Abstract
The use of Living Labs is gaining importance as an approach to involve users in innovation and development, serving to
make users active participants in the development of e-Society. However, Living Labs are currently not taking full
advantage of online applications to support user involvement, even though such applications are gaining impact in other innovation fields. To support the uptake and future development of online applications for user involvement in Living Labs we propose a framework that classify and relate such applications to the Living Lab context. The framework serves to classify types of online applications for user involvement, and the high level Living Lab activities which these may support. The application types are classified according to different phases of the innovation and development process.
The high level activities include short term user campaigns and maintaining long term user relationships. Three issues
related to the framework are discussed; that is, (a) process phase as determinant of the relevance of online applications for user involvement, (b) integration of online and traditional approaches to user involvement, and (c) trade-offs when choosing online applications, are discussed. The framework is the result of a collaborative process involving seven Living Lab researchers from four Nordic Living Labs, and is meant to guide Living Lab representatives that are considering whether or how to utilize online applications for user involvement.
make users active participants in the development of e-Society. However, Living Labs are currently not taking full
advantage of online applications to support user involvement, even though such applications are gaining impact in other innovation fields. To support the uptake and future development of online applications for user involvement in Living Labs we propose a framework that classify and relate such applications to the Living Lab context. The framework serves to classify types of online applications for user involvement, and the high level Living Lab activities which these may support. The application types are classified according to different phases of the innovation and development process.
The high level activities include short term user campaigns and maintaining long term user relationships. Three issues
related to the framework are discussed; that is, (a) process phase as determinant of the relevance of online applications for user involvement, (b) integration of online and traditional approaches to user involvement, and (c) trade-offs when choosing online applications, are discussed. The framework is the result of a collaborative process involving seven Living Lab researchers from four Nordic Living Labs, and is meant to guide Living Lab representatives that are considering whether or how to utilize online applications for user involvement.
