- elderly and people with diseases or disabilities;
- formal carers (medical doctors, nurses, homecarers, external operators);
- informal carers (family, friends);
- application and service providers.
In developing and testing the platform and the services, end-users will be involved throughout the project in a user-centred design approach. Primary users are elderly and people with disabilities, which need support and which will use the technology. Secondary users which will use the facility are family members, friends and professional care providers. Both groups are at the heart of the NITICS project. They will be involved from the outset, when we elicit their requirements in a multi-national survey study, through focus groups and conjoint analysis, the results of which will inform the platform's development. Both groups will be continuously engaged throughout the project, and they will test the platform and services. The involvement of secondary users in requirement elicitation and in user testing will ensure that the technology will also add value in case of necessity of scaling up to support a wider group of people.
Tertiary users are other organisations/companies with a stake in the care and support of people, but not directly involved in the delivery of care, such as public funding authorities. They will be consulted during the project, particularly in relation to the business model development. Technologies like the NITICS platform will allow them to offer cost effective solutions in providing care to an increasingly elder population.
