Abstract:

VIAS aims to promote collaborative interaction practices among different generations, deepening the sense of belonging to the city, using technologies of everyday life and having the city of Viseu as the setting. Challenging children and seniors to tell stories about places of the city allows the combination and overlapping of different multigenerational layers, in a multimedia format, which are an important part of heritage interests and values fostering the collaborative construction of meanings related to places, therefore promoting the city identity and contributing to creating livable cities for all ages.

This proposal describes the participatory approach adapted to develop an application to be used in mobile devices (App) and that will challenge children and seniors citizens to create stories about their city, Viseu, while they wander through the city and interact with sites of cultural and natural interest. The VIAS Project invited children and seniors citizens to co-design the collaborative App and we describe the implementation of five intergenerational workshops with seniors and children that led to the design and development of the app. A first prototype of the app is also present. The app allows the upload of georeferenced stories in multimedia format (image, text and sound) by children and seniors. While touring the city, the elderly and children can either post their stories or access the stories posted by others about those places.

The results of this process of intergenerational participatory activities shows how children value the knowledge and contribution of the elderly and confirm the potential of the App to promote social and digital inclusion.

Keywords:

Intergenerational, Social Inclusion, Participatory Design, App.