Project aims

Technologies That Matter explores how people with experience of care use technology in their everyday lives – and what this means for living a good life. It aims:

• To co-produce research into the lived experience of technology and care.
• To understand if and how people who receive care and support integrate technology into their everyday lives to enhance wellbeing.
• To develop evidence that helps policymakers, practitioners, and providers move beyond generalised narratives about ‘technology and care,’ towards approaches that are equitable, responsive, and grounded in lived experience.
• To share learning from our co-production journey to support other researchers, organisations, and communities engaging in similar work.

Research questions:

• What digital technologies are people using to live their best lives, and how and why are they using them?
• How do people adapt, blend, or reshape technologies to create outcomes that matter to them?
• Do these technologies open new opportunities, barriers, benefits, or risks?
• How do technologies shape family care relationships, paid care, and employment?
• Who can use technologies to live well, and who is left out or exposed to harm?

Working with our Design and Methods Group (including people with lived experience of care and support), we co-designed a longitudinal research approach that combines in-depth interviews, diaries and creative methods. Interviews and other data generation activities were completed mid-2025, and we are now in an extended analysis and outputs-development period. 

A key area of collaboration has included the co-design of the ‘Mind the Gap: Tackling Digital Exclusion Board Game, which has been ‘on tour’ to various events. Members of the Design and Methods Group supported the development of the game and are part of expert panels at events where the game is played. 

Outputs to date include: 

• Pieroudis, K. Who asks the questions and who gets to answer? https://centreforcare.ac.uk/commentary/2023/07/who-asks-the-questions-who-gets-to-answer/ 
• https://centreforcare.ac.uk/mind-the-gap-tackling-digital-exclusion/