Partner’s Handbook to the Experimental Scheme

200SMEchallenge -- H2020-INNOSUP-2018-2020 -- Grant Agreement number: 824212 -- D2.1 Partner’s Handbook to the Experimental SchemeDesign-driven Open Innovation Challenge for 200 SMEs (200SMEchallenge) is a design-driven project from H2020-INNOSUP-2018-2020 programme. It aims at allowing a set of 7 innovation agencies to set up, deliver and evaluate the impact of a novel SME innovation support initiative following the tenets of Innovation Challenges. In particular, this support initiative is intended to allow digital SMEs to source strategic insight on market needs and technology requirements during the early stages of a new product development (NPD) process within a 2-day Innovation Challenge: the user experience or the “UX Challenge”. This deliverable aims at providing project partners with all the needed guidance to set up and execute the UX Challenge, as stated in the Project Plan

Report on the results of the large-scale pilot and guidelines for improvement

200SMEchallenge -- H2020-INNOSUP-2018-2020 -- Grant Agreement number: 824212 -- D4.3 Report on the results of the large-scale pilot and guidelines for improvementThis deliverable includes the report of the 7 UX Challenges that were held in the seven partnering countries. Along with the reports, the main results and outcomes are reports, along with feedback from the partners piloting the UX Challenges. This deliverable is designed to provide comprehensive information about how each of the seven UX Challenge was executed

The interplay of physical and social wellbeing in older adults: investigating the relationship between physical training and social interactions with virtual social environments

Background. Regular physical activity can substantially improve the physical wellbeing of older adults, preventing several chronic diseases and increasing cognitive performance and mood. However, research has shown that older adults are the most sedentary segment of society, spending much of their time seated or inactive. A variety of barriers make it difficult for older adults to maintain an active lifestyle, including logistical difficulties in going to a gym (for some adults, leaving home can be challenging), reduced functional abilities, and lack of motivation. In this paper, we report on the design and evaluation of Gymcentral. A training application running on tablet was designed to allow older adults to follow a personalized home-based exercise program while being remotely assisted by a coach. The objective of the study was to assess if a virtual gym that enables virtual presence and social interaction is more motivating for training than the same virtual gym without social interaction. Methods. A total of 37 adults aged between 65 and 87 years old (28 females and 9 males, mean age = 71, sd = 5.8) followed a personalized home-based strength and balance training plan for eight weeks. The participants performed the exercises autonomously at home using the Gymcentral application. Participants were assigned to two training groups: the Social group used an application with persuasive and social functionalities, while the Control group used a basic version of the service with no persuasive and social features. We further explored the effects of social facilitation, and in particular of virtual social presence, in user participation to training sessions. Outcome measures were adherence, persistence and co-presence rate. Results. Participants in the Social group attended significantly more exercise sessions than the Control group, providing evidence of a better engagement in the training program. Besides the focus on social persuasion measures, the study also confirms that a virtual gym service is effective for supporting individually tailored home-based physical training for older adults. The study also confirms that social facilitation tools motivate users to train together in a virtual fitness environment. Discussion. The study confirms that Gymcentral increases the participation of older adults in physical training compare to a similar version of the application without social and persuasive features. In addition, a significant increase in the co-presence of the Social group indicates that social presence motivates the participants to join training sessions at the same time with the other participants. These results are encouraging, as they motivate further research into using home-based training programs as an opportunity to stay physically and socially active, especially for those who for various reasons are bound to stay at home

UX Challenge playbook

200SMEchallenge -- H2020-INNOSUP-2018-2020 -- Grant Agreement number: 824212 -- D2.2 Practical Guide for Innovation Agencies to adopt and scale up the schemeThis guide results from a project funded by the European Commission aimed to set up, execute and evaluate the impact of a new scheme for supporting user-centered open innovation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (200SMEchallenge - more info in the final section). The initiative, which we have called UX Challenge, especially focuses on finding solutions to problems in the digital realm, by means of user-centered design methodologies and techniques applied to the design and development of software, digital applications, and human-machine interfaces

Evaluation of Early-Stage Design Concepts via Online Discussion: A Case Study

User involvement through an online platform may have several benefits for evaluating early-stage design ideas. In this paper, we present a case where we supported two companies with gathering customers’ early feedback on service concepts. Our findings suggest that a scenario-based approach coupled with an explicit rewarding mechanism based on actual participation may prompt vivid discussions, reduce dropouts and lurkers as well as provide useful insight into the evaluation of services and elicit new ideas

Design elements of innovation contests supporting Open Innovation in SMEs:an action research study

Abstract While innovation contests and intermediaries are widely used in large companies to source knowledge from the outside, it is not clear how contests could be utilized to break the barriers that SMEs face in pursuing Open Innovation. In this paper, we shed light on the topic by analysing ten innovation contests that have been successfully run in three European countries with the specific aim to create innovation opportunities between SMEs and higher education institutions, research centres, other companies, or end users. The analysis resulted in the identification of common elements that played a crucial role in these innovation contests, but were overlooked in previous research. Moreover, we collected early evidence supporting the case for innovation contests as tools to support Open Innovation policies for SMEs. On that basis, we propose a new framework that can be used by innovation intermediaries to design innovation contests specifically aiming at supporting Open Innovation in SMEs

Designing innovation contests to support external knowledge search in small and medium-sized enterprises

Companies are increasingly implementing 'open' search processes to access external knowledge. However, external knowledge search can be complex and costly, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have fewer resources than larger firms. In this context, innovation intermediaries may support firms in searching external knowledge, thus reducing the related costs and uncertainty. Specifically, innovation in-termediaries may design and deliver innovation contests on behalf of their clients. Nonetheless, there is a lack of understanding on how innovation intermediaries can design innovation contests tailored on SMEs. Accordingly, we have developed a structured methodology for designing innovation contests to support SMEs in external knowledge search. This methodology was developed through an action research project that involved an Italian innovation intermediary. The paper contributes to the literature on knowledge search processes by presenting an approach that SMEs can adopt to perform external search. The study also contributes to the innovation in-termediaries literature by investigating how they can enhance their impact on SMEs' innovation processes. We also investigate how innovation contests can be designed to be more effective for SMEs. Finally, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the importance of defining specific Open Innovation policies to improve SMEs' innovativeness