[Paper Review] LivingLab PJAIT: Towards Better Urban Participation of Seniors

Wiesław Kopeć, Kinga Skorupska+4 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jun 30, 2017

Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development18 references8 citations

TL;DR

This paper presents LivingLab PJAIT, an ICT-based initiative that empowers seniors through blended learning, intergenerational collaboration, and participatory design to enhance urban participation. By integrating e-courses, location-based augmented reality tasks, and crowdsourcing for public space design, the project fosters social inclusion and civic engagement, demonstrating that seniors can become active contributors to smart city development when given purposeful, accessible, and socially engaging technological tools.

ABSTRACT

In this paper we provide a brief summary of development LivingLab PJAIT as an attempt to establish a comprehensive and sustainable ICT-based solution for empowerment of elderly communities towards better urban participation of seniors. We report on our various endeavors for better involvement and participation of older adults in urban life by lowering ICT barriers, encouraging social inclusion, intergenerational interaction, physical activity and engaging older adults in the process of development of ICT solutions. We report on a model and assumptions of the LivingLab PJAIT as well as a number of activities created and implemented for LivingLab participants: from ICT courses, both traditional and e-learning, through on-line crowdsourcing tasks, to blended activities of different forms and complexity. We also provide conclusions on the lessons learned in the process and some future plans, including solutions for better senior urban participation and citizen science.

Motivation & Objective

• To address the growing social and technological exclusion of seniors in urban environments due to low ICT literacy and limited participation in city planning.
• To reduce barriers to ICT adoption among older adults through tailored e-learning and hands-on workshops.
• To promote intergenerational collaboration and social inclusion by involving seniors in co-creation processes of urban solutions.
• To explore the potential of crowdsourcing and participatory design in empowering seniors as contributors to citizen science and urban development.
• To develop and test a sustainable model for senior engagement in smart city initiatives using blended offline and online activities.

Proposed method

• Implementation of a LivingLab framework at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (PJAIT) to integrate seniors into urban innovation processes.
• Development of e-learning courses on the e-Senior platform covering ICT skills and urban design fundamentals to prepare seniors for participation.
• Design and deployment of location-based, augmented-reality tasks using mobile devices to engage seniors in real-world urban interaction.
• Use of crowdsourcing platforms to collect senior input on public space redesign, including geotagged photos and drag-and-drop interface for proposing urban elements.
• Incorporation of narrative and gamified elements (e.g., guided city walks, point systems) to sustain motivation and engagement in urban design tasks.
• Conducting blended activities combining offline workshops with online collaboration to support learning and social interaction.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How can ICT-based learning and participatory design models effectively increase urban participation among seniors?
• RQ2 What motivates seniors to engage in crowdsourcing and co-creation activities related to urban space design?
• RQ3 How do blended offline and online learning formats impact seniors’ ICT skill acquisition and long-term engagement?
• RQ4 To what extent can seniors contribute meaningful insights to public space redesign through geotagged, interactive, and gamified applications?
• RQ5 What role does intergenerational collaboration play in enhancing seniors’ confidence and sustained involvement in technology-driven urban innovation?

Key findings

• Seniors are more motivated to participate in ICT activities when they involve real-world social interaction and tangible outcomes, such as seeing their designs implemented or contributing to team-based challenges.
• Seniors prefer in-person workshops and stationary activities over purely online formats, indicating a need for hybrid models that combine physical presence with digital tools.
• Extended preparatory ICT training is essential to build sustainable digital literacy and confidence among older adults, enabling long-term engagement with technology.
• The integration of narrative and gamification elements significantly increases motivation, as seniors respond positively to story-driven, purposeful tasks over repetitive or abstract crowdsourcing.
• Seniors demonstrate strong potential as contributors to citizen science and urban design when given clear context, purpose, and accessible tools, particularly when paired with intergenerational collaboration.
• The proposed geotagging and drag-and-drop redesign application shows promise in transforming seniors into active agents of urban change, enhancing both mental engagement and physical activity through location-based interaction.