User involvement in Living Labs from an Active Ageing perspective: co-creation of an „Older People” centered engagement approach.

PURPOSE. involvement of older people in the innovation process is a challenge. Therefore, it was explored how older persons can be motivated to participate in Living Labs.
METHODS. during five co-creation sessions with older people in the Flemish Care Living Labs, ideas were explored on recruitment strategies and motivations of older people and their long-term engagement in CLL activities. To enhance the discussion and idea-generation, different techniques were used like personas Lies and Jaak, role-play, post-its, drawing and probes.
RESULTS. to recruit the non-motivated persona "Lies", the participants suggested personal contact by a trusted person as the most preferred approach. Motivations to participate in the CLL were to live longer independent at home, to meet peers, to get introduced to innovations and test new products, to learn from each other, to mean something and give something back to society. To keep persona "Jaak" engaged in the CLL activities, the older persons had to ideate on three CLL activities: 1) answering questionnaires, 2) testing of innovations in real life and 3) other activities that could be organized within the CLL. Resulting in the need for Jaak of feedback and a clear purpose of the activity, a personal approach and more group interaction. A range of social activities was suggested, with emphasis on transport and accessibility.
CONCLUSIONS. the output of these sessions provide valuable information to enable participation in the innovation process in line with Active Ageing theory in which autonomy, independence and quality of life are key aspects.