Research Session 3: Case studies in Living Lab application domains

The 4th ENoLL Living Lab Summer School 27th-30 August 2013

Manchester School of Arts

A Living Lab approach to the development of a consumer care service platform for older people

Nikki Holliday, Senior Research Assistant, Health Design & Technology Institute (HDTI), Coventry University

Dr. Gillan Ward (Principal Lecturer, HDTI), Darren Awang (Course Director, HDTI), David Harson (Project Manager, Advanced Digital Institute)

Outline• Brief overview of the service designed• Describe and discuss the methods used (Co-Creation and

Living Labs)• Consider the benefits of using Living Lab methodology

AroundMe™• The AroundMe™ service (part of the WarmNeighbourhoods

brand) is a consumer service that aims to help older or vulnerable people live independently and help their friends and relatives more easily support them

• Connected home sensors – appliance monitor, drawer/door sensors, temperature monitor

• Text messages to let personal neighbourhoods know their loved on is up, about, and OK. Not connected to an emergeny response service.

Project background

• Delivering Assisted Living Lifestyles at Scale (dallas) project– £23 million– Four communities – iFocus is one of these communities –

show how Assisted Living Technologies (ALT) can be used to promote wellbeing, quality health and social care, and to enable people to live independently

– Need to demonstrate the services can be provided at sufficient scale and cost to enable independent living

– Thinking beyond traditions health and social care provision– dallas aims to help grow the UK ALT sector

Three phases

• i-Focus is led by Advanced Digital Institute• HDTI to carry out user evaluation • Three phases:

– 2012/13 – Pilot with up to 20 users complete– 2013/14 – Pilot ‘new improved’ service with up to

1000 users – in preparation– 2014/15 – At scale roll out, 10K+ users

How does it work?

Pilot methodology

1. Co-Creation and initial service design2. Living labs and in situ testing

Co-Creation• “Any act of collective creativity,

i.e. creativity that is shared by two or more people” (Sanders an Stappers, 2008)

• Range of stakeholder participants

• Initial service design– Personas– What constitutes OK?– Daily routines– Service journey– What’s in the box?

Winter trial – 2012/13

Winter trial 2012/13

Your friend is active

Your friend is inactive

Your friend’s house is cold

Results of co-creation• Consensus on concept• Behavioural sensors chosen• Sensors which monitor medical

data NOT OK• User controls who receives

messages and who can respond• Messages should sound ‘in

house’ prior to the neighbourhood being alerted – gives user control to take any actions

• SMS text messages• Simple to use, easy to install

Living Labs• Testing the service concept

developed from the Co-Creation in situ

• Prototype service – repurposed technology – allowed testing of concept without commitment to a final tech solution

• Does the concept actually work in the home setting?

• How do people receive the service outside of the focus group (‘traditional lab’) situation?

Living Labs• 12 Neighbourhoods

– 14 users (two houses had couples as the main users

– 19 carers and responders– 3 families had a user with

dementia• Users aged 55-85 years• 12 week trial period• Midpoint, endpoint in-depth

interviews• Long-table analysis (Krueger &

Cassey, 2000)

In situ winter trial results

• Overwhelmingly positive feedback• Promoted greater understanding, awareness,

reassurance, and involvement between the personal networked neighbourhoods

• People liked the focus on positive wellbeing and activity messages

• Issues around installation and set up• People disliked the impersonal messaging• Temperature monitor did not work for some household• Possible confusion for people with dementia• All wanted to continue to use the equipment

A participant’s view…

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NsNgaK7hZk

Co-Creation/Living Labs

• Users are the knowledge base• Understanding the value of the service from the

customers viewpoint• Quick understanding of whether the service works

outside of the traditional lab, without commitment to expensive, unsuitable technology

• Service designed is fit for purpose• Powerful persuader to take the service to

commercialization• Ultimately – satisfied users

Next steps• Further Co-Creation to refine

service• New equipment chosen based

on user feedback and potential for scalability

• Partnered with a large UK energy company, who will be rolling out the new, improved service as a consumer service with up to 1000 users from winter 2013 onwards

• Further Living Lab testing, incl. self-install of new ‘plug and play’ equipment

Thank you

• Questions?

• Further information: nholliday@cueltd.net