Application of a computer based education system for aged persons and issues arising during the held test

We plan to apply a computer-based multimedia text-book system for health ed ucation in the future. To do this, the computer system should be manageable to any person regardless of age or computer experience. We developed a mul timedia text-book system and field-tested it to survey the reaction of aged persons. The system offers information about obesity prevention, such as a guide for eating and exercise. All contents are presented by text, image a nd voice. Also, a guide for exercise is shown by a movie. In this investiga tion we found that there were many considerations for aged persons using a computer. They seemed to have a strong aversion toward computers. They had the feeling that computers are difficult to use; actually 22 persons among 65 could not use it. Improvements in user interface seems to be the most im portant thing to make computers accessible to aged persons. On the other ha nd, question-and-answer programs for diagnosing one's health status were we ll accepted. Such a function is useful for attracting the interest of aged persons when we design a computer-based education system. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.