Role: UX Researcher
Scope: Research, content strategy, information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, usability evaluation, and deployment. In collaboration with multiple stakeholder groups
Context
ActiveAdvice focused on the development and evaluation of decision support solutions for independent living using an intelligent Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) product and service cloud.
AAL products and services encompass technologies designed to support older adults in maintaining autonomy and quality of life while remaining in their own homes.
The project addressed a multi-stakeholder ecosystem involving end users, solution providers, and governmental or institutional actors.
The Problem
Despite increasing availability of AAL products and services, potential users lacked a reliable way to understand the domain, compare marketed solutions, and identify appropriate products or services for specific needs or situations.
This gap limited acceptance, feasibility, and informed decision-making across stakeholder groups with varying levels of technical literacy and differing motivations.
Core Design Question
"How can an online decision support platform make AAL products and services understandable, trustworthy, and usable for diverse stakeholder groups while supporting informed decision-making?"
Understanding the Environment
Understanding the AAL ecosystem required accounting for diverse stakeholder perspectives, including older adults, solution providers, and governmental or institutional actors.
To capture these perspectives, qualitative and quantitative inputs were gathered across stakeholder groups:
• Needs, expectations, acceptance, and feasibility
• Attitudes toward ICT and AAL technologies (supported by MTUAS)
In parallel, a market and competitor analysis mapped existing AAL products, services, and providers, revealing:
• Fragmentation of the offer
• Uneven quality of available information
• Varying levels of technical literacy across audiences
These findings established the need for a platform balancing clarity, trustworthiness, and accessibility.
Explorations and Key Decisions
A value proposition was defined to clarify the platform’s role for each stakeholder group and to set boundaries on scope and functionality.
Key structural decisions included:
• Identification of core functionalities and service modules
• Translation of these into functional requirements
• Definition of content structure and information architecture
• User personas representing stakeholder groups and relevant variations were developed to guide design decisions.
Design refinement was driven through iterative evaluation cycles combining:
• Task-based usability testing and early closed card sorting
• Retrospective interviews
• Standardized usability and experience measures (adapted SUS and UEQ)
Findings were synthesized through thematic analysis and fed back into successive iterations.
Outcomes and Impact
• Implemented and deployed web-based AAL product and service platform
• Evaluated with multiple stakeholder groups using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods
• Disseminated for real-world use through business and governmental channels
• Resulted in a focused peer-reviewed scientific publication
