New Domestic Healthcare. Co-designing Assistive Technologies for Autonomous Ageing at Home

Ageing is connected with increased chronic psychological and physical disabilities, which are today delayed to older ages than in the past. The constant growth in number of older people in our society creates a larger demand of goods and services related to home care, due to the willingness of the elderly to live at home remaining autonomous as long as possible. Using a Human Centred Design method, this research aims to support ageing in place and to extend independence of older people through appropriate technological strategies for families, reducing both costs and risk factors of caregiving. Quality Function Deployment tool and Co-Design technique are the main approaches that have led the design process, including older people in every decision-making step. The final result is an assistive IoT ecosystem, which provides at the same time a customizable healthcare service to the elderly and a home care management system to their caregivers.