Seniori356

The City of Espoo wanted to bring senior citizens within the scope of digital services, and saw the Seniori365 service developed by students at the University of Applied Sciences Laurea. The service was developed in workshops using the service design approach, in close co-operation with seniors. The digital world is not only for digital natives — this is an idea shared by the City of Espoo. The Espoo region's interests and the skills of Laurea University of Applied Sciences created the Seniori365.fi service, developed by Laurea students for Espoo senior citizens and their family members. Development began in the InnoEspoo project, which brought together the City of Espoo, Omnia, Aalto Small Business Centre and Laurea.

Seniori365.fi is an internet platform where seniors and their caregivers can find: service providers offering physical or virtual help or products to support elderly living at home; information supporting daily living; virtual activity programmes supporting seniors' health and physical, social and mental performance; and links to useful private, third-sector, municipal and state organisations. The website features articles on physical exercise, well-being and healthcare, videos for gymnastics and relaxation activities, and inspiring stories of senior citizens.

By bringing together young students and older residents to co-create the platform, both groups benefited: seniors were better equipped to contact local caretaking agents, and students gained experience applying service-design theory to a real-world problem. In March 2015 the service was awarded the Best Practice 2014 award for excellent service innovation by the Design for All Foundation; in October 2015 in London it won the EU-WIIN (Women Inventors and Innovators Network) award in the best social innovation category; and in October 2015 in Japan it won the co-design category of the IAUD Design competition.

Key learning points: a good guideline/methodology example for similar practices; a good solution to empower seniors to become better able to help themselves; a good example of theoretical concepts, such as constructivism, being put into practice.