Digital Life guest at SPUI25: 'From Drawing Board to Practice'
28-10-2020
Co-creation for well-being in times of Covid-19
The creative industry is actively looking for solutions to the new challenges in the new normal with the help of digital means. But now the question is: how can you engage in people-centred design and collaborative research now that face-to-face research is less feasible?
For example, how do you conduct remote research with elderly people? How do you ensure that someone with a visual impairment knows whether the conversation partner is keeping a distance of 1.5 meters? How do you guarantee that everyone has a voice and control over data collection and technology such as the corona tracing app? As part of the Co-Well project (led by dr Marije Kanis), a number of experts, including researcher Joey van der Bie of Digital Life, discussed the importance of 'co-creation' in our new situation on Tuesday afternoon, October 27.
The SPUI25 meeting
Nearly 60 participants were present online at the meeting 'From Drawing Table to Practice', organized by SPUI25 in collaboration with the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences as part of the ACIN Co-Well project. The purpose of this SPUI25 series is to see where academic and practice-oriented research meet in relation to societal relevant themes. And what can we learn from each other in this?
The central theme on October 27. was: 'Co-creating for well-being in times of corona'.
Dominique van Ratingen, program director of ACIN - the Amsterdam Creative Industries Network, Center of Expertise of the creative industry, acted as moderator.
Co-Well
The meeting took place as part of the Co-Well project, which has been funded by ACIN. Due to corona and the 1.5 m society, face-to-face research and physical co-creation have become difficult. Co-Well is thus focused in developing co-creative methods for remote well-being. How can digital technology be used creatively to improve the well-being of people at a distance?
Participation around Co-Well
In the current corona era, it is difficult to continue to conduct research in the way everyone was used to, in close contact with the target group itself. This problem is emerging worldwide among researchers and creators in the field of Human Computer Interaction. Also for people with a visual impairment, with whom speaker Joey van der Bie has a lot of experience from his previous EyeBeacons research, it is very difficult to function in a 1.5 m society without fear and to keep sufficient distance.
For the Co-Well project, a number of useful methods and tools are being developed together with students.
- A module on your phone or online to check whether you are still 1.5 m away from other people (minor Caring technology)
- A pendant with magnets with which the phone can be worn on the chest and can automatically start the app (minor Caring technology)
- Development of online recommendation tools for activities that make you happy, for various groups of users (HBO-ICT course Entreprise Web Application)
Another example of a student project and new remote method for conducting research with elderly people in corona times, is an activity toolkit, recently developed under the leadership of dr Marije Kanis with CMD students from the minor Designing User Research and in collaboration with the Exercise Therapy lectorate. The kit contains a special activity journal 'One week in the life of ...', activity cards, a folder with tips and tricks for (digital) exercise and an fitness band to gain more insights into the needs of older adults (65+). As part of the Co-Well project, this co-creation toolkit is now being further developed and evaluated for physical and mental well-being with professionals and five students of the minor caring technology.
Finally, the Co-Well showcase connectedcreative.nl offers various other ways and inspiration to be creative together in the times of Covid-19.
Innovation and co-creation at Bartiméus
The second speaker was Paul de Nooij, innovation specialist at Bartiméus, a care and expertise organization aimed at people living with a visual impairment. Paul has developed a navigation app for the visually impaired, in which the dilemma of COVID-19 is also topical. Bartiméus is used to working intensively with the users of their app through co-creation. For this, new ways must now be found.
CORONAMELDER APP
Finally, Maike Klip spoke, she is a digital strategist and designer at Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO). Since last summer, she has been involved in the coronamelder app, which was developed with various parties on behalf of the government. The question: How do you develop an app that meets the needs of a couple of million people? The designers and developers of Co-Well partner Code4NL played an important part in promoting open participation and collaboration in this.
The corona detector tracks down people who are infected with corona: who have you been in the vicinity and what is your chance of infection? Bluetooth is used for this. You download the corona app on your phone, which you then leave on. There are already 3.5 million downloads of the app, which can be used to anonymously track and trace people infected with corona.
The iterative prototyping and develoment process took place online, with the use of various user panels. These people could tell about their own situation, experiences and needs from their home environment. At a later stage, a corona-proof usability lab was also deployed. The whole development process has been made publicly available online, which mainly thanks to Code4NL, supported the open co-creation process on a larger national scale. The important start-off point: the user, wherever and whoever, is the expert.
CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
What challenges are there for better co-creation and creative remote collaboration? For the time being, we rely a lot on methods that we already know: interviews, video calling and alike. But we also need other dynamic and richer methodologies. Today's 'remote' methods such as video calling can also sometimes offer advantages, such as new personal views of the other person's living room instead of a sterile lab environment. This actually brings the researcher and designer closer to the user.
Deploying your phone -hardware- could also offer a solution. Another idea is to look at multiple cases of co-creation with different groups to learn from the different approaches.
All in all, 'co-creation in the new normal' is and will remain a current theme with which we will gain a lot of experience!
you can watch the full panel meeting here (in Dutch).