Dr. Rossel-Cid, Pedro

Informal caregivers provide long-term, unpaid support to patients – usually family or friends – with serious illnesses. Although caregiving is essential, it can have adverse effects, e.g. physical and emotional exhaustion. Digital applications are a cost-effective alternative to manage these effects. However, applications for caregivers are usually centered on skill building and education rather than well-being, and general-purpose stress management applications – besides not specifically considering caregivers – frequently change and do not usually incorporate social aspects. To design a caregiver-centered application, we analyzed caregiver needs, specifically focusing on well-being aspects. We present Care4Plant, an application designed to measure the emotional dimension of caregivers’ burden based on the Zarit Burden Questionnaire, and suggest a set of mood improvement tasks accordingly. Care4Plant features a virtual plant that represents informal caregivers’ emotional well-being, allowing them to care for the plant through actions intended to manage their mental health and reduce stress, and to share their plant with other caregivers through a social network represented by a greenhouse. We conducted an evaluation of Care4Plant with nine users over two weeks. The results indicated good levels of usability and demonstrated that the approach of motivating users through the virtual plant was well-received.

Technology can improve university students’ communication, helping them maintain relationships. Although there are many available technological tools, students face challenges—e.g., living far from home, failing grades, depression—that may isolate them from their networks. Most research into these topics has been conducted in countries in which students leave their parents’ home while at university, which is not the case for most students in southern Chile. In this context that has been seldom studied, this paper presents two studies, focusing on two research questions: (1) How do university students in southern Chile communicate? (2) Can a mobile application persuade university students to increase their communication patterns? To answer these questions, we conducted a survey with 90 students in southern Chile, and then developed a persuasive application called Social+Me, aimed at monitoring communication with students’ support networks and persuading them to keep in touch. We conducted a preliminary evaluation of Social+Me, and the application was well received by participants, who felt that it improved their communication with their social network. The main impact of our study lies in applying persuasive technologies to the communicative practice of university students to prevent students from feeling isolated or unsupported.