madelene larsson – Design for Wellbeing

NeedInn – Need Centered Product Innovation within E-health | 2005-2007

Tobias Larsson — Sun, 08 May 2011 13:12:22 +0000

Needfinding process in NeedInn (swedish)

PROJECT SUMMARY

Needfinding and innovation are the keywords of NeedInn.

The goal for NeedInn is to create a method, a working process, which contributes to a need centered product development process within e-health. To make this happen we need to develop a way to find the needs and to make them more clearly for users and solution providers.

PROJECT INFORMATION

Type: Research and development
Keywords: E-health, Engineering Design, Needfinding, Product Development
Application area: Healthcare
Time frame: 2005-2007
Funding: 5.3 MSEK, EC Regional Programme for Innovative Actions
Research unit: Luleå University of Technology
Partners: Alkit Communications, EU, Luleå Kommun, Länsstyrelsen Norrbotten, Länsstyrelsen Västerbotten, Skellefteå Kommun,

DOCUMENTS

Final report – NeedInn: PDF | 1.6 MB

LINKS

PUBLICATIONS

Needs as a basis for design rationale. / Bergström, Mattias ; Ericson, Åsa ; Larsson, Madelene ; Nergård, Henrik ; Larsson, Tobias ; Renström, Boo. In: Proceedings of the Design 2008 : 10th International Design Conference, May 19-22, 2008, Dubrovnik, Croatia. University of Zagreb, 2008. 8 p. Research: Article for conference peer reviewed
Design for wellbeing. / Larsson, Tobias ; Larsson, Andreas. In: The Engineering Handbook of Smart Technology for Aging, Disability and Independence. / ed. Abdelsalam Helal ; Mounir Mokhtari ; Bessam Abdulrazak. Hoboken, N.J : Wiley, 2008. p. 819-832
Need driven product development in team-based projects. / Ericson, Åsa ; Larsson, Tobias ; Larsson, Andreas ; Larsson, Madelene. In: Proceedings of the 16th International conference on engineering design : ICED 07. 2007. 11 p. Research: Article for conference peer reviewed
NeedInn : behovsdriven produktutveckling inom E-hälsa. / Larsson, Tobias ; Larsson, Madelene. Luleå : Luleå tekniska universitet, 2007. 60 p. Research: Scientific report
In search of what is missing : needfinding the SIRIUS way. / Ericson, Åsa ; Larsson, Tobias ; Larsson, Andreas. In: Knowledge Sharing and Collaborative Engineering : Proceedings of Fourth IASTED International Conference on Knowledge Sharing and Collaborative Engineering, KSCE 2006. Acta Press, 2007. 6 p. Research: Article for conference peer reviewed
Educating engineering designers for a multidisciplinary future. / Bergström, Mattias ; Ericson, Åsa ; Matzen, Detlef ; Tan, Adrian. 2007. 2 p. Conference: National Workshop on Functional Products – Development and Sales, No. 2, Luleå, Sweden, October 24, 2007 – October 25, 2007. Presentation.
Design for Wellbeing : Innovations for People / Larsson, Andreas ; Larsson, Tobias ; Leifer, Larry ; Van der Loos, Machiel ; Feland, John. In: Proceedings of 15th International Conference on Engineering Design : ICED 05. 2005. 10 p. Research: Article for conference peer reviewed
Design for wellbeing : innovations for people. / Leifer, Larry ; Larsson, Andreas ; Larsson, Tobias ; Van der Loos, Machiel ; Feland, John. In: Human Centered Design : Maruzen for 10th anniversary of the Kanto Branch, Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers. ed. / S Fukuda. 2005. 11 p. Research: Contribution to scientific book/anthology
Innovations for Life : Design for Wellbeing / Larsson, Tobias ; Larsson, Andreas ; Kassfeldt, Elisabet. In: First International Conference on Lifestyle, Health and Technology : June 1-3, 2005 at Luleå University of Technology, Porsön, Luleå, Sweden. 2005. 1 p.

TAGS: E-healthehealth Engineering Design LTU madelene larsson Needfinding needinn Product Development tobias larsson

Nosphere | 2007

Tobias Larsson — Sun, 08 May 2011 13:08:08 +0000

The Nosphere (Nösphere was the original name) is a product that is patented together with Stanford University and that was developed within the project NeedInn – Need Centered Product Innovation within E-health, and in Stanford University ME310. The concept was developed in part also in the Future Elderly Environment student project.

The Nosphere motivates elderly people to activate the memory through a more physical interaction with images.

The Nosphere conceptual layout

TAGS: Andreas larsssonLTU madelene larsson ME310 needinn nosphere sirius Stanford University tobias larsson

Future Elderly Environment | 2005-2006

admin — Sat, 07 May 2011 17:59:02 +0000

PROJECT BRIEF

When: 2005-2006 (finalized)

What: In this international project, students from LTU and Stanford University have worked together to develop a product that enhances the wellbeing for elderly. The future elderly environment project aimed to develop a product based on the needs that elderly have today and will have tomorrow. The idea of the final product came through one of the conceptual prototypes that were made during the project. The students from the future elderly environment project made an individual product that activates and promotes the social interaction between elderly and relatives. The product that was presented will be implemented in a new elderly home in Luleå.

Who: Student team at Luleå University of Technology together with Stanford University.

Documentation:

Project brief: PDF | 0.3 MB
Project report: PDF | 3 MB

NOTE: The Nösphere is patented together with Stanford University, that also manages licenses for commercialisation of the technology

PROJECT SUMMARY

Background

The elderly care is changing. Expected retirements of a large number of people born in the 1940s, combined with the limited resources in the elderly care, means that fewer employees will care for more elderly. The employees have a variety of technology to make their work easier e.g. lifts and alarms, but to increase the wellbeing of the elderly technological solutions are limited.

The team is convinced that the quality of life for elderly can be improved in many ways.

Assignment

The mission was to “Enhance the wellbeing for people in their latter part of life”. That statement was all the team had to start out with. In order to achieve this, the meaning of ‘wellbeing for elderly people’ first had to be investigated. To narrow down the task the global design team chose to focus on people living at elderly homes. The project began with a needfinding process to discover the needs of the users, and later translate those needs into concepts. From the needs found, activities was singled out and focused on. The team proceeded with the development of a solution that met the requirements and thereby could enhance the wellbeing for people living at elderly homes. An emphasis was on using conceptual prototyping to create various artefacts during the project. The goal is that the final prototype will be implemented for users in a new retirement home. The project was unique in its kind because of the heavy focus on the needs of the users and their participation in the product development process.

Collaboration

The whole project was conducted through global collaboration between four students from Luleå University of Technology, and four students from Stanford University, USA, working together as a team. This showed to be a challenging task due to the two universities having different theories of approaching product development and cultural and geographical separation. The experience of working cross-national was still worthwhile due to that diversity in views gives the best ideas of two worlds. Both halves of the group contributed with their skills, professional and personal, to the process and brought different points of view into the design process.

The Result

In this open-ended project the team members have developed a product based on the needs that their need finding pointed towards. Interaction between elderly and even their relatives were infrequent. The elderly have a lot to tell and if their stories and knowledge disappear it is a big loss for us all. A product that is individual and promotes the social interaction between elderly and relatives will increase the wellbeing of the elderly.

The product that was presented will be implemented in a new elderly home in Luleå.

TAGS: andreas larssonfuture elderly environment healthy ageing LTU Luleå University of Technology madelene larsson ME310 nosphere sirius Stanford University tobias larsson