BESiDE Built Environment for Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy

Gathering Evidence for Built Environment Design
Towards Better Care Environments for Ageing
This work was supported by the RCUK Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Programme Grant number EP/K037293/1
www.beside.ac.uk
@besideresearch
/besideresearch
BESiDE

BESiDE – Who We Are
BESiDE is a multidisciplinary research group. Led by Professor Vicki Hanson, we include researchers from Computing, Design, and Healthcare at the
University of Dundee and from Computing at Newcastle University. Our work is made possible by the contributions of our project partners Balhousie Care
Group, Heathfield Ladies Residential Home, BUPA Balcarres, and Collective Architecture.
This work was supported by the RCUK Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Programme grant number EP/K037293/1
Architecture Design Medicine
Computing -
Argumentation
Computing -
Data Analysis
Computing - HCI

How can the built environment in care homes facilitate physical
ability and wellbeing?
To provide data to support design for the health
and wellbeing of older adults in care environments.
Life Long Health and Wellbeing

What would you
want or need if you
lived in a care
home?
How would you assess
the performance of a
care home building?
USER-CENTERED EVIDENCE-BASED
T O W A R D S B E T T E R C A R E E N V I R O N M E N T S F O R A G I N GBESIDE

 You know nothing
about us without us
– Anon
 A critical element of
accessibility research
is the exploration and
evaluation of ideas
with representative
users
- M Dee 2015
 One size does not fit
all one
– K Montague 2014
 What’s missing is the
evidence. There is no
evidence that good
design improves
people’s lives
– Stephen Hodder RIBA
 Any design response is
always, initially
hypothetical—pushing
the boundaries of what
is known in order to
learn more. The most
important question is,
on what is that design
hypothesis based?
-E B D 2015

 ‘'It is good to get older people
involved when designing for the
needs of older people’
- A n o n P a r t i c i p a n t
 'It is good to learn from precedent
when designing for the needs of
older people’
- A n o n P a r t i c i p a n t
20 9 20 3
Strongly Agree Agree Nether Agree or Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
- BESiDE Survey 2015
12 14 7 101
Strongly Agree Agree Nether Agree or Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
- BESiDE Survey 2015

TOW ARDS BETTER C AR E EN VIR ONMENTS FOR AGIN G
Capturing the voice of
the Users
Observing a week in
the life of a care home
Tracing and Modelling
Movement and Use
Co-Design of
wearable research
devices
BESIDE
www.beside.ac.uk
@besideresearch
/besideresearch

Care home residents from six different care homes, participated in a study with University of Dundee
researchers to tell them what, in their experience, contributes to a good care home environment. A visual game
with comic book style images was used to encourage and support conversations with residents.
Capturing the
voice of the
Users
BESiDE Methods
An Ideal
Home Game
beside.ac.uk/game

As the end-users, residents were more than capable of engaging in conversation about their built-environment. As the voice of
authority, they provided us with many insights. Two main themes that recurred throughout conversations were the importance of
having and retaining some control over their way of life and the need for satisfactory relationships within the constraints of a
communal lifestyle.
AUTONOMY
Residents described ways in which the environment supports
their ability to remain actively independent, whilst retaining their
identity and personhood.
SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
Residents described the importance relationships and
interactions in the context of a care home .
Capturing the
voice of the
Users
BESiDE Findings
What
Residents
want
beside.ac.uk/voice

We interviewed 14 care home visitors (aged 65 to 83) about their experience of care home visiting. 8 of the visitors were relatives, 5
were friends and 1 a volunteer visitor. Overall, they had experience of visiting 30 care homes. We asked them about their experience
of the different care home environments and how it supported or inhibited their visiting experience.
Capturing the
voice of the
Users
BESiDE Findings
Designing for
Visiting
beside.ac.uk/voice

Sitting was described by residents as being the main activity and therefore seating was of great importance in a care home.
Conversations covered a wide range of requirements and desirable qualities for appropriate seating. Our images of seating were
criticised in terms of comfort, function, and safety. Style issues were referred to by some residents but the majority were concerned
about functionality.
Accessibility - Safety and ease of use
Comfort - Ergonomics and suitability for sitting
Function - Variety of Layout and flexibility
Capturing the
voice of the
Users
BESiDE Findings
Seating in
Care Homes
beside.ac.uk/voice

Running an effective focus group with clients,
users and other stakeholders can be
challenging:
• how can contributors be encouraged to offer
comparable input?
• how can time be managed to ensure good
coverage of hot topics?
• how can practice and client input into focus
groups to encourage themes to be addressed?
As a part of BESiDE’s work with practice staff, we have built a tool that tracks, monitors, and reports analytics of focus group
discussions in real time. Early results suggest a significant impact that even simple analytics can have in encouraging participation,
facilitating thematic coverage and improving purposeful focus.
Supporting
Purposeful
Conversation
BESiDE Methods
A tool for
Facilitating
Focus
Groups
beside.ac.uk/dialogue

Ethnographic observation methods allow us to capture a narrative of everyday life in a care home. BESiDE researchers used a
design ethnography approach to observe and capture snippets of activity in care homes in Scotland and England.
AEIOU is a structured way of recording these human-building interactions.
Affinity mapping and Grounded Theory Based Data coding allows us to analyze this sort of data
Observing a
week in the life
of a care home
BESiDE Methods
AEIOU
Ethnographic
Observations
beside.ac.uk/observations

The 'Ways to Wellbeing' framework was developed by the Government Office and the New Economics Foundation. It identifies add
promotes personal activities which have the potential to contribute to wellbeing. The framework is designed to act as an accessible
call to action, in a similar way to the target of Five Portions of Fruit and Veg does for dietary health.
Observing a
week in the life
of a care home
BESiDE Method
Five Ways to
Wellbeing

BESiDE Findings
Five
Characteristics
of Supportive
Care Home
Buildings
Traversable - easy to move through
Interconnected - aids communication
Aesthetic - interesting, beautiful, and pleasing
Diverse - offers variety and choice
Legible - easy to understand
Two architectural researchers from the BESiDE team have spent time observing care homes in use. These observations were
notated and have been through a rigorous process of analysis. Using the ‘five ways to wellbeing’ as a guide, we have focused on
activities which have the potential to improve residents’ well being. We have identified five qualities of the built environment that help
enable or hinder these activities.
Observing a
week in the life
of a care home

BESiDE Methods
Create engaging and appropriate ways for care home residents to wear or carry sensors to promote use and preserve dignity.
Co-design is grounded in the understanding of the real life experiences, ideas and skills of the people, who use, and need products
or services (Szebeko & Tan, 2010).
Using bespoke design tools such as mood boards, a picture card deck and soft textile prototypes to prompt ideation and discussion,
beside.ac.uk/codesign
Co-Design of
wearable
research
devices

Co-Design of
wearable
research
devices
BESiDE Methods
beside.ac.uk/codesign Create engaging and appropriate ways for care home residents to wear or carry sensors to promote use and preserve dignity.
Co-design is grounded in the understanding of the real life experiences, ideas and skills of the people, who use, and need products
or services (Szebeko & Tan, 2010).
Using bespoke design tools such as mood boards, a picture card deck and soft textile prototypes to prompt ideation and discussion,

We provide into the locations and spatial conditions of where older care residents are most physically active (i.e.
by mapping activity 'hot-spots' in the home). This mapping creates an understanding of when and where different
types of social interactions take place
We are using estimote beacons and smart watches. To provide accurate logs of movement patterns through the
homes.
Collecting
location data
BESiDE Methods
beside.ac.uk/sensors
Tracing and
Modelling
Movement
and Use

Based on medical gerontology approaches, Accelerometer devices record physical activity, along with coded
observations, to gain a greater understanding of the activity and socialization context.
Self-reported physical activity is notoriously inaccurate, and known to be insensitive to walking, the most
common activity for most older people. Furthermore, very little data on daily activity levels is available on either
the oldest-old (over 80s) or those living in care settings
BESiDE Methods
Tracing and
Modelling
Movement
and Use
Collecting
physical
activity data

BESiDE Methods
We provide into the locations and spatial conditions of where older care residents are most physically active
(i.e. by mapping activity 'hot-spots' in the home).
This mapping creates an understanding of when and where different types of physical activity and social
interaction take place.
Tracing and
Modelling
Movement
and Use

BESiDE Built Environment for Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy

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