Services

How we work

We provide evidence-based industry support throughout the entire product development process. Do you have a specific innovation challenge within your company? Explorative or specific? We can guide you along the different steps of the R&D process. We typically collaborate via these services:

Project

Want to optimize your human-technology interactions? To maximize your effectiveness and adoption? Advice your policy and decision makers? We can help! We do this via either a short on-demand research request (bilateral project) or via a longer research track (which you can apply funding for - e.g. Baekeland mandaat, Ontwikkelingsproject, ...). Let us know your challenge!

Consortium

A consortium is a very interesting way, new for many companies, to interact with research groups and other partners to engage in exploratory innovation and early go-to-market. Many instruments (imec ICON, European calls, ...) grant the partners subsidies to invest time and effort. Our role as mict extends from the beginning (e.g. user research, feature selection, prototyping) to the end (e.g. final product, go-to-market).

With De Krook as our home base and UGent and imec as our network, we are able to connect partners around research questions and define future Smart Spaces (e.g. Smart Media, Smart Health, Smart City, Smart Home) within the Flemish ecosystem. Interested to lead or join a consortium? Let's talk!

Workshop

We share our scientific insights on how people interact with technology today and co-create future technologies for the people of tomorrow. Based on your requirements, context and interests, we organize an introductory workshop to get started with our insights, methods and approach.

Do It Yourself

We encourage companies and organizations to apply our tools (e.g. the user innovation toolbox) in their innovation process. We are currently working on an online version, as for now contact us for a free copy of the paper one. Looking for background? Our scientific publications are publicly available here.

 

Ready to talk about your project?
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Want to know more?

Find out our ongoing projects here.

What we do

We provide scientific insights on how people interact with technology today. And co-create future technologies for the people of tomorrow. Therefore, we study people on three levels:

What people say

By asking opinions via online/offline surveys and interviews (e.g. Digimeter)

Digimeter

Getting closer to the user requires a broad methodological expertise, but also a constant access to data about the user and his environment. In 2008, prof. dr. Lieven De Marez started this initiative within iMinds-iLab.o. (now imec living labs) Goal was to allow access to representative data on the use of media & ICT in Flanders in a consistent and continuous way. This results in an annual digimeter-report: a state of affairs concerning the adoption and use of media & ICT in Flanders. The Digimeter also ensures the mict-researchers a permanent access to a unique dataset and panel for further research.

What people do

By observing behavior via mobile data logging and in the field monitoring (e.g. Mobile DNA, prototyping, research labs)

MobileDNA

Mobile DNA is an application that shows your actual smartphone usage (an overview of all notifications, duration of use and center of gravity of use throughout the day). We are doing research into patterns of smartphone usage and providing users with meaningful insights into their smartphone usage. Based on the results of the first Mobile DNA-report we further develop the application, data and insights together with partners. Interested what this can mean for you?

What people feel

By measuring physiological data via a wide range of sensors (EEG, EMG, GSR, HR, Eye-tracking)

Cognitive load 

As a consequence of digitalization, automation and innovations in artificial intelligence and robotics, a lot of simple, repetitive assembly tasks will no longer be performed by factory workers, but by machines. However, at the same time, consumers demand more and more personalized products, increasing the need for human assembly workers who can adapt quickly to new and more complex assembly procedures. Also in the context of control rooms and surveillance, more and more cameras and sensors are used, drastically changing the workflow of human operators.

All these changes are most likely to increase the cognitive workload and potentially overload assembly workers  and operators that were already having a hard time during more traditional assembly and operator work. At imec-mict-UGent, we combine different types of sensor data (skin conductance and EEG via wearables, video, performance data), try to find reliable markers of cognitive overload and explore remediation tools to reduce this cognitive overload. Interested? Please contact us.

Our research tools

In order to get and remain close to theat end user, his expectations, (the quality of) his experiences, and the diversification of his media consumption patterns, mict relies on a unique and broad diversity of methodological expertise. Main differentiators in that methodological approach are its interdisciplinarity and its user-centric innovation approach. One of mict’s missions is to take duty of the most optimal combination of methods and expertise in all phases of innovation development. As existing methods are insufficient to guarantee this user-centric innovation development, mict continuously invests in the exploration and development of new methodological approaches to get closer to digitizing media consumer.

User Innovation Toolbox

The User Innovation Toolbox is a card set to be consulted when looking for appropriate and inspiring methods or tools when doing user-centric innovation research. It is a collection of over 80 user-centric innovation research methods suited for agile innovation development environments and multidisciplinary R&D teams. A digital version of the user innovation toolbox is also available online and contains an essential selection of tools and methods.

Design for Smart Products through Prototyping

Our research has developed insights in how to help organizations with the design of successful smart products. The focus is here on the integration of electronic and IoT technologies into physical products taking into account commercial attraction and producibility. Therefore, we focus on the prototyping phase, in order to gain better insights in the human interactions that new technologies provide. We start from low-fi prototyping (e.g. storyboarding, sketching, paper/cardboard, quick and dirty (digital) mockups, Wizard Of Oz, etc) and move to high-fi prototyping (e.g. 3D-printing, Lasercutting, Arduino, RaspberryPi, etc) in different stages of the product development to achieve tangible and usable product concepts for user feedback and co-creation sessions. A prototype will emphasize one set of product characteristics in order to facilitate the design dialogue between stakeholders. Furthermore, it also helps to explore innovative ideas and encourages creativity in co-creation.

Our research labs

At De Krook, we use a wide set of research labs to prototype future contexts for advanced user experience research. With De Krook as our home base, we connect with our partners to define the future Smart Spaces (e.g. Smart Media, Smart Health, Smart City, Smart Home) within the Flemish ecosystem.

Media Experience Lab

In this lab we have the infrastructure to measure the quality of experience during media use through skin guidance, heart rate, face and EEG EMG. For example: we want to use pupil size as a physiological marker in research on media use, human-technology interactions and user experience.

Co-creation Lab

In order to get and remain close to that end user, her/his expectations, (the quality of) her/his experiences, and the diversification of her/his media consumption patterns, MICT relies on a unique and broad diversity of methodological expertise. Main differentiators in that methodological approach are its interdisciplinarity and its user-centric innovation approach. In this lab we organize workshops, brainstorms and co-creation sessions to get insights from the user about a new technology, medium or product. Insights we share with our interdisciplinary partners (engineers, prototypers, developers) to take up in the innovation process.

Interaction Design Lab

The interaction design lab focusses on the design of smart products, with a strong focus on future human-product interactions. The lab takes a research through design approach, acting as a sandbox for creative technology explorations through prototyping. Complementary with the co-creation lab, the lab uses different prototyping techniques to create more tangible product concepts, in order to facilitate the dialogue between different stakeholders during the design process. 

The lab also acts as a hub with a strong link to the research group design.nexus at Campus Kortrijk.