RECORD

There is a trend towards regarding the users as an innovation potential. Users come in large numbers, they hold alternative perspectives on how technology may be used, and – given the right circumstances- they may be willing to share their insights and ideas to innovators and product developers.

Living Labs is a new kind of environment to involve the users in innovation and development processes. In these labs, user research and design activities are conducted in the every-day context of the user. The users may be involved as co-creators, challenged to develop consepts and designs together with the development team. Or they may provide feedback on service concepts and designs developed by others.

To help you navigate in the current literature on Living Labs, we have written a review of the current Living Lab literature. This provides a comprehensive overview of research on Living Labs conducted withing the field of Information and communication technologies.

Within the EU, there is a growing interest in Living Labs, as is reflected in the 51 Living Labs currently members of the European Network of Living Labs.

In the RECORD project we are establishing an online Living Lab where we use online environments to get design-feedback from users. The RECORD online Living Lab has been used in design-cases for NRK Urørt and for Telenor.