Suchergebnisse

This paper discusses the process of including a multi-perspective view on stakeholders' needs into a specific project, namely the European project ActiveAdvice. It highlights the factors supporting and hindering the development and the implementation of the ActiveAdvice platform – as an integrated communication tool targeted at bridging the gaps between AAL stakeholders by facilitating cooperation and information exchange – regarding user requirements, preferences, acceptances and expectations. For this, a qualitative study was carried out, taking into account not only the older adults as primary end-users but the whole AAL stakeholder ecosystem. 23 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders of different groups – older adults and their relatives, business as well as government representatives – were conducted. The results show that even though different stakeholders can have conflicting needs, e.g. regarding online communication or feedback, those can be integrated into the requirements analysis, thus including the whole stakeholder ecosystem in the designing process. Furthermore, all three included stakeholder groups agree on the importance of raising awareness of AAL solutions, technologies and products. In including not only consumers but other secondary and tertiary stakeholders as well, ActiveAdvice has the chance to reach a broader audience and thus raise public awareness of AAL.

For the last 10 years, ageing well in the community has become a key concern of the European Union and its member states. Action plans as well as distinct programs such as the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Joint Programme are evidence of this engagement. Since then, many AAL products and services have been developed and implemented in the European market. Up to now, however, access to, and the availability of these solutions is difficult, and the information on their use is scarce. ActiveAdvice, an AAL EU-funded project aims to develop an online platform which offers both information on AAL solutions as well as advice to end users. This paper discusses the application of a multi-stakeholder perspective approach. It discusses the user-centered development and reflects on the establishment of AAL ecosystems and the functional requirements of the ActiveAdvice platform. It includes an extended methodological framework, which explains conclusively the ActiveAdvice stakeholders' identification process and the user-centered requirements analysis, built on 38 semi-structured interviews with three stakeholder groups – consumers, businesses and governments. The integration of different stakeholders in the development and implementation of AAL solutions is a necessity as well as a challenge. This holds also true for the development of the ActiveAdvice platform.