The technical, social, economic, and other goals of a project initially have to be specified. What insights or technical products are being aimed at, what target groups are to be addressed by the product or will profit from new insights? The deliberate orientation towards a diversified and differentiated image of the target group may require new research approaches. A critical reflection of current research and design approaches and their application to new target groups may lead to new insights.
What target groups do we want to serve? (reflection aspect: benefit) Gender-specific distribution of work, unequal pay, and social inequalities reflect power relations. An analysis of such aspects in our field might broaden our research perspective. (reflection aspect: power relations)
Smart Homes may aid elderly persons in their daily lives at home. Family caregivers are the ones who buy and install such technology. The satisfaction of the end users and their acceptance of the technology strongly depends on them. According to Hwang et al. (2012), the role and needs of informal caregivers have rarely been studied. Informal care most often is done by women, is unpaid and a typical example for “invisible work” for which there is not much technical support. The design of Smart Home systems may not only be directed at the immediate needs of the elderly people themselves. It also has to meet the requirements of their informal caregivers instead of adding to their workload