Project Overview

An increasing number of designers wish to conceive innovative products or services for older adults with special needs and family caregivers. Both groups have distinct but overlapping needs that require good understanding and close working between designers and these intended end users. However, little practical knowledge is available in efficient and attractive ways to integrate them into the design process.

The DATcares workshop highlighted this problem and introduced an innovative bottom-up approach that showed how relevant design principles could be identified by a transdisciplinary effort gathering caregivers, researchers, occupational therapists, designers, technology developers, industries and policy makers. Following these findings, it was decided to replicate this approach at a bigger scale in order to share successful design principles throughout the design community.

Scalable Heuristics for Assistive Design and Elaboration (SHADE) is a documented resource to support the design of assistive technology that cares’; namely, to support designers in creating products and services that better support the fundamental needs of both caregivers and care-recipients. SHADE encompasses the key-components of the well-being and the integration of caregiving within various occupational roles (employment, leisure, social interactions...) that enhance the quality of both their caregiving and their relationship with the care-recipient. Additionally, SHADE provides recommendations to integrate technologies and services in the social environment of those who are receiving care.

With this in mind, SHADE defines, disseminates, and supports a set of design heuristics and user-centered methods to globally improve the quality of assistive technologies by encompassing caregivers' and care-recipients' holistic needs. These heuristics will be conveyed to industry and practitioners through a deck of cards and a reference booklet, providing definitions of design principles, best practices and concrete examples. These products will be downloadable for free and premium printed versions will be available at production cost.