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Recommendation 1.1C: Provide                          assortment of gerontech products. We recommend that the           1
                                                                         GT Platform add a comment function to the Product List to
                   opportunity for users to provide
                                                                         enable users to have an accessible channel to provide their
                   post-procurement product                              feedback to suppliers. These comments should not be publicly
                   feedback                                              viewable, but rather compiled by the website administrator and     Supply-side
                                                                         regularly sent back to corresponding suppliers.
               Following the release of any tech product or service, companies will
                                                                         1.2 Extra support for start-ups
               regularly review what features need to be upgraded or removed to
               produce future versions of that product through collection of user   Companies of different size may experience different challenges,
               feedback. For example, Apple will regularly review and update their   with smaller companies facing unique challenges. One of the
               iOS software to enhance users’ experience.                gaps that we had identified in the first report was a lack of
                                                                         support for start-ups (Gap 9), which stakeholders consider as
               Yet within Hong Kong’s current gerontech ecosystem, there   having slight improvement (score 0.33). Yet, there is clearly room
               are few opportunities for suppliers to obtain user feedback   for further improvement.
               on products that are already in the market. One of the gaps
               identified in our first report is that product design is not catered to   This section will therefore focus on the specific types of
               elderly consumers (Gap 12), which stakeholders have indicated   additional support that gerontech start-ups could benefit
               through our survey as having shown only some degree of    from. Generally, start-ups need more support than large
               improvement (0.50 score).                                 corporations because of their comparative limited access
                                                                         to financial and human resources. This disparity is further
               The GT Platform has a “Gerontech Application Experience   exacerbated within the gerontech industry because of the
               Sharing” function under their Knowledge Hub. This will function   difficulty that start-ups have in accessing and understanding the
               as a user experience sharing platform of their individual   unique needs and contexts surrounding individual elders and
               experiences with different products. In addition to allowing other   PwDs, as well as the broader elderly and rehabilitation services
               users to learn how to use products, there is potential to leverage   sector. Yet, if start-ups do not have access to end-users, they
               such existing initiatives to also provide feedback to suppliers.  may end up creating products that are not user-friendly for
                                                                         elderly and PwDs, which further exacerbate the creation of user-
               Another function of the GT Platform’s Knowledge Hub is    unfriendly products (Gap 12).
               a “Product List” that consists of a product library of a wide





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