RelaxedCare - Connecting people in care situations: User involvement to collect informal caregivers needs

"How is my mom doing right now?" Answering this question in a quick, clear way without the need of calling or stopping by could take away a lot of stress from informal caregivers. The RelaxedCare system aims to develop a solution built upon an existing AAL platform, using a multi-level pattern recognition approach to detect the current state of an assisted person, and then to communicate the state in a pervasive and unobtrusive way (i.e. lava lamp, smartphone widget, picture frame) to the caregiver. For the development of the RelaxedCare system a user centred design approach has been chosen applying especially the ISO 9241-210 [3] and the user-inspired innovation process [2]. A first technical prototype was evaluated with representative end users in lab trials via usability testing to find out, how the generated ideas match with the end user needs. The results show that the project is on the correct path. The majority of participants approved, that the RelaxedCare system supports the informal caregiver in a worry-free way to care for the assisted person (thus allowing the older generation to live longer in their own homes). 19 of 25 participants felt an advantage by using the system in their care situation in general. Overall 18 of them rate the advantage of the usage at home positively and 20 of them rate the usage positively, if they use it on the way. Also interesting is that in total 19 participants could imagine, that there would be an improvement of the care situation for their own family through the RelaxedCare system.