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.