27th march 2013 Het Financiële Dagblad (the Dutch financial daily) carried an insert with an interview with STBY creative director Bas Raijmakers. He explains some common problems with care at a distance (‘Zorg op Afstand’) as services to people at home via (mostly) video links are called in The Netherlands. In particular the technology push approach is often much resented because it generally impoverishes the contact between caretaker and patient or client. However, this does not need to be if we look at how Skype and Facetime help people to strengthen social relationships rather than weakening them. Bas makes the argument that we should look at design driven innovation which aims to find and create new meanings for technology with the people who will use the technology. By empathising with the people who use technology, both caretakers and patient or clients, these new meanings can be found, as STBY has experienced in numerous projects.
The full insert can be read here (in Dutch). You will find the interview on page 15 (pictured above).