Involving people with dementia in the development process of assistive technology: multi-stakeholder experiences of a user-driven living lab

Abstract

Despite the potential value of assistive technology to support people with dementia and their informal caregivers (=PlwD) to age in place, use of these innovations is still limited. To ensure that innovations better address specific needs of PlwD, it is important to actively involve them into the innovation process. A Living Lab (LL) is a user-centred research design in which multiple stakeholders, develop, test and validate innovative solutions in real-life environment together with end-users (i.e. PlwD). Although user involvement activities in LLs are seen as their main goal, little literature is available on how different stakeholders, including users, experience their collaboration in LLs. This case study (Playtime) investigates the experiences of various stakeholders, including PlwD, when developing a serious game in a LL. 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with PlwD, healthcare professionals, developers and researchers about their experiences following the key-principles of a successful User Centred Design project. Results shows that the stakeholders of the Playtime LL are most positive with regard to the key-principles active user participation, continuous iteration of design solutions and multidisciplinary networks. Some lessons learned are selected to inspire other LLs when collaborating with PlwD in the development of assistive technology for dementia.

Keywords:

• Dementia
• user centred design
• assistive technology
• multi-stakeholder collaboration
• living lab

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank all PlwD who devoted their time and experiences to the project Playtime. Special thanks are also to the project members of Playtime for sharing their experiences as stakeholders in the UCD.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study has received funding from the AAL Programme of the European Union and by the Austrian BMVIT/FFG (no. 857334), the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW) and the Flanders Innovations and Entrepreneurship (VLAIO).

Notes on contributors

Liselore J. A. E. Snaphaan

Liselore Snaphaan is a neuroscientist and led the dementia research program ‘Innovate Dementia’. In this program clients collaborated with different stakeholders to enhance user-based innovative solutions and support people living with dementia at home. Her expertise is interchanging knowledge about user-centred design, living labs, social innovation, dementia care at the Academic Collaborative Centre 'Technological and Social Innovation for Mental Health' in the Netherlands.

Iris A. G. M. Geerts

Iris Geerts has a background in organization studies, and worked at the time of the study as a researcher at Tranzo, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Her research interests are centred around living labs, user involvement and collaborative innovation. Recently, she started her Ph.D. at Utrecht University School of Governance, the Netherlands.

Inge M. B. Bongers

Inge Bongers is a professor of ‘Evidence based management of innovation in (mental) health care’ at Tranzo, TSB, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Her research focus on underpinning the development, implementation and evaluation of technological and social innovation within health care. Science and practice based knowledge is integrated to contribute to continuous cyclic innovation in co-creation with stakeholders: from pioneering to evidence based innovation. She is program leader of the Academic Collaborative Centre ‘Technological and Social Innovation for Mental Health’ in the Netherlands.