ICT to Promote Well-Being within Families

Abstract

Within the Active Living and Well-Being Project (RRP3), funded by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Regional Development Fund Investing in Your Future program, we aim to develop different approaches and prototype solutions to provide ICT solutions for the family in order to connect its members; communicate; promote quality family time, active life, a health-friendly lifestyle and well-being; and integrate various sensor and user-based data sources into a smart city ecosystem platform. A mixed methodology, combined qualitative and quantitative approaches, was selected to conduct the study. An online survey with a structured questionnaire as well as semi-structured interviews were performed. Through the analysis of the results, we tried to establish a family-centered design approach that would be inclusive as much as possible, creating benefits for all generations in order to develop an interactive prototype solution that would allow us to further test and verify different use-case scenarios.

Rethinking Family-Centred Design Approach Towards Creating Digital Products and Services

“…The aim of the Active Living and Well-Being Project (RRP3), funded by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Regional Development Fund Investing in Your Future programme, is to establish new design approaches and digital service prototype solutions developed in the scope of families in smart cities [3]. These solutions would promote better connectedness among family members, communication and quality family time, an active and health-friendly lifestyle and well-being, and integrate sensor- and user-based data sources into a smart city ecosystem platform that enables connectedness between the plethora of smart city digital services.…”

“…To design a prototype solution that would correspond with Ekosmart: Active Life and Well-Being Project goals, several stages of iterative development process were employed [3]: identifying motivational factors in the use of e-health solutions, determining the concept of a healthy and active family in a smart city, creation of personas, mental models construction, interviews and surveys regarding everyday ICT usage patterns, paper prototype testing. Numerous functionalities were mentioned and investigated in various phases of the project, including, among others: family tree, family budget, educational content in the fields of mental and physical health, physical activity measured through several sensors, notifications, help alerts, management family profiles, safe driving, collecting points and competition with other families, task list, microsocial network, family goals, location monitoring and sharing, event creation, common calendar, etc.…”

“…In a previously published article entitled “ICT to Promote Well-Being within Families” [3] by our research team, we tried to establish a notion of a new approach towards systematically designing family-centred (digital) services. FCD is concerned with important life events, goals and constraints within families or other intimate long-lasting communities that need to be addressed in a (digital service) design process to create meaningful use case scenarios.…”

“…On the basis of data analysis regarding device type usage and the FCD approach towards increased inclusion, we outlined a feature that would enable the inclusion of users in the form of different user interface modalities for different devices. The digitally unskilled elderly would be able to participate in family communication and organisational processes by using familiar technology in this instance, text messaging (SMS) on their regular mobile phones, whereas younger family members would use an enhanced interface on their smartphones or personal computers [3].…”

“…In congruence with these findings, we concluded that the basic functionality of the MyFamily prototype solution should involve task management used for logistics and household work coordination to promote communication and collaboration among family members. To encourage quality family time, it should also introduce potential recommendations for shared leisure activities [3].…”