JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Older adults in rural areas of Peru encounter many challenges in accessing critical public services sections, such as public health services, education services, and social assistance public services, due to low levels of digital literacy, lack of technology access, and no formalized and secure identification. This inhibits entry into digital health, education, and social assistance systems and increases their risk of vulnerability and social exclusion.

Objective:

To design a blockchain technology-based mobile application architecture to help facilitate a secure and inclusive digital ID for older adults in rural areas of Peru to access vital services digitally with a decentralized and privacy-friendly solution.

Methods:

This study followed the Design Thinking steps. There are five steps in Design Thinking, which include: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Evaluate. A total of thirteen older adults (61 - 85 years of age) were interviewed to determine the usability barriers and trust issues with mobile technology, which will be used to define functional and non-functional requirements. Those requirements were created based on the interviews. The primary features that the target population valued are: blockchain authentication, auxiliary registration, multilingual, and user-friendly. The features were prioritized and prototyped in Figma. The architecture of the application was developed using the C4 model and accounted for sequential development and ensured scalability, modularity and decentralization. Usability was assessed quantitatively by administering the System Usability Scale (SUS) to the same 13 participants after they had interacted with the prototype.

Results:

The average SUS score was 60.78 (SD = 13.25), this is acceptable usability. The main issues identified were the lack of skills to navigate digital interfaces, poor trust that the data was secure, and challenges with people with disabilities' ability to access the service. Participants provided high ratings for the assisted registration system and notifications. The modular architecture of the system, based on blockchain, showed a great deal of potential to scale and include more people. The prioritization matrix identified that, for adoption, features must contain good design, be multilingual, and require secure authentication.

Conclusions:

The blockchain-based mobile application model we propose offers a viable technical and socially inclusive model for the secure digital identification of seniors in under-service contexts. Usability tests suggested that the solution was perceived as secure, usable and appropriate for this target population. While not fully deployed, our prototypes and architecture provide a good starting point for future deployment. The findings in this study can contribute to efforts to facilitate digital inclusion, access to services, and respect for people's autonomy in identity management systems, for vulnerable people. Clinical Trial: Not applicable