience on Using Smartphones

Students who attended COMP4045 Human-Computer Interaction, a service-learning course offered by Department of Computer Science in Semester 1, 2021-22, worked with Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service - Hong Kong, Shatin District Community Centre for the Golden Aged and came up with modified versions of mobile apps to cater the needs of the elderly.

Human-computer Interaction is an interdisciplinary field that integrates theories and methodologies from different areas, including computer science, cognitive psychology, and design. Students can learn the fundamental concepts of human-computer interaction and user-centered design thinking in class. Then, adopting design thinking methodology, they will identify and solve problems in the society by working on projects to design, implement and evaluate computer interfaces.

Guided by Dr. Yucheng Jin, Research Assistant Professor of Department of Computer Science, the students decided to carry out a project for helping aged people to use smartphones. COMP4045 students visited Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service - Hong Kong, Shatin District Community Centre for the Golden Aged several times for collecting feedbacks from their users.

“We have learned how to communicate with the elderly and understood the problems they encountered when using electronic devices due to vision and memory loss. It is an unforgettable and meaningful service-learning experience.” Lai Tsz Ting and Kwok Hiu Yan (Computer Science, Year 4) brought up.

In the final presentation, the students showcased their final products that introduced new features to existing mobile apps. “Students demonstrate empathy and caring for older adults by improving the user interface such as bigger font sizes, more user-friendly hyperlinks and easier payment methods on mobile phones.” Dr. Jin mentioned. The joined seniors appreciated the hard work of the students and were eager to try on the new features.

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