ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
This article is part of the Research TopicUser-Centred Approaches for Designing Assistive Technologies to Support Older AdultsView all 9 articles
Design proposals for the preferred service ecosystem for senior citizens living at home: a service design study
Provisionally accepted
- 1SHARE, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
- 2Universitetet i Stavanger Det helsevitskaplege fakultet, Stavanger, Norway
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Introduction Significant gaps exist between the preferred and the existing service ecosystem for senior citizens living at home emphasising the need for transformation. This study aimed to develop design proposals for the preferred service ecosystem for senior citizens living at home. Methods Nine service design workshops were conducted with multiple stakeholder groups (n=58), including senior citizens (aged 67 years or older), carers, healthcare professionals, municipal home care managers, municipal advisers, a bus driver, and representatives from the regional transportation provider. Stakeholders identified timely home care provision and age-friendly mobility as key areas for improvement. An inductive thematic analysis was applied to the workshop data. Results Design proposals were developed including prototypes and design principles across seven domains: (1) enabling self-reliance; (2) housing and buildings; (3) urban mobility; (4) collaboration and education; (5) real-time communication; (6) resource organisation and flexible scheduling; and (7) methods and tools to reshape patterns of thought. Design principles focused on enabling sufficient time and resources, improving accessibility, and changing mental models. These proposals may support senior citizens’ self-reliance, free up time and resources for service providers, and create time buffers for service delays. Discussion The design proposals demonstrate considerable interconnectedness and transferability across timely home care provision and age-friendly mobility. They may improve predictability and adaptive capacity for both senior citizens and service providers.
Keywords: Age-friendly Services, Senior Citizens, service design, service ecosystem, Timely Home Care, Transportation
Received: 15 Sep 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kattouw, Aase and Viksveen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Christophe Eward Kattouw, christophe.e.kattouw@uis.no
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