Abstract
Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) demonstrates strong potential for gait rehabilitation in individuals with neurological disorders. However, its clinical adoption remains constrained by reliance on therapist supervision and insufficient support for home-based training. To address these limitations, we developed the Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation Interactive System (RASIS)—a digital rehabilitation platform featuring modules for case management, seamless wearable sensor pairing, dynamic rhythm adjustment, real-time gait tracking, and personalized training feedback. Guided by a user-centered design approach, RASIS was iteratively refined through demand analysis, persona modeling, and expert heuristic evaluation to resolve usability barriers. In trials with 12 clinical professionals, RASIS achieved a mean System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 79.38 (SD = 5.11, Grade A−), indicating strong acceptance. A preliminary clinical study involving 13 stroke patients showed improvements in cadence (96.81 to 108.10 bpm), 10-meter walk time (13.97 to 10.51 seconds), and gait symmetry. This study offers a replicable design workflow for intelligent rehabilitation systems that align clinical needs with human- centered innovation. Our iterative refinement process—grounded in frontline pain-point analysis and expert-validated prototyping—demonstrates how structured development can enhance usability, therapeutic efficacy, and real-world integration. Future research will assess long-term outcomes through broader implementation and randomized controlled trials.
Keywords
Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS); Gait Rehabilitation; Digital Health; Smart Rehabilitation; Usability Evaluation; Human-Centered Design (HCD)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1021
Citation
Liu, B., Lin, Y., Liu, Y.,and Chien, C.(2025) Better Usability, Better Training? Applying Usability Evaluation to Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation Interactive System (RASIS) for Therapist-Facilitated Personalized Gait Training, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1021
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 9 - Healthcare Design
Better Usability, Better Training? Applying Usability Evaluation to Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation Interactive System (RASIS) for Therapist-Facilitated Personalized Gait Training
Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) demonstrates strong potential for gait rehabilitation in individuals with neurological disorders. However, its clinical adoption remains constrained by reliance on therapist supervision and insufficient support for home-based training. To address these limitations, we developed the Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation Interactive System (RASIS)—a digital rehabilitation platform featuring modules for case management, seamless wearable sensor pairing, dynamic rhythm adjustment, real-time gait tracking, and personalized training feedback. Guided by a user-centered design approach, RASIS was iteratively refined through demand analysis, persona modeling, and expert heuristic evaluation to resolve usability barriers. In trials with 12 clinical professionals, RASIS achieved a mean System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 79.38 (SD = 5.11, Grade A−), indicating strong acceptance. A preliminary clinical study involving 13 stroke patients showed improvements in cadence (96.81 to 108.10 bpm), 10-meter walk time (13.97 to 10.51 seconds), and gait symmetry. This study offers a replicable design workflow for intelligent rehabilitation systems that align clinical needs with human- centered innovation. Our iterative refinement process—grounded in frontline pain-point analysis and expert-validated prototyping—demonstrates how structured development can enhance usability, therapeutic efficacy, and real-world integration. Future research will assess long-term outcomes through broader implementation and randomized controlled trials.