Practical issues related to the implication of elderlies in the design process – The case of a Living Lab approach for designing and evaluating social TV services

Ageing well at home cannot be reduced to the management of physical and cognitive frailties and technologies should also tackle the quality of life of the elderly by fostering their social interactions especially for those who are living alone. The Internet could play a role in alleviating elderly loneliness, in order to cope with their social frailty. But designing appropriate services and ensuring their adoption by the elderlies remain open questions. We try to provide answers at the methodological and practical levels by reflecting on an approach based on the participation of the future users as part of a “Living Lab”. For so doing, we report feedback from our work in a European project aiming at developing and evaluating social TV services. Our return on experience contributes to recommendations for an effective implication of elderly people in the design and evaluation process.