InMyDay: A Digital Diary to Promote Self-care Among Elders

Diaries allow users to record personal events and experiences, and are frequently used to collect participant data in user studies. Digital diaries have several benefits over traditional paper-based diaries, reducing respondents’ burden, administrative costs, and improving navigation. However, for elderly users, there are several challenges in the use of a digital diary: they may have cognitive and motor impairments, and fewer digital skills than other populations. We implemented a digital diary called InMyDay, specifically designed for elderly users. The goal of this diary is to promote self-care and self-reflection, by allowing users to register their activities and emotions. Ten elderly users tested the diary for five days, recording entries related to their days and how they felt. All of the participants used the diary every day and after the experiment, nine declared that they would use such an application at least once a week. We found that the diary promoted reflection, that users felt that this allowed them a moment of self-care during their day, and that they felt this was especially important for them as elderly people. Future work will focus on increasing the number of participants and emotions that may be reported and exploring new mechanisms of interaction.