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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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