Good practice:

Co-creation of mobile open government services with the substantial participation of senior citizens

Older citizens are not adequately IT-literate, and this IT-literacy influences accessibility of services. The Region of Central Macedonia used the already well organized Elderly Care Centers, where a large number of adult population is already registered and actively participating in many other activities. Around 30 participants, all above 60 years old, with a variety in age range, were recruited for this practice, which included activities to identify and invite co-creators, set up an organisational structure (living lab) for the co-creation process, define the services to be co-created, define requirements for the services and design of prototypes. A co-creation recruitment and engagement plan for the development of open government services for and with senior citizens was developed. This group was actively engaged in the co-creation/ living lab process and guided the two public bodies with comments and feedback on the service that was to be developed.

The idea of engaging people in a co-creation process is the core of this marketing technique that can be assigned to a variety of subjects, including sustainable mobility, aiming in a low-carbon economy. The co-creation process is also the heart of the SUMPs, aiming to engage people in designing mobility interventions, with ultimate goal the increase of public acceptance. Thus, this technique, applied here in the field of health, can be used as inspiration to engage groups of people in enhancing sustainable mobility.

Human resources that were needed:
-Region of Central Macedonia: 6 staff members from 3 involved Departments
-Aristotle University of Thessaloniki: 4 researchers
-3 staff members of the Open Care Centres – service provider
-approx. 30 citizens (co-creators)

Through the participation and active engagement of the senior citizens an application was developed, which was tailored to their needs and their IT skills. As the procedure started from point zero, senior citizens adapted the responsible role of the app owner and managed to put themselves in a leading role. They were the first to use the final app in the smart devices that were provided by the project or in their own smart phones/tablets. The app is available free of charge, in App store.

Senior adults weren’t familiar with the co-creating procedure, but it earned their trust as the app started to look real and not only virtual. Splitting participants in small groups and keeping the duration of the workshops less than 2 hours, helped participants not to lose their interest.

This practice could, potentially, interest other regions to learn from, as inclusion of the main actors lead to a common accepted and easy to use and easy to promote product/service.