| Sumario: | Purpose The aim of the study was to draw attention to sustainability in society and to create possibilities for citizens to discuss societal problems in relation to sustainable development. Secondly, the study aimed at innovating1,2 new sustainable services for the aging population. In addition, a new approach for participatory design was tested: The participants were able to donate money for charity work on the basis of their activity rate in the innovation process. Method The study was carried out at the Open Web Lab of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland3. This tool for user-driven design and innovation consists of various human driven design possibilities, such as a blog-based discussion platform, user diaries, real-time online chatting, online surveys, and polls, all of which can be used flexibly for various design and innovation purposes4. A blog-based discussion was selected as a tool for innovation. In total, 40 Finnish citizens from different age groups participated in the study (18 male, 22 female). They were recruited from VTT's end-user register and a user pool of an open innovation community. Different cases of societal problems were presented to the participants for ideation and discussion. These consisted of: (i) Wasted food: How to exploit the leftover food from groceries that usually ends up in the bin? (result: 18 ideas); (ii) Homelessness: How to improve the situation of homeless people? (result: 9 ideas); and (iii) Support for elderly: How to support living at home for as long as possible? (result: 17 ideas). The topics were open for discussion for two weeks, during which time the participants were supposed to add their own ideas and experiences for discussion. In addition, they filled out a questionnaire concerning the study method. Every idea, comment, or answer from the participants increased the amount of money for charities by 50 cents. Results & Discussion Based on the qualitative data received and content analysis of ideas it can be estimated that the research approach is suited for discussion about societal issues. A co-design activity of this kind offers a significant advantage compared with many other co-design methods: it provides a possibility to empower people who would, because of their genuine interest in the subject, actively participate in the discussion. Furthermore, because the participants were informed of the fact that the amount of the individual charity donation was tied to the number of comments and ideas of the person in question, they were amenable to attend the discussion for a relatively long period. The study approach was found beneficial because it made it possible to produce a lot of ideas (44 in total) and generated active discussion, which led to both new and refined ideas. The next step in the process, in order to develop workable real life solutions, would be to elaborate and further develop the ideas together with relevant business actors and decision makers5,6. The existing platform provides support also for this kind of co-design where company representatives, municipalities and citizens can engage in a dialogue with each other online. In doing this, it is important that the initiatory debaters are further involved in the process and informed of the value of their initial ideas.
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