Taking Real-Life Seriously: An Approach to Decomposing Context Beyond “Environment” in Living Labs

Lynn Coorevits,An Jacobs

doi:10.22215/timreview/1047

Lynn Coorevits, An Jacobs

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1047

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Abstract

The maturity of Living Labs has grown and several researchers have tried to create a uniform definition of what Living Labs are by emphasizing the multi-method and real-life, contextual approach. Although researchers thus recognize the importance of context in Living Labs, they do not provide insights into how context can be taken into account. The real-life context predominantly focuses on the in-situ use of a product during field trials where users are observed in their everyday life. The contribution of this paper will be twofold. By means of a case study we will show how context can be evaluated in the front end of design, so Living Lab researchers are no longer dependent on the readiness level of a product, and we will show how field trials can be evaluated in a more structured way to cover all components of context. By using a framework to evaluate the impact of context on product use, Living Lab researchers can improve the overall effectiveness of data gathering and analysis methods in a Living Lab project.

Highlights

Innovation can be described as a five-step process that begins by identifying an opportunity, and culminating with the post-launch of a specific product or service (De Marez, 2006): i) opportunity identification; ii) concept design, development, and evaluation; iii) product design, development, and evaluation; iv) launch; and v) post-launch
We suggest that using the framework with its different dimensions as a guideline for the planning phase of a living lab research project and iteratively applying it in the subsequent steps will provide more actionable, rich, and dynamic insights into the use context
Our research further indicates that contextual input varies depending on the research method being used

Summary

Introduction

Innovation can be described as a five-step process that begins by identifying an opportunity, and culminating with the post-launch of a specific product or service (De Marez, 2006): i) opportunity identification; ii) concept design, development, and evaluation; iii) product design, development, and evaluation; iv) launch; and v) post-launch. The implied linear structure of this idealized process fails to convey the reality that user involvement may require multiple iterations or adjustments to a specific design than what is initially anticipated. This is especially true because it is difficult to accurately predict the future needs of users (Von Hippel, 1986). Innovation is an iterative process of need discovery – a pattern arising out of chaos – that is primarily visible in the front-end of design (Sanders & Stappers, 2012). Their multimethod approach enables developers to take a much more granular approach to product development from inception to conclusion

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