Newsletter Issue No.3 - January 2017

Researchers from Lancaster University met with senior managers from SLDC and Age-UK South Lakeland in March and April.

Meetings with South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) and AGE-UK South Lakeland: Researchers from Lancaster University met with senior managers from SLDC and Age-UK South Lakeland in March and April. Through discussions, interviews and follow up interviews with SLDC staff, broad themes around ‘independent living’ emerged that could be promoted among senior citizens through use of mobile technologies in accessing open data/services. Through May and early June, researchers met with senior citizens regularly at various AGE-SL social events, primarily to understand how seniors see themselves as users of mobile technology and what independent living means for them, but also to recruit volunteers for workshops.

• ULANC workshop 1 (21 June 2016), five participants: Participants shared their biggest concerns about ‘using’ mobile technology, computers and the internet and were encouraged to discuss their concerns and fears in depth and to ask researchers for help using their mobile phones/I-pads directly. This exercise enabled senior citizens to ask questions about the techniques of using certain features of, for example, a mobile phone, and presented an opportunity for researchers to advise on technology use and to gain an understanding the underlying issues relating to technology use among senior citizens that are important to keep in mind for designing the ‘Mobile Age’ App in the next phase of the project.
• ULANC workshop 2 (24th June 2016), 8 participants: Following a brief introduction for new attendees and a general discussion around problems, benefits and using technology among the senior citizens, researchers conducted a ‘calendar’ exercise with the participants which allowed the senior citizens to explore the theme of their ‘ideal week’ by comparing their actual week of activities from Monday to Sunday with their ideal week. The purpose of this exercise was to understand what activities people filled their days with to keep active, do necessary chores and avoid feeling lonely, as well as gaining an understanding of the role of technology in supporting and improving the quality of daily life.
• ULANC workshop 3 (30th June 2016), 2 participants: This workshop was intended as a feedback session from the calendar exercise, however as only two participants were able to attend, the event unfolded as one of discussion around challenges of seniors knowing what relevant information is available to them online and how to access this information, in addition to how researchers could facilitate this access for senior citizens.
• ULANC workshop 4 (12 July 2016), 4 participants: Researchers fed back the results of the calendar exercise to attendees, offering insights into the eight dominant themes that had emerged both from this exercise and previous interviews. The intention of this event was to order the themes according to relevance for each participant. Due to time constraints, not all themes were covered, however the participants struggled to prioritise the themes and left the event feeling enthused to return in September to participate in our design-oriented workshops. By this stage the participants and researchers had developed good personal relationships, sharing things about their lives with each other.

Meeting with SLDC and Age UK South Lakeland staff (25 August 2016): The purpose of this meeting was to enable researchers to report on results of fieldwork to date and for the intermediaries to offer feedback and advice, after which discussions around themes of possible intervention emerged.

The September workshops were the first series of co-design workshop that will be continued in October and November. The events were planned around one of the most pertinent themes that emerged from previous interviews and workshops in understanding independent living in the context of open data accessibility.

13 September South Lakeland workshop:
The theme of ‘events’ that senior citizens like to attend was explored. Following a brainstorming session on issues such as nature of event, information gathering on event, transport to get to event, participants carried out an exercise which involved searching for information on various aspects of events and the accessibility of (open) data tied to the events. A lively discussion generated further insights into senior’s needs, preferences, difficulties, frustrations and design ideas.

27 September South Lakeland workshop:
Seniors carried out a set of exercises based on insights gathered at the previous workshop. They explored specific websites on their own mobile devices (including laptops) for example, property sale websites. Researchers observed their interaction with mobile devices, offering assistance where necessary and exploring difficulties faced when navigating the web sites. Participants commented on what they would find helpful/ideal support in situations involving website surfing. The workshop was fruitful in understanding App design features that the participants would appreciate, and that could be developed and installed, on their mobile devices in order to facilitate web surfing. It was also suggestive of additional data/features that may be useful to incorporate in future versions of the App prototype.

Based on the September workshops, our designers will incorporate participant input in to the App design and will begin the ‘development’ phase of our co-creation project in South Lakeland. The developed product will be further refined through test and feedback over the coming months.