Author: Raquel Rodrigues

COLABORATE participates in focus group

Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS led PortoPilot, a project which included conducting focus groups with seniors to identify their daily needs that can be tackled with digital solutions. Also, part of this study was the execution of a pilot with identified technologies to empower senior citizens and promote their well-being.

In this scope, Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS held a focus group to understand the interests of seniors and their attitudes towards technology. Our team of researchers distributed smartphones and taught them how to use some technologies, such as Whatsapp, games, YouTube and whatever they asked to learn. 10 seniors from the COLABORAR network took part of the pilot.

Our team conducted these focus groups to assess user needs, select solutions, set up the required technologies and provide support during the pilot study.

The goal was to collect and analyze data regarding seniors’ experience in using these technologies. PortoPilot ended in December of 2023.

12 years of COLABORAR!

At the end of October, the COLABORAR volunteer network celebrated its 12th anniversary. The occasion, which was marked with a Halloween Ball in the UPTEC auditorium, included some of the network’s volunteers.

COLABORAR was created in 2011. It is open to the outside world, meaning that companies or organisations can use this network as a way of gathering suggestions and expectations from the target audience for new products and services. Over the years, volunteers in this group have taken part in all kinds of research activities, such as in-depth interviews, usability tests, everyday observation sessions, group discussion sessions, surveys and user experience evaluation. Since its beginning, COLABORAR has conducted a total of 3,266 research activities as part of 83 R&D projects.

The COLABORAR network also has several partner institutions. Currently, 20 are active, but in COLABORAR’s history, 82 institutional partnerships have been established. The group already has 1616 volunteers, with 552 currently active.

COLABORAR was created to connect technology researchers with users in different application areas such as well-being, health, security, agriculture, retail, energy, quality of life in old age and technology for communities. Creating technology is not exclusive to researchers and programmers. COLABORAR volunteers are also part of the process.

COLABORAR network helps create technology for people with dementia

Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS recently launched another project: AUTONONOUS. This is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can be integrated into existing technologies, such as smartwatches, to help people with dementia carry out day-to-day activities and prolong independent living at home.

The project involves co-design activities and usability testing of the technology. Once again, the Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS volunteer network – COLABORAR – will be key in this regard. Throughout the AUTONOMOUS project and the development of the proposed solutions, there will be continuous close working between the researchers and people with dementia and their carers, be they family members, technicians or assistants from the institutions.

This solution, proposed by Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University and LUCA School of Arts, was selected as one of the semi-finalist winners of the Longitude Prize for Dementia.

Each of the 24 semi-finalists receives £80k grants as part of the overall £4m Longitude Prize on Dementia, driving the co-creation of personalised technologies to help people living with dementia enjoy independent and fulfilled lives. The Longitude Prize on Dementia is funded by Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK and delivered by Challenge Works.

Laboratory data collection

The COTIDIANA project intends to develop a mobile solution that allows the collection of data from people with rheumatic diseases. In line with this goal, a team from FhP-AICOS has recently been conducting some interviews and usability tests with Rheumatic patients (some of them from the COLABORAR network).

The aim is to understand the context of the disease and its limitations for the patients. Also, with the usability tests the goal is to gather feedback from the users, helping researchers to implement a more efficient and accurate solution. The volunteers were from ADARSOL day center.

AnathemaServices: design research to deal with taboo topics

Developing his master’s thesis – AnathemaService – at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, Diogo Coutinho is exploring design research methods to deal with taboo topics such as sexuality. In this sense, and in order to prepare the market entry of the Anathema app, three workshops were organized with 11 participants. These sessions aim to help understand what people value in a product, becoming a valuable tool in defining the customer journey. In each session, participants (volunteers from the COLABORAR network) were asked to perform various tasks, allowing to understand the most valued services and features.

“To tackle the problem of stigma, designers need to work directly with the stigmatizing topics that affect users, which is difficult as some of the methodologies used are inappropriate. AnathemaService aims to contribute to fill this gap by giving new strategies to deal with stigma in design research activities”, explains Diogo Coutinho.

COLABORAR network is back…and with a new codesign space!

After more than two years of social distance, the COLABORAR network is back!

As a way of resuming usability tests, in person, a session was held at the new FhP- AICOS’ co-creation space. This space is now used for usability tests with end users, as it happened recently within the scope of the Anathema project.

In a session held with 4 users (2 couples), one of the project’s partners, SexLab, moderated the first part, a focus group with seniors on important issues of intimate and sexual life in old age.

In the second part, FhP-AICOS moderated a co-design workshop in which seniors gave their feedback both on illustrations that could be used in the application and on quotations from the texts that were created for the program.

The first of many sessions to be held!

Anathema is a European project for the promotion of sexual health, coordinated by the research center Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS (FhP-AICOS) which aims to develop a digital platform and a mobile application as a way to implement programs of promotion of sexual health, according to a plan outlined in conjunction with psychologists and therapists. The Anathema project focuses on monitoring sexuality in adults over 55 and with chronic diseases.

Guidelines for longitudinal studies

In 2019, our HCD team, with extensive experience in longitudinal studies, published the article entitled “Challenges and Lessons Learned from Implementing Longitudinal Studies for Self-care Technology Assessment”. Now, and based on that article, our experts have prepared a summary, with some tips and advice on how to conduct a longitudinal study.

Please, click here to access the document.

COLABORAR distributes tablets to seniors from nine institutions in order to combat social isolation

To combat the social isolation imposed by COVID-19, and in order to promote the proximity of family members and caregivers, the COLABORAR user network is distributing tablets to the elderly in some partner institutions. In total, 33 pieces of equipment should be assigned to nine institutions. The first to receive the tablets was the Monte Pedral Association.

The equipment aims, above all, to contribute to the well-being of this population group, stimulating contact and proximity to family members and also allowing for more playful moments through the use of some features such as games and activities. This COLABORAR network’s initiative comes under the ELAPSE Project, financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which consists of implementing a longitudinal study to assess the impact of technology in combating the social isolation of the elderly.