From designing in protected environment to designing in real contexts-Piloting digital services for elderly independent living,

In the last decade the role of designers is moving from designing a product or service to facilitating and leading participatory processes due to the changing social and economic conditions and the emerging of new social needs. This is true for example in projects that aims to boost a kind of societal change that affects people behaviours in their everyday life. On the assumption relies Life 2.0, a European Project whose aims is to prototype and pilot a digital social network service dedicated to 65+ years old people to improve their social relationships, their independent living and their role in the society as agents and sources for new social services. The paper discusses how design methods and competences are applied in the development of these projects, eliciting the lessons learnt especially from the piloting phase, where the participatory design approach plays a major role. The paper start by introducing the topic and discussing the role of Design and Participatory Design in leading these project typologies; then the Life 2.0 project and its development process are described; finally the experience is discussed providing guidelines for piloting digital services in a real context of use. The paper concludes reflecting on the designers’ role and competences applied.