Designing for interaction quality in health telematics

This paper focuses on emerging Human Computer Interaction (HCI) challenges in the context of Health Telematics. Specifically, assumptions in traditional approaches to product and process quality are discussed, in order to unfold the reasons behind the loose and partial insight offered to the design of technology for the broadest possible end-user population. The premises of "Universal Design" are briefly discussed and the concept of "User Interfaces for All" is presented, as an articulation of Universal Design in the area of HCI. Following this, the paper discusses how such a perspective improves upon conventional methods and tools for HCI design and presents some of its relative merits in the context of Health Telematics.