Why do few assistive technology systems make it to market? The case of the HandyHelper project

Abstract

Assistive technologies, such as telecare monitoring applications installed in the home, are being promoted to help reduce pressure on health care systems caused by an aging population and as such promise a large market for new products. However, despite many projects undertaken by commercial companies, and despite significant investments both by the companies and by national and international funding programs in the EU, such systems are not widespread. This paper reports on a retrospective study of the development of one early system, HandyHelper. We were interested in what challenges the development team faced and why the system is no longer on the market. Qualitative research methods were applied, including document analysis and interviews of key people involved in its development. Even though the system worked technically, the input of older users was sought, and a pilot installation was run, the development was stopped. The findings from a thematic analysis point to complex issues. Some problems were avoidable, e.g., by providing more support for new users, though other problems point to inherent tensions, such as the different needs of sensor-based security features and interactive services aimed at the older users. Yet other aspects are outside of the developer's control, such as available public funding. We summarize these findings and suggest lessons learnt for future projects.

The Development of Assistive Systems to Support Older People: Issues that Affect Success in Practice

“…In workshop 2, more than half of the issues related to Financing were given the highest rating (7 of 12) and all issues given the highest rating were from this category. Funding problems can result in entire projects being stopped, which was demonstrated by the case studies done previously [20,21]. But they can also lead to people changing the focus.…”

“…But they can also lead to people changing the focus. One of the case studies that led to this study being done found that due to costs associated with installation and maintenance a company switched from focusing on people in their own homes to those in care homes; this in turn affected the needs to be addressed in subtle ways and ultimately may have affected the success [21]. Thus, funding agencies may want to reconsider funding guidelines to better support this phase, for example, by providing more flexibility, as suggested by the participants of workshop 1 (see Figure 7), even if this just means delaying the time at which results are submitted with no additional funding, or providing new funding schemes aimed at this.…”

“…One was a system developed to run on Android tablets [20]; the other was a more comprehensive smart home system [21]. Both included monitoring features to check the activities of older people and generate an alarm if a problem was detected.…”

Key factors in the engineering process for systems for aging in place contributing to low usability and success

“…■ a retrospective analysis of a more comprehensive system known in advance to have not been entirely successful (Hallewell Haslwanter and Fitzpatrick, 2016), referred to as Case Study 2; and ■ a study consulting people with experience in these types of development projects that aimed to identify common issues and elicit recommendations (Hallewell Haslwanter and Fitzpatrick, 2017), called the third study.…”

Improving User Engagement and Social Participation of Elderly People Through a TV and Tablet-Based Communication and Entertainment Platform

“…To deal with these problems a wide range of assisting technologies are developed and tested in research projects. Despite the intensive research efforts only few systems make it to the market [6]. Common pitfalls are again a lack in user acceptance and wrong assumptions about the target group as well as financial and economic issues, which hinder a successful launch.…”