Design Accelerates blog. Lifting the lid
06.11.20
This blog contributes to an on-going debate about the role design can play in the Healthy Ageing agenda. If you’d like to participate in our quest to co-design a healthy ageing accelerator please email John at
john.mathers2@btinternet.com
Welcome to our November Healthy Ageing by Design blog. Lifting the lid.
We’ve titled it Lifting the lid for good reason. Because during October that’s exactly what Design Age Accelerator has been up to.
If you follow us you’ll know we like to examine the healthy ageing market through a design lens to provide useful insights for entrepreneurs, commissioners, innovators and investors.
In our three blogs in August through to October we described how by Thinking Bigger, Working Together and Acting Faster there is an extraordinary opportunity to grow the healthy ageing market through design. In October our UKRI funded Design Age Accelerator project went live — exploring a prototype service enabling entrepreneurs to thrive through design.
From now to February, we’ll update you on the development of the Design Age Accelerator, the insights we’re gathering through our discovery process and the upcoming initiatives to which we’re contributing to dig deeper and activate the market.
We’re growing a diverse and vibrant community, so if you’d like to join our campaign we’d love to hear your views — just follow us on twitter @johnmathers2
In this blog we’ll:
1. Introduce the Design Age Accelerator so you know more about the project
2. Lift the lid on some insight about the ageing market
3. Update on our activities so you can keep upwith the programme
1/Introducing the Design Age Accelerator
The Design Age Accelerator, funded by UKRI has a single-minded vision. To help people live longer better lives through inspirational and effective design.
This is where we’re at in terms of ambition, purpose, objectives and service offer.
Ambition. The ambition of Accelerator is to address, head on, the under-valuing and low investment in user-centred design by businesses, by connecting solution providers with the UK’s world leading user-centred design skills and resources. It aims to increase the scale of adoption of innovative and disruptive solutions and how ‘investable’ they are, to meet the demands of the expanding healthy ageing market.
Purpose. Our hypothesis is that the purpose of the Accelerator will be to embed design thinking into the culture and operating model of solution providers in the emerging Healthy Ageing market to make them more agile, resilient and investor attractive enabling them to deliver better services and user experiences.
Objective. The objective of Design Age Accelerator prototype project is to co-design a service with users and entrepreneurs, to prove our demand-led hypothesis that by partnering together entrepreneurial solution providers and designers will create more inspirational, effective and sustainable intergenerational products and services.
Service offer. The prototype service could potentially deliver a blend of the following:
· Pioneering a community of ‘age informed’ designers to advise solution providers
· Facilitating access to ‘expert users’ to enable solution providers to create higher performing products and services
· A digital platform connecting a design-for-ageing community to commissioners providing insight and resources
We’ve started with a problem statement.
Problem statement. Solution providers in the Healthy Ageing market do not optimise their products and services for users, early stage businesses frequently fail because they don’t involve users in the innovation process and ventures do not exploit their growth opportunities because they don’t understand, engage and apply design thinking and practice.
Target Audiences. To develop the value proposition we’re exploring the pains and gains of five primary customer groups:
· Entrepreneurs — start-up, scale-up and medium-sized businesses who are committed, or have ambitions to, enter the ageing market
· Designers– individual designers, consultancies and communities with the motivation and capability to support entrepreneurs and innovators in the ageing market
· Commissioners — of services in the public, third and private sector who want to deploy progressive solutions to serve their communities more effectively
· Investors — with an ambition to support entrepreneurs, involve designers and pivot existing investments, to capitalise on the ageing market
· Intermediaries — solution providers and stakeholders committed to the ageing agenda, who are advocates, activists and aggregators of services
Who is behind it? The Design Age Accelerator prototype is the first project from the Healthy Ageing by Design campaign and is led by healthy ageing design specialists at Future Public. The project is funded by the UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Healthy Ageing Challenge team.
The Accelerator team is actively engaged with leading organisations in the healthy ageing sector, including the Design Age Institute, Voice Network, Centre for Ageing Better, International Longevity Centre, Helen Hamlyn Centre at RCA and Design Council.
With the help of these supporters we’re revealing some valuable and fascinating insights that shed light on the market dynamics, threats and opportunities for entrepreneurs, innovators and designers.
2/Lifting the lid on the ageing market to share some insight
The Design Age Accelerator team have spent October in discovery mode interviewing over 40 leaders of ageing sector organisations, founders of businesses and directors of investment and design consultancies. Our interviews have dug into these expert views and experience about the context, drivers, barriers and opportunities for design in ageing.
In addition we’re being guided by our expert advisor panel that includes Voice Director Lynne Corner, Longevity UK CEO David Sinclair, Jackie Marshall Cyrus and architect George Clarke; developing a comprehensive review of current design practice in the ageing market and design-based business growth services; and will be activating a design-ageing market survey. All this will add up to one of the most comprehensive pictures of design in the UK ageing market and a robust platform to establish the purpose and proposition of the Accelerator.
Here’s a flavour of what we’ve learnt that should be valuable to entrepreneurs, investors and designers either committed to or pivoting into the ageing market.
Entrepreneur Insight — B2C, B2B and B2G
Solution providers are developing propositions for multiple markets.
· Why is this the case? Entrepreneurs developing disruptive services who are aiming to scale them for public services often have to prove out their solutions in consumer markets to provide evidence of impact for risk-averse public services commissioners who have an existential budget crisis but are hamstrung by legacy supplier contracts.
· What does this mean for designers? Designers need to understand the context and demands of the public sector in order to help entrepreneurs develop user-centred solutions that can be deployed at scale.
User Insight — Adoption
Older users are adopting technology quickly but are perceived as resistant to change by mid-life stage decision makers whose views are based on their personal rather than real-world experience.
· Why is this the case? Many senior decision makers are not close to the front line, don’t live in diverse deprived communities, and their views are coloured by anecdotal experience that is out of touch with real lives or limits their understanding of users’ aspirations.
· What does this mean for entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurs who invest in design-led techniques that help their clients walk in the shoes of end users will be effectively able to convey a compelling vision of the future, open minds and secure committed funding and investment.
Ecosystem Insight — Community
Businesses in the ageing market lack the convening and informing support available in markets like Fintech and Health-tech.
· Why is this the case? The ageing market is relatively new and emerging and so many of the dedicated systemic mechanisms such as innovation hubs, accelerators and think thanks established in mature sectors do not exist yet. And those early stage pioneers haven’t the resources to build their reputation.
· What does this mean for entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurs and designers don’t or can’t automatically reach out to recognised centres of excellence for trend analysis, data driven segmentation or analytics, connectivity and the advice required to stress test their ideas. This all adds to their investment, increases fragmentation and duplication and increases risk.
Design Insight — Users and market
Designers need to demonstrate an equal capability for both user- centred and commercial market understanding.
· Why is this the case? Many entrepreneurs are wary that user-centred design thinking dictates solutions that may meet the needs of users but lose sight of the commercial context and the marketplace. Experienced business leaders think design thinking has been over-sold, is too expensive and is simply common sense.
· What does this mean for designers? Designers have to balance equally the needs of users with the market constraints and opportunity to de-risk projects and ensure solutions are viable and feasible. This demands an informed approach and deep insight by designers to justify investment.
Design Age Accelerator Listens. If you’d like to join our community of design age shapers then watch out for our survey — Design Age Accelerator Listens heading your way during November in which you can tell us what you think we should do.
3/Update on Design Age Accelerator activities
The healthy ageing industry is a giant gently stirring from its slumbers, jump starting a slew of unmissable autumn debates and initiatives ..
In October Design Age Accelerator jumped into sessions with ….
Aging2.0 Designer in Residence Programme
Hosted by Eric Kihlstrom, former Interim Director of the Healthy Ageing Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, the programme offers free virtual “drop-in” support to companies, charities and service providers in the healthy ageing market and Aging2.0 community. Design Age Accelerator took a guest spot describing the context and opportunities for design, alongside Ageable founder, Alice Osborne with 14 years of experience spanning design for social benefit.
Eric Kihlstrom: “From Healthy Ageing by Design and Design Age Accelerator co-founder John Mathers, we learned “Effective design thinking is the vital ingredient that ensures the development of innovative, sustainable and desirable products and services to meet the demands of a rapidly growing healthy ageing market.”
On Tuesday 20 November at 2pm, they will outline the offer of free virtual “drop-in” support to companies, charities and providers in the healthy ageing market and Aging2.0 community.
Designer in residence video here.
More information at: https://www.aging2.com/events/details/aging-20-london-presents-healthy-ageing-by-design-the-residency-programme/
Brand Finance Global Forum
Brand Finance, the global brand evaluation consultancy, are holding their established Global Forum on The Value of Design for hundreds of brand owners, investors and entrepreneurs worldwide.
Their first webinar, in the series focused on The Value of Design to Society. In a panel session, followed by a discussion, John Mathers, one of the Design Age Accelerator’s founders described the hugely changing demographics and the shift of spending power to an older life-stage market. He also talked about the huge potential of the Age-Tech market and how this presents an opportunity for commercial success as well as for doing good.
David Haigh, Chair of Brand Finance: “It was fascinating to hear about the potential of this emerging market sector” and urged corporates “to sit up and take notice.”
If you want to hear a little bit more from John click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_WW2KUIZ_c&feature=youtu.be
In November you can get upto speed on Design Age Accelerator at …
Longevity Forum
The upcoming Longevity Forum supported by KTN will provide a valuable perspective on the state of the healthy ageing market with investor sessions and contributions from just about anybody whose anybody in the Healthy Ageing landscape in the UK.
Check out Design Age Accelerator at Healthy Ageing Project Showcase breakout session on Community at 2 on Nov 9th.
The Longevity Week, 9–13 November 2020 is an initiative of The Longevity Forum (the Forum). It brings together a diverse group of strategic partners of the Forum, supporters and participants whose goals are aligned with the mission of the Forum — to achieve longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives for as many people as possible.
The idea of Longevity Week was borne out of the success of an earlier Forum which took place in November 2018.
Design Age Accelerator co-founder and Future Public principal Jo Blundell: “It’s fabulous to have been invited to show-case Design Age Accelerator at the Healthy Ageing Project Showcase breakout session particularly as so many of the keynote speakers at the forum are advising us on the development of our Accelerator prototype.”
Royal College of Art — Thriving in Age design hack
We’re very excited about a collaboration between the Healthy Ageing by Design team and the Royal College of Art’s Service Design MA, led by their Service Design Director, Clive Grinyer, who is running a 3-day Ageing Hackathon in mid-November.
The objective is to take the service design first years through the whole design process in a sprint of three morning sessions. Taking the theme of age and changing their perceptions. Using creativity to develop innovative ideas that they can show to the world.
The Healthy Ageing by Design Team and friends will brief the students on the Healthy Ageing Grand Challenge — aiming to ensure that people can enjoy at least five extra healthy, independent years of life by 2035, while narrowing the gap between the experience of the richest and poorest. This will embrace staying at work, being excited and delighted as well as productive, maintaining social contact, giving meaning to life and reducing stress.
We’re delighted, too, that the Director of the Healthy Ageing Grand Challenge, George MacGinnis, is aiming to join on the last day to listen to the students present their ideas
Clive commented: “The students of the RCA Service Design course will be working to create innovative new ideas that challenge our preconceptions about age and find new solutions and opportunities. This is fantastic opportunity to work with experts and young design talent to bring some fresh thinking — in 3 days of frantic design sprinting.”
Julian Grice, co-founder of the Healthy Ageing by Design campaign and Design Age Accelerator: “It’s going to be fantastic to start to challenge Ageism with this exciting group of students from all around the world. We’re particularly looking to understand how different cultures come at this challenge … and see some brilliant early stage ideas about how to tackle the challenges. I’m certain if it’s a success Ageism will be play a part in the RCA programme and some of the ideas may even inform the thinking of the Healthy Ageing Challenge. That would be really something”
Tate the RCA design hack experience ….https://youtu.be/5mHq6X67UQ8
Your involvement will shape the UK’s healthy ageing agenda, so if you’d like to participate in our quest to co-design a heathy ageing accelerator email John at: john.mathers2@btinternet.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthy-ageing-by-design/
Entrepreneurs see opportunities. Designers understand users. Together they can accelerate impact.
About us
John Mathers and Julian Grice advise the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge, review projects and help organisations capitalise on user-centred design thinking to accelerate innovation, increase adoption and create value for product and service providers to drive growth. We are working with Jo Blundell at Future Public on Design Age Accelerator.
In the challenging times our population is facing it’s increasingly important that as we age, we age healthily. Our older population has changed from being a minor segment to be ignored to become a hugely important and vibrant part of our economy. The Healthy Ageing Challenge is leading the UK’s biggest transformation in the lives of older people, funding a raft of innovative projects.
For more information and advice about your Healthy Ageing by Design project contact John or Julian:john.mathers2@btinternet.com or julianmpgrice@gmail.com
For more about the Design Age Accelerator
https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthy-ageing-by-design/
Future Public: https://www.futurepublic.org/
For more about healthy ageing events:
https://thelongevityforum.com/the-longevity-week/
https://www.rca.ac.uk/study/programme-finder/service-design-ma/
For more about design and growth:
Helen Hamlyn Centre — https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/research-centres/helen-hamlyn-centre/
Design Age institute — https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/blog/leveraging-design-expertise-for-an-ageing-society%20
https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/research-centres/design-age-institute/
UKRI are committed to embedding design into all the Grand Challenges. For more information about UKRI’s Design strategy visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/innovate-uk-launches-four-year-design-strategy
For information and advice about UKRI’s Healthy Ageing Challenge visit: https://www.ukri.org/innovation/industrial-strategy-challenge-fund/healthy-ageing/
If you are interested in contributing to the Healthy Ageing by Design debate then we would like to hear from you — whether you have a personal interest, a story to tell or a bone to pick — the bigger the debate the better. Se
Design Age Accelerator is a UKRI project funded project in partnership with Future public
