Adhering to the spirit of "people first" and "user-centeredness," the NTU Center of Innovation and Synergy for Intelligent Home and Living Technology (INSIGHT) completed six usability tests for the "smart pill box and medicine reminder system" developed by Professor of Mechanical Engineering Dr. Yao-Joe Yang's research group. These tests were conducted from the bottom of November to the top of December.

A user behavior study team, led by Professor Hsiu-Ping Yueh of the Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development, started to collect data from mid-September on people's medication habits. They paid visits to pharmacist Wan-erh Chu of the Taipei City Hospital, director of the clinical pharmacy group Miss Shu-yu Yang of the same hospital and the social workers at the Senior Citizens Service Center of the Da-tung District and inquired their opinions on the design of the smart pill box and on how the volunteers should be tested. In accordance with the definition of a product focus group, the study team members recruited six elderly patients and tested them on their behaviors in using the smart pill box. In a virtual living environment established by the INSIGHT Open Lab, the six elderly patients were asked to rate the "medicine reminder" and "helping to locate the pill box" functions of the smart pill box, while conducting importance rankings on eight other major functions of the smart pill box. Throughout the whole testing process, the study team used camcorders to videotape the behaviors of the patients so as to gather data for further analyses.

By the use of this test, the study team was able to gain a comprehensive understanding of the advantages of the smart pill box, as well as the kinds of problems that the users encountered, and the users' expectations of the smart pill box. The study team in turn relayed the users' opinions to the research group, which was expected to develop a next generation smart pill box that would be more user-friendly and more accommodating the needs of the users. In the future the INSIGHT user behavior study team will continue to conduct usability tests on scientific and technological inventions and other user experience research so that the research achievements of the INSIGHT Center will be more in keeping with the "people first" spirit.