You can’t always get what you want: Streamlining stakeholder interests when designing technology-supported services for Active and Assisted Living

Technological innovations have the potential to support the ageing society, by providing tools to improve quality of life, overall health, preserving independence and reducing loneliness. Acceptance of such innovations and long-term user engagement, however, depends highly on a proper fit between the technology and different kinds of stakeholders (including end-users). In this article, we report on a co-design process with different stakeholders and the negotiation that ensued after the elicitation of their wishes. A first session was held with older adults (n=11, aged 64 to 88 years), leading to nine challenges and opportunities that older adults face. In a second workshop service and technology providers (n=8) jointly ideated new service concepts. This process laid bare the discrepancies between project objectives, end-user challenges, service providers’ interests and researcher aims. This article outlines the difficulties when aligning stakeholder interests and suggests interest mapping and direct, iterative dialogue as a possible solution.