Familiarity-based design in communities

The research and development of AAL solutions require that the focus be broaden beyond the end-user to involve other stakeholders: social and health workers, user associations, aggregation centers, policy makers, etc. Each of them is the bearer of specific interests and needs the neglect of which can sensibly restrict success chances. In previous works, we suggested Familiarity-based Design (FBD) as a way of mediating the language of users with the potentiality of technology. FBDC enlarges the scope by targeting not only single individuals but the (in-)formal networks of stakeholders and the community they are all part of. FBDC pursues individual and group involvement by first stimulating and then leveraging the feeling of being concerned with something that is beneficial for oneself as well as for the community. FBDC can attain levels of participation that go beyond the specific interests and points of views of the single stakeholder groups, stimulating their long-term involvement and their crucially acting as testimonial of a success story. The process unfolds through a number of steps: the designers (who act as mediators) start by identifying the single interest bearers. Focus groups and motivational meetings are the basic techniques to define roles and mutual responsibilities within the project. E.g., social workers are crucial in forming and maintaining end users’ motivation; policy makers grant that all the relevant steps be taken to pave the way for political decision making; users’ groups are pivotal at all the stages of design, from requirement elicitation to system testing. Specific community events (targeting both single groups and all the stakeholders together) are organized to nourish a sense of belonging to a pioneering team addressing a social challenge and a sense of ownership of, and attachment towards, the project results. The quantitative and qualitative assessment of the application of FBDC will be discussed with reference to the Netcarity project.