EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INVOLVING END USERS IN DESIGN: FRESH APPROACHES
Interactivity was one of the buzzwords of this year’s event, with a number of sessions taking the form of discussions and brainstorms between small groups. This had the effect of encouraging new ideas and approaches to be voiced, with delegates from all backgrounds being given the chance to say what they thought was being done right but also what needed to change. One of the Wednesday sessions of the “Matching older adults’ aspirations” track produced a wide range of ideas about how to improve user involvement in the development of ICT solutions.
T
he general consensus from last year’s AAL Forum, held in Romania, was the need for the event to become more interactive and to actively involve all stakeholder
groups who are vital in moving forward the adoption of new technology by older adults. With the involvement of local Flemish
research programme iMinds and the local government innovation agency IWT, the AAL Forum 2015 became the most interactive yet, with delegates old and young involved in active sessions, discussing, debating and thrashing out ideas about how to tackle the challenges facing the ageing population.
One of the more memorable interactive sessions that summed up this new mood for collaboration through dialogue was one entitled Smart Engagement for Smart Solutions, which involved end users in meaningful discussion with industry and researchers. The session was organised by CORAL and was designed to seek innovative solutions for involving users in developing ICT for AAL as a way of matching older people’s aspirations with products on the market. This exciting afternoon saw entrepreneurs, policy makers, end users and researchers sitting down to share ideas and look at the processes needed to build effective solutions. Two of the key points addressed were how to keep users involved once a project has worked with them and then how do projects involving the users in the innovation and marketing processes. It was extremely engaging, with seven
separate presentations taking place that posed different problems, with the audience being asked to seek the solutions to those problems. After each of the sessions, delegates around separate tables were asked to discuss amongst themselves how to address the issues raised, while also looking at the barriers that needed to be overcome in relation to keeping the end user involved in the whole process of development through to market
42 | AAL FORUM 2014
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