Involvement of a tablet PC in healthcare organizations has played a major role in improving their day-to-day services by allowing healthcare professionals to perform a variety of tasks that are efficient and accurate at bedside or desk. As the patients are also users of the tablet PC, for example; in making appointments and providing personal information records; elderly patients must be easily able to use a tablet PC. This research was conducted to describe the usability of a tablet PC by elderly people in a healthcare environment.

The usability testing method was planned to be an observational study at North shore Hospital . However, due to approval issues it was canceled and replaced by a pilot study in a MoCap laboratory for recruited participants. It was conducted to find out whether a motion capture protocol could be adopted as a usability testing method besides observation.

In the pilot study three participants were observed in a motion capture session while performing specific tasks using a tablet PC in a simulated healthcare environment. All participants movements were recorded and interpreted by a 3D animator. In addition interview data were collected from a survey pilot study. Motion capture protocols could be used as a usability testing method for its accuracy and real time recording of body movements. However, this method needs improvement to be a sufficient usability testing method. Additional interviews were used as a support to the findings for this method.