The iPhone has thanks to its multitouch interface, size and connectivity change the way we communicate. To fully utilize this technology we can involve users in the development process to help make highly usable software applications. One way to do this we somehow need to get the users to use our systems. What techniques are there to do this? And will they fit our product? Are there any way we can involve the users in the development process of an iPhone application, in this thesis I investigate if this can be accomplished by conducting usability tests with users on an iPhone application. The usability testing gives an insight into how the users work with and adapts to the users interface. The questionnaires given to the participants gave insight into how the users considered the usability and usefulness of the application. This data gave the development much needed data on the application to make it better and more usable. Since earlier research into user involvement have shown a strong connection to usable software and usability testing could be integrated successfully into the development by the single programmer, the conclusion can be drawn that single developer that incorporates usability testing into the development process as a form of user involvement makes more usable software. The usability was tested on an iPhone application built for an American online classified ads website.

This thesis is the final component of the Master of Science degree within Industrial design engineering at Luleå University of Technology. The purpose of the project was to analyze an issue and developing a conceptual solution based on scientific knowledge within the field. The project was carried out at SmålandsVillan's production facility in Sundsvall which produces module bungalows and condominiums. The objective of the project was to define and analyze why the company struggled with sick leaves among the operators and the aim was to develop a solution to ease the strained work situation. When the project was initiated in January, the given issues were that two workstations, floor and middle joist system, had high sick leave due to physically demanding work and that they had been struggling with backlogs in the previous fall. The mapping of the current state started with a wide scanning of empirical data of sick leaves but also incidents and accidents for all teams at the facility. The data showed that the two workstations had higher sick leave than most of the other teams, thus the project carried out a more thorough mapping on these workstations. The focused mapping was carried out in two steps: First by observing ergonomic postures and analyzing with a modified version of the Ovako Working Posture Analyzing System (OWAS), and secondly by interviewing the operators to map their mental work situation. When the mappings were put together and analyzed, it was clear that the cause of the issues at floor joist system was a conflict between the operators and managers rather than physically demanding work. The facility had expanded its production in the fall and in that process, floor joist system lost stock areas, fell behind in the production pace, and got in a conflict with the managers. Because of the layout issues, the project focus was widened to map the current layout as well. At middle joist system, the found issues were static kneeling postures and carrying heavy loads. The ideation phase of the project was carried out in two parallel paths: One to develop a new layout at floor joist system, and the other to develop ergonomic equipment for middle joist system. The operators were highly involved in the process to define what issues to solve and find suitable solutions. A total of five concepts were obtained, two ergonomic solutions and three layouts. By a joint specification of requirements, one of the layout concepts was chosen for further development. The final development of the concept contained detailed solutions at several areas related to the workstation. In the current layout, the operators were forced to walk in the forklift aisles to get materials. This issue was not eliminated but reduced in the final concept development: By placing heavy materials closer to the worktables, the operators did not have to carry loads as far, thus the risk of musculoskeletal disorders was decreased. The accident risk when operators walk in the forklift aisles was also reduced because both distances and number of walks were decreased. In addition to the layout, ergonomic equipment of a pushcart and height adjustable table were also evaluated to further ease the strain on the bodies when handling heavy loads. Due to lack of time, it was not possible to calculate the optimal stock sizes. Therefore, the recommendation to SmålandsVillan is to first calculate material needs and thereafter implement the detailed areas one by one, and finally implement ergonomic equipment. / Denna rapport är det sista momentet i utbildningen Civilingenjör inom Teknisk Design med inriktning mot produktionsdesign vid Luleå Tekniska Universitet. Avsikten med projektet var att analysera ett problem och ta fram en konceptuell lösning baserat på vetenskap inom ämnet. Projektet genomfördes vid SmålandsVillans produktionsenhet i Sundsvall, vilka producerar modulhus och bostadsrätter. Syftet med projektet var att hitta och analysera orsakerna till varför företaget hade problem med sjukfrånvaro bland operatörerna och målet med projektet var att ta fram en lösning för att underlätta arbetssituationen. När projektet startade i januari var given fakta att vid två arbetsstationer, golv- och mellanbjälk, var sjukfrånvaro vanligt förekommande, arbetet var fysiskt krävande och under hösten hade det varit problem med släpande produktion. Kartläggningen av den nuvarande situationen började med en bred scanning där empiriska data över sjukfrånvaro, tillbud och olyckor jämfördes mellan alla arbetslag på fabriken. Sammanställningen visade att det var högre sjukfrånvaro vid de två arbetsstationerna än vid de flesta andra stationerna och därför fokuserades den detaljerade nulägesanalysen på dessa två. Den djupgående nulägesanalysen genomfördes i två steg: Först observerades belastningsergonomi genom en modifierad version av Ovako Working Posture Analyzing System (OWAS) och därefter intervjuades operatörerna för att kartlägga den mentala arbetssituationen. När den fysiska och mentala kartläggningen sammanställdes visade det sig att orsaken bakom problemen vid golvbjälk snarare var en konflikt mellan arbetslaget och cheferna under hösten än det fysiska arbetet. Fabriken hade expanderat produktionen under hösten och därmed förlorade golvbälk lagerytor, kom efter i produktionstakten och hamnade i en konflikt med cheferna. På grund av layoutproblemen breddades projektets fokus för att kartlägga den nuvarande layouten. Vid mellanbjälk var problemen att många moment tvingade operatörerna att stå på knä och att bära tunga laster. Idégenereringsfasen genomfördes i två parallella spår: Den ena för att ta fram layoutkoncept för golvbjälk och den andra för ergonomiska hjälpmedel för mellanbjälk. Operatörerna var engagerade i processen för att hitta vilka problem som fanns och vilka lösningar som skulle passa. Totalt togs fem koncept fram, två ergonomiska hjälpmedel och tre layouter. Genom en gemensam kravspecifikation valdes en av layouterna för vidare utveckling. Den fortsatta utvecklingen av konceptet innefattade detaljerade lösningar för flera områden som var relevanta för arbetsstationen. I den nuvarande layouten var operatörerna tvungna att gå i truckgångarna för att hämta material. Detta problem eliminerades inte men minskades i det slutgiltiga konceptet. Genom att placera tunga material nära arbetsborden behövde inte operatörerna bära lasterna lika långt och därmed minskade riskerna för belastningsskador. Olycksrisken när operatörer går i truckgångarna minskades också eftersom både sträcka och antalet vändor de gick i gångarna minskade. Layoutförändringen kompletterades med ergonomiska hjälpmedel, i form av en magasinskärra och ett höj- och sänkbart bord för att ytterligare minska den fysiska belastningen. På grund av tidsbrist var det inte möjligt att optimera hur mycket material som behövdes vid stationen. Därför är rekommendationen till SmålandsVillan att först beräkna materialbehov och därefter implementera de detaljerade områdena ett i taget och slutligen de ergonomiska hjälpmedlen.

Användarmedverkan har genomtiderna ansetts vara lösningen på alla problem inom systemutveckling. Dock har författare inom området delade meningar om den faktiska betydelsen av att involvera användarna i processen. Kärnlitteraturen som behandlar ämnet är av en äldre karaktär, fast än idag refereras det till dessa författare som behandlar ämnet. Den tekniska utvecklingen kan gett människor i största allmänhet en större teknisk förståelse, frågan är om detta ha påverkat användarmedverkan? Frågeställningen som kommer ge svar på denna fråga är: Hur ser användarmedverkan ut i dagens praktik, vilka möjligheter och problem kan det innebära? Syftet för denna undersökning är att granska hur dagens praktiker ser på användarmedverkan, vilka problem och möjligheter de står inför idag jämfört med vad den äldre litteraturen påvisar. Denna undersökning bygger på en tidigare undersökning av Agnes Hedberg och Sanna Järlstig (2016) från Linköpings universitet, dem själva ansåg att deras resultat var vagt utifrån antalet respondenter. Därför har antalet respondenter i denna undersökning tre-dubblats för att se om slutresultatet skiljer sig ifrån varandra. Ytterligare ställs resultatet av denna undersökning emot litteraturen för att se om skiljaktigheter kan tydas ifrån dagens praktikers syn på användarmedverkan. Resultatet från denna undersökning visar upp en syn på användarmedverkan i dagens praktik där det är mer ett måste att involvera användarna. Synen som litteraturen påvisade om att användarmedverkan skulle vara kostsamt och tidskrävande betonas inte lika starkt i dagens praktik. Praktikerna uttrycker att utvecklingsprocessen som helhet är kostsam och tidkrävande men att exkludera användarna är inte ett alternativ utifrån det mervärde som ges genom involvering. Resultatet i jämförelse med den tidigare undersökningen styrker deras resultat och betonar stora likheter med vad Hedberg & Järlstig (2016) fastställde. / User participation is argued to be the solution for all issues regarding system development. However, researchers within this field have different views of the impact of involving users in this process. Even though the literature utilized in this thesis can be perceived as old, the author identified it to be the most frequently referred to by others. Thereby, the quality of the literature remains high. The digital development has contributed to a better technical understanding in general, but the question is if this has affected the user participation? The problem investigated was therefore: What is the view of user participation today, and what problems and opportunities are associated with it? The purpose of this study was to investigate today’s practice of user participation. More specifically, what problems and opportunities that are faced by companies and suppliers. This study was based on a previous thesis conducted by Agnes Hedberg & Sanna Järlstig (2016) from Linköping University, who perceived their own findings as biased and vague, due to their low number of interviewees. Therefore, the author of this thesis determined to triple the number of interviews to examine if the outcome changed. Moreover, the findings from the empirical data were also compared with the literature, in order to analyze if the current perception of user participation differs from the previous one. The result of this study demonstrates that the involvement of users in the development, was perceived as essential. The companies argued that the development process was costly and time consuming in general, but not to the same extent as the literature did. On the contrary, the interviewees emphasized the importance of not excluding the users, since their involvement rather added value to the process. This study’s results confirmed many of Hedberg & Järlstig (2016) findings, by highlighting the similarities between the two theses.

[EN] Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are considered to be a powerful tool for enhancing the efficiency of software developers and bring software development closer to end-users from complex domains. However, the successful development of a DSL for a complex domain is a challenge from the technical point of view and because end-user acceptance is key. Despite this fact, the relevant role of end-users during DSL development has traditionally been neglected. Normally, end-users participate at the beginning to communicate their preferences but they do not participate again until the DSL is completely implemented. As a consequence, if the language to develop reaches a complex domain, the chances that errors appear in the DSL are higher and solving them could involve large modifications that could have been avoided. As a solution, in this PhD thesis, we propose an agile, model-driven method to involve end-users in DSL development. This thesis researches if the combination of best practices from the model-driven development (MDD) discipline and best practices from agile methods is a suitable approach to involve end-users in the DSL development process. In order to validate the proposal, we have selected a highly complex domain such as the genetic analysis domain and we have collaborated with geneticists from three organizations. The proposed method has been used to involve these geneticists in the development of a DSL for the creation of genetic analysis pipelines. Simultaneously, we have carried out an empirical experiment to validate whether end-users and developers were satisfied with the proposal. / [ES] Los lenguajes específicos de dominio (DSLs) son una herramienta muy potente para mejorar la eficiencia de los desarrolladores de software, así como para acercar el desarrollo software a usuarios sin conocimientos informáticos. Sin embargo, su principal problema es que desarrollar un DSL es complejo; no sólo desde el punto de vista técnico, sino especialmente porque la aceptación de dicho lenguaje por parte de los usuarios finales es clave. A pesar de este hecho, los métodos tradicionales de desarrollo de DSLs no enfatizan el importante rol de los usuarios finales durante el desarrollo. Normalmente, los usuarios participan al inicio para comunicar sus preferencias, pero no vuelven a participar hasta que el DSL está completamente desarrollado. Si el lenguaje a desarrollar aborda un dominio complejo, la posibilidad de que existan errores en el DSL es mayor, y su solución podría conllevar a modificaciones de gran calibre que podrían haberse evitado. Como solución, en esta tesis proponemos un método de desarrollo de DSLs, ágil, y dirigido por modelos que involucra a los usuarios finales. Esta tesis investiga si la combinación de buenas prácticas del desarrollo dirigido por modelos (MDD) y de buenas prácticas de métodos ágiles es adecuada para involucrar a los usuarios finales en el desarrollo de DSLs. Para validar la idoneidad de la propuesta, se ha seleccionado un dominio complejo como el de los análisis genéticos y se ha colaborado con un conjunto de genetistas procedentes de tres organizaciones. El método propuesto se ha utilizado para involucrar a dichos genetistas en el desarrollo de un DSL para la creación de pipelines para el análisis genético. Conjuntamente, se ha llevado a cabo un experimento empírico para validar si los usuarios finales y los desarrolladores están satisfechos con la propuesta de la presente tesis. En resumen, las contribuciones principales de esta tesis doctoral son el diseño e implementación de un método innovador, ágil y dirigido por modelos para involucrar a los usuarios finales en el desarrollo de DSLs, así como la validación de dicha propuesta en un entorno industrial en un desarrollo real de un DSL. / [CAT] Els llenguatges específics de domini (DSLs) son una ferramenta molt potent per a millorar l'eficiència dels desenvolupadors de programari, així com per a apropar el desenvolupament de programari a usuaris sense coneixements informàtics. El problema es que desenvolupar un DSL es complex, no sols des del punt de vista tècnic, sinó especialment perquè l'acceptació de dit llenguatge per part dels usuaris finals es clau. Malgrat aquest fet, els mètodes tradicionals de desenvolupament de DSLs no emfatitzen l'important rol dels usuaris finals durant el desenvolupament. Normalment, els usuaris participen a l'inici per a comunicar les seues preferències, però no tornen a participar fins que el DSL està completament desenvolupat. Si el llenguatge a desenvolupar aborda un domini complex, la possibilitat de que hi hagen errors en el DSL es major i solucionar-los podria implicar modificacions de gran calibre que podrien haver-se evitat. Com a solució, en aquesta tesis proposem un mètode de desenvolupament de DSLs, àgil i dirigit per models que involucra als usuaris finals. Aquesta tesis investiga si la combinació de bones pràctiques del desenvolupament dirigit per models (MDD) i de bones pràctiques de mètodes àgils es adequada per a involucrar els usuaris finals en el desenvolupament de DSLs. Per a validar la idoneïtat de la proposta, s'ha seleccionat un domini complex com el dels anàlisis genètics i s'ha col·laborat amb un conjunt de genetistes procedents de tres organitzacions. El mètode s'ha utilitzat per a involucrar a dits genetistes en el desenvolupament d'un DSL per a la creació de pipelines per al anàlisis genètic. Al mateix temps, s'ha dut a terme un experiment empíric per a validar si tant els usuaris finals com els desenvolupadors estan satisfets amb la proposta de la present tesis. En resum, les contribucions principals d'aquesta tesis doctoral son el disseny i implementació d'un mètode innovador, àgil i dirigit per models per a involucrar als usuaris finals en el desenvolupament de DSLs, així com la validació de la proposta en un entorn industrial amb un desenvolupament real d'un DSL. / Villanueva Del Pozo, MJ. (2016). An agile model-driven method for involving end-users in DSL development [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/60156 / TESIS

Med informationssystemens ökande närvaro i dagens samhälle blir det allt viktigare att systemen anpassas efter användare och uppfyller deras behov. Därför uppmuntras användare i allt större omfattning att delta i systemutvecklingsprocessen. Trots detta är felaktiga krav en stor anledning till att projekt bedömts som misslyckade. Under tidigare studier har flera olika faktorer analyserats för att undersöka hur dessa påverkar användartillfredsställelse och hur uppfattningen av tillfredsställelse kan skilja sig mellan olika grupper av användare, baserat på dess kontext. Det har även tidigare visats att hög grad av användartillfredsställelse uppstått vid en låg grad av medverkan och vice versa. Uppsatsen ämnar belysa vilka faktorer som påverkar användares tillfredsställelse vid medverkan i systemutvecklingsprojekt. För detta har en intervjustudie med en kvalitativ ansats utformats där totalt sju intervjuer genomförts. Därefter har en kvalitativ analys genomförts för att behandla insamlade data. Studien visar att faktorerna grad och nivå av användarmedverkan och involvering, effektivitet av användarmedverkan och involvering, kommunikation mellan användare och utvecklare, användarrepresentation, stöd av ledningen samt åsikters beaktning påverkar användartillfredsställelse. Dessa faktorer stöds av teorin, medan faktorn planering inte stöds då avsaknaden av detaljerad planering inte visat någon större inverkan på tillfredsställelsen eller effektiviteten av medverkan. Slutligen har kommunikation mellan användare och utvecklare samt åsikters beaktning påvisats som faktorer med mest inflytande på användartillfredsställelse. / With the increasing presence of information systems in todays society, it can be percieved as important that the systems are adjusted based on the users needs. This could be an encouragement to let users participate in the system development process to a higher degree. Despite this, inaccurate requirement gathering is a prominent cause among projects deemed as failures. Previous studies have analyzed different factors to see how they affect user satisfaction and have also shown that the perception of user satisfaction can vary between groups of users, depending on the context. Research have shown that a high degree of user satisfaction can be achieved with a low degree of user participation, and vice versa. The aim of this thesis was to examine what factors affected users satisfaction with their participation in the system development process. To answer this, a qualitative study has been conducted through seven interviews. Further on, a qualitative method of analysis have been used to analyze the collected data. The study shows the factors degree and level of user participation and involvement, effectiveness of user participation and involvement, communication between users and developers, user representation, support of management and consideration of opinions does affect user satisfaction. These factors are supported by previous studies, while the factor planning is not supported since the absence of detailed planning does not show any significant influence on user satisfaction or the effectivity of participation. Finally, communication between users and developers and consideration of opinions has been shown to have the strongest influence on user satisfaction

Having a modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is seen as increasingly important if an organisation wants to compete in today’s business environment. The implementation of a new ERP system can result in added automatization and the replacement and/or coupling of legacy systems. The replacement and coupling of legacy systems can help an organisation increase data integrity and accessibility by lowering data fragmentation. Previous research on the topic of ERP implementations has emphasized user participation as an important factor when aiming to succeed with an implementation. The research is however inconsistent with its use of participation and involvement where involvement is often used synonymously with participation, but sometimes it signifies that the implementation is of personal importance to the user. This study defines user participation as the user partaking in activities relating to the implementation, and user involvement is defined as the user perceiving the project or system as important. This study also introduces a new term: user inclusion, which encompasses both user participation, and if a user is on the receiving end of one-way communication, for example when receiving a newsletter. This study argues that symbolic adoption, the belief that implementing the system is a good idea, is an important part of system success and uses a combination of factors from the UTAUT model and the I/S success model as antecedents to the dimensions of symbolic adoption that has been presented in previous research. The purpose of this study is to examine how users are included in ERP implementation processes, and how their inclusion in the process affects users’ symbolic adoption. To address this purpose, a qualitative multi-case study that included two cases was conducted. In order to answer how users are included, this study divides how into three sub-questions; who; when and in what way users were included throughout the implementation. ​This study concludes that users’ inclusion increases over time throughout the implementation process, both in terms of influence, and in number of participating users. This study also shows that users included in project initiatives can affect the antecedents to symbolic adoption in various ways, both their own symbolic adoption, and that of their non-participating colleagues. An example of this is how intended users’ expectations can be managed through communication and when they get first-hand experience of the system, their expectations correct themselves so that they are closer to the actual performance and effort required. The antecedents, performance and effort expectancy, are in turn linked to the symbolic adoption dimension effort worthiness.

Den här uppsatsen har sin utgångspunkt i en arbetsgrupp, inom äldrevården, vilken har en förhållandevis jämn fördelning mellan antalet män och kvinnor. Hypotesen är att en organisation, med en sådan arbetsgrupp, i större utsträckning inhyser konflikter mellan arbetsplatsens jämställdhet och vårdtagarnas valfrihet att tacka ja eller nej till hjälp beroende på om den tilltänkta utföraren är man eller kvinna. Platsen har alltså valts strategiskt för att utröna om hypotesen kan bekräftas. Uppsatsen behandlar hur organisationen, formellt och informellt, samordnar dessa normer och utgår ifrån att det finns en inneboende intressekonflikt i relationen dem emellan. Det empiriska materialet har hämtats in med hjälp av samtalsintervjuer. Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att tydliggöra ansvarsfördelningen för hur de olika normerna avvägs mot varandra men också att utröna vilka efterverkningar avvägningarna får i det praktiska arbetet och rekryteringen. Som titeln implicerar använde sig organisationen av en undvikande logik i avvägningen. Istället för att synliggöra konflikten tonade man ner den genom att bara ta till sig jämställdhetskonceptet på ett terminologiskt plan och på så sätt löskoppla det från de interna aktiviteterna. Genom detta pragmatiska förhållningssätt kunde arbetet fortlöpa som tidigare utan att den inbyggda intressekonflikten gjorde avkall på effektiviteten. / This essay has its outset in a work team within the elderly care. The work team is relatively equally composed regarding the number of men and women. The hypothesis is that an organization, with a work team of that composition, will even more so contain conflicts between the work place' equality and the caretakers freedom of choice to accept or decline help depending on if the prospective personnel is male or female. The scene of the study has thereby been chosen strategically in order to prove the hypothesis. The essay is addressing how the organization, formally and informally, coordinates these norms and assumes that there is an immanent conflict of interest in the relation between them. The empirical data has been obtained through research interviews. The intention of the essay has been to clarify the division of responsibilities regarding how the norms should be balanced in relation to one another but also to determine which impacts the balancing will provide in the hands-on work and the recruitment of new staff. As the title implicate; did the organization use an avoidant approach in the balancing process. Rather than making the conflict visible, it was de-emphasized by absorbing the concept of equality only on a semantic level, thereby loose coupling the concept from the internal activities. Through such pragmatic disposition the activities could proceed as before without a conflict of interests intervening on the efficiency of the organization.

Customer feedback is essential for improving a company's products or services and increasing customer satisfaction. Despite its value, user involvement faces many challenges, such as low user motivation and feedback with missing context information. To increase the chance of collecting user feedback, the process must be fast, easy, and well-integrated into the system or product.  In this thesis, a suitable way of designing a high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) prototype of a reactive feedback feature that improves the ease of submitting end-user feedback and enriching it with sufficient information to streamline the interpretation and handling process has been investigated. This was done by following the Design Thinking method and its five phases. In the first phase of the process, Empathize, information about the end-users' and the product teams' pain points, wants, and needs regarding the current feedback process were gathered through interviews. A literature study and research of existing feedback tools were also conducted to build a broader knowledge about the subject. The collected data was organized and analyzed during the second phase, Define, through affinity diagramming, a customer journey map, and defining user need statements. In the third phase, Ideate, a wide range of design solutions to the identified problems and user need statements were generated during a Crazy 8 workshop and initial sketching. The two final phases, Prototype and Test, consisted of three iterations of creating and evaluating prototypes through an expert review, a usability test, a heuristic evaluation, and a final usability test.  The two major identified pain points were the product team expressed that customer feedback is often difficult to interpret due to missing context information, and that end users have to go through a long and laborious procedure to provide feedback. End-users wanted an easy and fast way to submit a wide range of feedback to have some impact on the product's future improvement, and the product team wanted to collect as much sufficient information as possible to facilitate the interpretation and handling process. The study explores the challenges of including predefined feedback options and a prioritization feature to enhance the interpretation and management of feedback while maintaining ease of use. The prototype includes the possibility to attach annotated screenshots and screen recordings and automatically collects contextual data to address the lack of information and simplify and speed up the feedback process for end-users. The final usability test resulted in positive feedback and showed that the suggested feedback feature enables end-users to provide feedback quickly and easily while providing the product team with the most necessary information. The result also gives a first indication that the feedback feature will increase the end-user involvement in the product's future development.

No / This paper presents the findings of the third stage of a research study, the overall aim of which was to evaluate the educational preparation for cancer and palliative care nursing for children and adolescents in England. The specific aim of this stage was to define the attributes of `threshold' and `higher level' practice in nursing in order to inform the outcomes of future educational programmes. The research design involved children, their parents and their nurses at two different stages in the study. The first stage was the construction of the research instruments, in this case video and audio recordings of episodes of care in which the children participated. The second stage was the review of the recordings by the children, their parents and other stakeholders involved in their care. Service users were also involved in the management of the project. The study findings suggested that although there was considerable agreement between service users and other stakeholders about the characteristics of adequate or threshold practice, for both cancer and palliative care, there was less agreement about what constituted higher level or expert practice — other than `more of the same but better'. The key areas of importance for future professional development courses were agreed as partnership working, clinical skills, multidisciplinary working and the personal attributes of the nurse.

yes / Purpose: This paper discusses the experiences of a group of ten user and carer researchers from mental health and learning disability services who worked together in a research and evaluation project between 2009 and 2012. The research project aimed to identify changes that took place as over 300 people moved from hostel accommodation into independent tenancies in flats and bungalows. These moves were part of a three year project involving a partnership between a local authority and a housing association. Design / approach: The paper describes the process of involving user and carers in the research process, identifying the challenges and benefits of involving users and carers. The ways in which people were trained and supported to take part and stay involved are outlined, as well as how the group felt they learnt new skills and increased their confidence. Findings: User involvement in research can mean different things with different levels of involvement, from consultation through to user-controlled research. The collaborative study had a range of benefits for the lives of the co-researchers, as well as contributing to the development of a new independent living service. A number of factors contribute to the success of user involvement in research and these are listed. Originality / value: This paper adds the voices of the co-researchers to the literature and provides ‘lessons learned’ for other researchers in this area.