• Design Council, Type Two Diabetes
• Participle, Social Health – Future Services Research
• Design Council, Activmobs
• Context Based Research Group, Essential Tremor
• Context Based Research Group, Hand Washing Behaviour

One in four Britons has a chronic disease. Working with a local community in Kent, the objective of the project was to identify ways to increase physical activity amongst older adults. Two programmes of research were carried out – a shallow dive and deep dive with local residents.

The research identified a range of opportunities, including the Activmob service, where social networks of friends or people who shared common interests developed groups around specific physical activities. The groups were offered support to assist with the development of their ‘Activmob’. You can view a film of the project.

Core role:
Planning
Participant recruitment;
Working with design team to identify most appropriate;
approach to carrying out the research;
Preparing the research materials.

Research
In home interviews;
Social network mapping;
Mini group interviews;
Home tours;
Mapping the physical environment and common journeys;
Ethnography.

Analysis & synthesis
Identifying patterns and themes;
Mapping problems areas;
Creating user profiles.

Ideation
Identifying and assessing different service interventions and ensuring that they met the needs of different market segments.

Prototyping
Over a period of time prototyping the service to enhance the initial concepts.