egion of France, Catalonia, Slovakia, Latvia, and Finland. Case studies showing additional applications of the methodologies were also collated on the IDeALL website, allowing users to see examples of the methodogies in action, adapted to the requirements of the local context. The range of examples hints at the extent of the potential field of application for such approaches. A few examples, set out below, demonstrate how they can be used to address key social issues such as unemployment and skill mismatches, independent living for an ageing population, and the design of public spaces.
Service design is becoming an increasingly important sector, and good service design can result in increased customer loyalty. The two Finnish partners involved in the IDeALL project, Laurea University of Applied Sciences and the University of Lapland, are at the forefront of service design in Europe. Lapland’s SINCO service-prototyping methodology is particularly useful for delivering mock-ups of services that immerse users in the experience before the service is fully designed. This methodology was used in an IDeALL experiment to explore ways to make a shopping centre more interactive and multisensory (Figure 3); the techniques included interviews, customer observation, surveys, and service prototyping. The shopping centre’s manager commented: "Young people who grow up here can be seen as long-term clients for us. They use certain services now, but if they stay in [the] …area as grown-ups, they can continue to be our clients for a very long time".
Figure 3. SINCO Living Lab methods in action at the Ragalla shopping centre
Laurea’s approach to service design was demonstrated through case studies collected for the project. These case studies provide examples of co-designing services that might be complicated or involve ethical considerations, such as creating home safety devices to support independent living in the Guarantee project or designing the HeartBug, a kit to self-test heart arrhythmia.
Health and social care
With rising levels of obesity and an ageing population, the health challenges faced by European countries are familiar to many industrialized nations. Technology may lead to the creation of increasingly sophisticated healthcare solutions, but focusing on the user is essential if they are to be genuinely responsive and personalized.
Several experiments were undertaken in the area of healthcare as part of the IDeALL project, and they show how businesses and public bodies can select methodologies to respond to users’ healthcare needs. Examples include the development of a smart pill dispenser, supported by IDeALL partner Medicalps, and innovative orthopaedic supports developed using LUPI methodology in an experiment led by the Cité du design. The HUMBLES method for user-centred business was applied in an experiment involving Lékué, a Catalan company with a strong focus on innovation, which helped them to shift their business aims from "being a market leader in the production of silicon-based products", to "producing utensils which would support people to cook well and follow a healthy diet".
Information and communication technology
Information and communication technology clearly plays a pivotal role in this new co-creative landscape, providing both the paradigms (e.g., open source) and the tools (e.g., user-generated content-sharing networks). IDeALL consortium member Artur Serra (2013) divides living labs in Europe along two main lines: "those who are focused principally on helping companies to connect with user requirements, facilitating processes by which these requirements can be incorporated into the design of products and services" and those that "concentrate on opening innovation systems to the society in general, which we would call citizen laboratories". Although some of the examples cited above fulfil the first category, he classifies his organization, IDeALL-partner Citilab in the second.
Several experiments and case studies selected by the IDeALL project show how new technologies can open new possibilities for all u