A User-Centered Interface Design Framework for the DELONELINESS System in Older Adults: Design Indicator Development and Prioritization

TL;DR

This study creates a user-centered design framework for a digital system to reduce loneliness in older adults by prioritizing interface design indicators based on expert input and user needs.

Contribution

The study introduces a structured, data-driven framework for interface design in digital mental health systems for older adults, integrating psychological, emotional, and accessibility dimensions.

Findings

Trust and safety, ease of use, and accessibility were the top prioritized design indicators for older adults.

Design solution 2 achieved the highest performance score due to clear interaction pathways and visual clarity.

Expert consensus validated the consistency and agreement of the prioritized design indicators.

Abstract

Loneliness among older adults has become a major public health concern associated with cognitive decline, depression, and increased health care use. The advancement of digital health technologies such as wearable devices, smart home systems, and mobile health apps provides new opportunities to monitor and mitigate loneliness through continuous physiological and behavioral assessment. However, the effectiveness of such technologies largely depends on user interface design, ensuring that older adults can understand, trust, and comfortably engage with the technology. Existing research on interactive platforms and user interfaces for psychological and emotional monitoring has mainly focused on usability testing and technology feasibility, with limited attention to structured design frameworks that integrate psychological, emotional, and accessibility dimensions for older adults. Furthermore, most studies rely on qualitative assessments and lack quantitative prioritization of design indicators.

This study aimed to build on the DELONELINESS (Design for Healthy Ageing: a Smart System to Decrease Loneliness for Older People) system to develop a user-centered hierarchical framework of interface design indicators for older adults.

A mixed methods design was applied, integrating literature search, qualitative focus group analysis, and expert consultation to build an initial indicator pool. A hierarchical indicator structure with 7 first-level and 26 second-level indicators was developed. The analytic hierarchy process was used to assign indicator weights through surveys of 20 experts with academic or professional experience in human-computer interaction, digital health, gerontology, and health informatics. Based on the weighted results, 3 interface design solutions were developed and comparatively evaluated using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution.

All expert judgment matrices satisfied the analytic hierarchy process consistency requirement (consistency ratio <0.1). The Kendall coefficient of concordance indicated good agreement among experts for both first-level indicators (W=0.313; P<.001) and second-level indicators (W=0.156; P<.001). Among the 7 first-level indicators, trust and safety (weight=0.206), ease of use (weight=0.187), and accessibility (weight=0.167) received the highest weights, indicating their importance in enhancing user confidence and engagement. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution evaluation results showed that design solution 2 achieved the highest overall performance score (relative closeness coefficient C=0.877), emphasizing clear interaction pathways, visual clarity, and guided feedback as key factors for optimal usability.

This study developed a user-centered framework for interface design in loneliness monitoring among older adults by integrating user insights, literature-derived indicators, and expert consensus, and providing a structured data-driven approach to prioritizing design requirements. The proposed framework bridges subjective user experience with objective evaluation, offering practical guidance for developing empathetic, inclusive, and trustworthy digital mental health technologies for older adults.

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