Co-creating digital public services with older citizens: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Older citizens are excluded above average from digital public services as they do not meet older adults’ needs and expectations. Yet most digital technologies, designed for an ageing population, reproduce particular images about age and ageing, such as the old age defined by ill health, deficits and limitations or an emphasis on active ageing. Digital public services are no different. We are interested in understanding through what kind of methods older adults may be enabled to become active co-creators of information systems and in so doing may transform our images of an ageing population. The paper is based on a collaborative research project in which older adults co-created a digital neighbourhood guide. We describe a framework of interventions which facilitated the co-creation process and discuss associated challenges and opportunities.