Seniors in charge of ICT innovation

We present the user-driven AGNES project (aal-2008-1-014). The project has three user groups, one in each of Sweden, Spain and Greece, who have participated as full members of the project team. The method used for developing this novel ICT was an extension of the ELITE design approach for user driven innovation. The results presented in the paper are on how the users' attitudes changed during the project due to their having the expert role in the development process and how they accepted and acted in that role. To start with, the elderly users were very polite, often negative about and frightened of technology. Some did not have a computer of their own and did not have any or much experiences of new communication technologies. During the project the users were introduced to an interactive social network, generated design ideas for new ICT and also tested ICT solutions related to using the social network and connected devices. The paper gives examples of how the user attitudes towards technology changes during the project and discusses how they became true experts able to express their knowledge and in that way exert control over the technical design in the project. The result is that the users have become bold, good at expressing their knowledge, and good at marketing the project and the use of technology to other people, and in the process increasing their social life both on the net and in the physical world.