User Interaction Design for a Home-Based Telecare System

This paper presents the design of the user-interaction component of a home-based telecare system for congestive heart failure patients. It provides a short overview of the overall system and offers details on the different interaction types supported by the system. Interacting with the user occurs either as part of a scheduled procedure or as a consequence of identifying or predicting a potentially hazardous deterioration of the patients’ health state. The overall logic of the interaction is structured around event-scenario associations, where a scenario consists of concrete actions to be performed, some of which may involve the patient. A key objective in this type of interaction that it is very simple, intuitive and short, involving common everyday objects and familiar media such as speech.