 in Europe, by supporting young people to develop and assess their own business ideas.
Figure 4. Nuevos Artesanos at work during Citilab workshop session in 2014
In the Rhône-Alpes area, the Agence Régionale du Développement et de l'Innovation (ARDI; Regional Development and Innovation Agency) oversaw further experiments opening out technological innovation to a wide range of users. In the Webnapperon 2 (Web Doily 2) experiment by ERASME HOST, co-creation workshops (Figure 5) led to the “Web doily”, which works with an RFID-equipped doily linked to a photo frame, allowing online content to be shared. It enables older users in particular to keep in touch with family and friends without needing computer skills. In another ARDI experiment, carried out by the Laboratoire d'InfoRmatique en Image et Systèmes d'information (Computing in Image and Information Systems Laboratory), users participated in workshops where they could take advantage of software and hardware capabilities offered by Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, and 3D printing to co-create a hub of connected smart items, leading to smart home automation that could improve quality of life.
Figure 5. Co-creation workshop during Web Doily 2 development
With an ever-increasing proportion of populations living in cities, coupled with changing conditions in industry and the pressures brought about by increasingly scarce resources, the need to create cities that are vibrant and sustainable, and that promote health and wellbeing is a key policy issue for many European nations. Accordingly, several IDeALL experiments have taken place in the urban sphere. In Saint-Étienne, several experiments used the LUPI methodology, where stakeholders such as local businesses were trained to work with users and the best qualified stakeholder was chosen to produce prototypes, such as the Plot Urbain à Usage Général (Urban Pillar for General Use) to develop street furniture.
An experiment in Slovakia, a country where, according to the Slovak Design Centre, the concept of design for all was not well known, showed how users could co-create public spaces based on real needs. The original idea was to come up with designs for street furniture, but this evolved into a more fundamental question: what do people want in public spaces? The Slovak Design Centre involved the following in the project: the City of Bratislava, designers, architects, an art academy, a university of technology, cycling and accessibility associations, a bicycle manufacturer, and a street-furniture manufacturer. Using a range of user-centred methods to gather and prototype ideas in the actual setting (Figure 6), the experiment was widely publicized in the Slovak press. By helping the city council work towards its sustainable transport objectives, the experiment to redesign a street gained their support, while simultaneously introducing a new generation of students to the idea of user-driven, design-led innovation.
Figure 6. Street for All experiment organized by the Slovak Design Centre (Photo credit: Jan Mytny)
Although technological innovation is crucial to remaining competitive in international markets, the results will only be adopted if they are attractive to end users. The IDeALL project has helped to demonstrate the potential of combining methodologies from the design for all and living labs domains in order to achieve innovations accepted by users. It has shown that, through this collaboration, some changes have been recognized.
Design for all has to move from user-centred methodologies to user-driven methodologies, as living labs propose. Considering the user as co-designers is a perspective that has been a key element of living labs since the beginning of that movement. In addition, users should be understood from a dual perspective: they are consumers but also citizens. On the other hand, living labs should recognize the need to include more professional design methodologies into their communities.
The IDeALL project has demonstrated that there is a wide range of user-centred design methodologies that can be adapted to diff