WP2: iNclude – Participatory Research

Key Question:

How can we create benefit for the target group?​

Work Package Summary

WP2 coordinates user research activities to ensure an added value of research and development outcomes in all technical work packages in the iLEAD Project (WP3-WP7) by employing a Living Lab approach. User involvement activities – from Context of Use analysis right up to socio-technical evaluation – with relevant stakeholders are planned and conducted. Results essential for technical research and development process of medical assistive devices are derived in order to ensure useful and inclusive solutions with a high user experience for the target groups.

The main goals of iNclude

Participatory Research

Work package 2 is a horizontal WP what means, that it interacts with and supports all technical work packages in the iLEAD Project (WP3-WP7) in terms of end-user involvement. It supports the research and development process from user/costumer point of view and supports the other WPs with specific information at the right time to foster useful and user-friendly designs. Furthermore, user involvement activities are planned, conducted and results derived. The user pool is managed and a fluent user information flow is supported. Additionally, a joint development of timeline and the content of user involvement activities is coordinated.
A supportive task could for example be a workshop or focus group with different experts (e.g. therapists, orthopedics) to gather user needs and requirements for a tailored hand rehabilitation device. Another example would be the evaluation of body-part-scanning, 3D-printing and test of a prosthesis with patients and therapists.

Two main goals are set within the project for WP2:

  1. A participatory research approach is employed to close the gap between technological research and development and the needs and requirements of future users to enhance acceptance of technical solutions and services, added value and integration in everyday live and anchoring
  2. A Living Lab research approach is used in all phases of the research and development life cycle (idea, conceptualization, iterative evaluation and exploitation and anchoring). This contains the analysis of the ecosystem, the context of use analysis and user requirement definition, co-creation and iterative validation of concepts or prototypes (technological and service) with relevant stakeholder groups. Therefore different methods and instruments and different participation levels are used to detect conceptual errors in early stages in order to increase the acceptance of technical solutions, processes or service models.

The work package is divided into 4 tasks:

  1. Stakeholder and ecosystem analysis, development of a stakeholder map
  2. Ethical guidance and development of an overall user involvement concept
  3. Context of use analysis for specific medical assistive devices
  4. Iterative evaluation of concepts and prototype(s)

The main results of WP2 are an evolving stakeholder map, an ethical guidance document, a user involvement plan, a requirement analysis and an evaluation report.