Given current demographic and health trends, and their economic implications, home healthcare technology has become a fertile area for research and development. Motivated by the need for a radical reform of healthcare provision, SPHERE is a large-scale Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration that aims to develop home sensor systems to monitor people's health and wellbeing in the home. This paper outlines the unique circumstances of designing healthcare technology for the home environment, with a particular focus on how to ensure future systems are meaningful to and desirable for the intended users.