Evaluating Innovative Projects For And With Elderly People: Insights From Participatory Design Contests
Year: 2019
Editor: Wartzack, Sandro; Schleich, Benjamin; Gon
Author: Jean, Camille (1); Cluzel, Fran
Series: ICED
Section: User-centred design
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.1017/dsi.2019.393
ISSN: 2220-4342
Abstract
Societies are challenged worldwide to maintain or improve the life of an ageing population. In the meantime, it is an opportunity for businesses to develop products and services for the elderly. Participatory design - or co-design - promotes not only to design for, but also with and by older adults. Current studies tend to emphasize more field investigations and co-ideation than evaluation of co-designed outcomes with seniors. We are interested in two 24 hours-innovation contests in 2017 and 2018, yearly involving 10 teams of 3 students, elderly persons as potential beneficiaries and innovation experts. The aim of this paper is to analyse the variability of evaluation of generated projects between the elderly people and the innovation experts. The comparative analysis relies on the grades and ranking of projects against five criteria. Results show that elderly people provide consistent evaluations, but with a positioning slightly shifted compared to the experts. We conclude on recommendations for the evaluation process with a jury including seniors.
Keywords: Innovation, Participatory design, User centred design, Design for elderly, Innovative projects evaluation