Reaching the Voice of the Customer: Experiences in Local and International Test Beds and their Value

Prof Maurice Mulvenna, University of Ulster

1

Reaching the voice of the customer: experiences in local and international test beds and their value

Outline

•  living labs •  trail •  case studies •  issues •  realising the value •  concluding remarks

2

What’s a ‘Living Lab’? •  Originates from MIT, Boston, MediaLab and School of Architecture and city

planning. ‘ Living Labs as a research methodology for sensing, prototyping, validating and refining complex solutions in multiple and evolving real life contexts.’

•  In Europe it has been mentioned in four different contexts: 1.  Bringing laboratory based technology test-beds into real-life user focused

environments for validation 2.  Developing mobility services for citizens in a real-life early adapter or normal

population communities with existing and close to market technologies. Focus in an user centric co-design/co-creation process and Public Private Partnerships

3.  Virtualising Living Lab as a context sensitive research and development methodology for multi-site and multi-stakeholder environment to study new working environments from Pan-European perspectives

4.  National Initiatives in Finland and Sweden. Dimes as an industry initiative in 4 biggest Finnish cities to validate new mobility services in a real user centric models.

5

Interdisciplinary Open

Participative User-focused

trail

what we do

•  Early stage innovation activities encompassing: –  Ideation –  Early research and development, supported by external

funders, in many inter-related areas.

•  Mid-stage market research and preparation –  Formulating intellectual property and/or know-how –  Finding local commercialisation partners

6

what we do triple helix also called…

•  participatory culture •  social innovation •  civic culture •  cultural citizenship •  online activism

–  Mobilise People –  Witness and Record –  Visualise Your Message

–  Amplify Personal Stories –  Just Add Humour –  Investigate and Expose –  How to Use Complex Data –  Use Collective Intelligence –  Let People Ask the Questions

–  Manage Your Contacts 7

State Academia

Industry

Users

relevance to society

•  Living Lab –  Lessens risk in innovation –  Speeds up innovation –  Captures real needs at the beginning of the process –  New sources of innovation

•  Using ‘lead users’ –  Those that very quickly understand the innovation problem

and articulate their needs because they have acute and latent needs

–  Ensure higher validity, manage drop-out rates/motivation levels, buy-in and overall can carry out more efficient iterations

8

activities Characteristic user Identifying users Identifying needs Evaluating innovation

Person with early stage dementia

Health and welfare organisation

Face-to-face interviews with people with dementia and their carers

Medium scale trials with small numbers of users

Elderly, rural dwellers Health and welfare organisation

Face-to-face meetings and workshops

Medium scale trials with medium number of users

People with brain injuries Health and welfare service provider

Lead user / small scale workshops for people with brain injuries and their carers

Small scale trials with small number of users

Elderly people Local council / health and welfare organisation

Region-based surveys of older people / workshops

Bespoke ‘wellness service model’ assessment

People with early stage dementia

Health and welfare organisation

Workshops and interviews with the people with dementia and the carer

Short to medium scale trials with medium numbers of users

Young people, often with self-image issues

Second-level educational institutes

Face-to-face meetings / small scale workshops

Uptake of third level educational courses

Elderly people Local council / health and welfare organisation

Medium scale workshops / users provided with idea capture toolkit

Long scale trials with medium numbers of users

9

BRAIN

•  Supported by European Commission’s ICT for Inclusion Unit, under EU FP7 grant agreement No. 224156

•  Academia, industry and service users to develop a Brain-Computer Interface system linked directly to assistive technology and services within the home environment

10

11

activities Characteristic user Identifying users Identifying needs Evaluating innovation

Person with early stage dementia

Health and welfare organisation

Face-to-face interviews with people with dementia and their carers

Medium scale trials with small numbers of users

Elderly, rural dwellers Health and welfare organisation

Face-to-face meetings and workshops

Medium scale trials with medium number of users

People with brain injuries Health and welfare service provider

Lead user / small scale workshops for people with brain injuries and their carers

Small scale trials with small number of users

Elderly people Local council / health and welfare organisation

Region-based surveys of older people / workshops

Bespoke ‘wellness service model’ assessment

People with early stage dementia

Health and welfare organisation

Workshops and interviews with the people with dementia and the carer

Short to medium scale trials with medium numbers of users

Young people, often with self-image issues

Second-level educational institutes

Face-to-face meetings / small scale workshops

Uptake of third level educational courses

Elderly people Local council / health and welfare organisation

Medium scale workshops / users provided with idea capture toolkit

Long scale trials with medium numbers of users

12

COGKNOW

•  Supported by European Commission’s ICT for Inclusion Unit, under EU FP7 grant agreement No. 034025

•  Academia, industry and health care users working to to develop services that support people with dementia getting through their day

13

Art of memory

•  “To Encourage the Translation of Research Findings into Products and Services that will have an Impact upon the Economy and Society”

•  Aims –  Assess value of different types of multimedia information

(photographs, film, generic media, person-specific media, or ‘shared experience’ media); and

–  Evaluate ease of organization and change of media by older people.

14

15

16

MyHealth@Age: Improved Health and Safety for Elderly People

MyHealth@Age aims to improve health and safety for elderly people living in urban and rural areas in the Northern Periphery region.

Through participatory research in close co-operation with elderly people, healthcare and welfare organizations, ICT-companies and Universities in Northern Ireland, Norway, and Sweden, new products and services are being developed

The products and services focus on mobile safety alarms, prescribed self treatment and context aware dynamic social networks.

Through consecutive field trials, the products and services will be evaluated and enhanced.

17

Case study: MAPEER SME - Making Progress and Economic enhancement a

Reality for SMEs MaPEeR SME aims to acquire comprehensive insight into the design, implementation and impact of existing SME research and innovation programmes and initiatives at European Union (EU), national and regional level and convey it in the most appropriate way to SME stakeholders and policy-makers. The project will last two years and will involve 15 highly experienced organisations, covering the 27 EU members states plus Bosnia-Herzegovina, in order to ensure the full coverage of the EU programmes and stakeholders.

18

PARTERRE – electronic participation tools for spatial planning & territorial

development

•  ICT PSP Objective - THEME 3: ICT FOR GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNANCE - Objective 3.5: eParticipation, empower and involve citizens in transparent decision-making in the EU

•  Six pilots in five EU

•  TRAIL leading user engagement across EU and defining 10-20 studies in Northern Ireland/UK

Issues

•  Working with vulnerable users; •  Managing the tension between users needs and

advancing the state of the art; •  Informing and educating the regional government to

the benefits of citizen involvement; and •  Addressing problems inherent in inter-disciplinary

working

19

Working with vulnerable users

•  Ensure that the living lab: –  Interacts with vulnerable people in an equitable manner, –  Respecting their needs and wishes ethically, –  Adheres to relevant legislative provision in the field of ethics, –  All stakeholder organisations who are responsible for

managing adherence to ethical guidelines do so

20

Managing the tension between users needs & advancing the state of the art

•  Balance of the management of innovation activities. •  Majority of activities funded with support from

European and national research and development grants.

•  The lab focuses on the early innovation stages: ideation, connection and evaluation;

•  degree of ‘user-driven-ness’ v. state-of-the-art advancement.

21

Informing and educating the regional government to the benefits of citizen

involvement •  Managing the difficulty experienced in embedding the

living lab into the community in the North of Ireland •  The bedding down of the living lab into the community

is strategically important. •  Forming long-term linkages with local government and

related municipal organisations, against a backdrop of political uncertainty at both regional and local municipal levels.

•  There is also evidence in the Northern Ireland region, that there is a related issue arising from a pre-disposition against risk-taking and openness to fresh thinking in innovation. 22

Addressing problems inherent in inter-disciplinary working

•  Practical problems in fostering inter-disciplinary research between different areas of expertise, for example, computing and health sciences.

•  “Those whose work becomes more interdisciplinary feel that they are losing their peer group.” –  Linda Katehi, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

•  Such human factors were one of the main barriers to inter-disciplinarity.”

•  This has been experienced in our living lab as external pressure force academics into ‘discipline silos’.

23

realising the value

24

Triple Helix Instantiation

Concluding remarks…

•  Significant body of academic research that supports the premise that user-driven innovation creates value in markets and for society.

•  The network of living labs in Europe has been created, partly based upon this premise

•  But it can be argued that there is a lack of evidence that demonstrates how such living labs articulate their value proposition, and

•  How they carry out activities on the ground to work with users to create the added valued inherent in early innovation processes.

26

27

Concluding remarks…

•  Living Lab •  Social programs •  Demonstrate leadership in Ireland/UK •  Create roadmaps for service provision innovation for

service evolution •  Trusted partner in connected health and policy

activities •  Open European networks up to local healthcare

partners

Concluding remarks…

•  meaningful engagement •  gathering relevant evidence •  more evaluation •  respect all stakeholders •  and remember, it’s about service innovation (usually)

28

Visualisation

29

A University of Ulster Innovation Lab

…THANKS

[email protected]

Want to learn more? •  Mulvenna, M.D., Nugent, C.D. (Eds.), (2010) Supporting People with Dementia Using Pervasive

Health Technologies, Series: Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing, 238 pages, Springer.

•  Mulvenna, M.D., Galbraith, B., Martin, S., (2009) Enriching the Research & Development Process Using Living Lab Methods: The TRAIL Experience, In: eChallenges-2009 Conference Proceedings, Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds), IIMC International Information Management Corporation.

•  Galbraith, B., Mulvenna, M.D., Martin, S., McGloin, E., 2008) Living Labs: Helping to Meet the Needs of Ageing People? In: Mann, W.C., Aging, Disability and Independence - Selected Papers from the 4th International Conference on Aging, Disability and Independence, IOS Press, Assistive Technology Research Series, Vol. 22, pp. 105-118.

•  Mulvenna, M.D., Wallace, J., Moore, G., Martin, S., Galbraith, B., Haaker, T., Moelaert, F., Jansson, M., Bergvall-Kåreborn, B., Castellot, R., Melander-Wikman, A., Bengtsson, J.E., Isaksson, L. and Nugent, C. (2010) Towards Sustainable Business Models From Healthcare Technology Research, International Journal of Computers in Healthcare, Vol. 1, No.1, pp. 20-35.

•  Davies, R.J., Nugent, C.D., Donnelly, M., Hettinga, M., Meiland, F., Moelaert, F., Mulvenna, M.D., Bengtsson, J.E., Craig, D., Droes, R.-M. (2009) A User-Driven Approach to Develop a Cognitive Prosthetic to Address Unmet Needs of People with Mild Dementia, Journal of Pervasive and Mobile Computing, 5(3) pp. 253-267.

•  Mulvenna, M.D., Astell, A.J., Zheng, H., Wright, T., (Eds.) Proceedings of First International Workshop on Reminiscence Systems (RSW-2009), Cambridge, UK, 5 September, 2009, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, ISSN 1613-0073, pp. 1-44, http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-499. 31