An Experience of Co-Design with Elderly People in the HABITAT Project: Improving Older Users’ Lifestyle with Assistive Home Systems

The ageing trend involving populations all over the world is focusing Design Research’s attention on smart devices addressed to older people with specific needs. The project HABITAT, carried out by a multidisciplinary research team with the participation of several companies, aimed to develop and test a smart platform composed of smart interoperable objects able to adapt themselves to satisfy the user’s necessities. The final objective of the project was the realization of an assistive, safe and reconfigurable environment, able to enhance the person’s autonomy in daily activities, postponing the personal necessity of assistance or hospitalization. The project was designed following a User Centered approach involving older users, their relatives and care-givers, and some stakeholders, in the different stages of the design process. Co-Design workshops were practiced to improve the project usability by designing with users’ solutions able to satisfy their needs and requirements.