Leveraging design expertise for an ageing society
Jeremy Myerson, Helen Hamlyn Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art. (From an article first published in The Oxford Institute of Population Ageing.)
This article contributes to an on-going debate about the role which design can play in the Healthy Ageing agenda. John Mathers and Julian Grice are embedding design thinking in the IRUK Healthy Ageing Challenge and share insights on how design thinking accelerates innovation, increases adoption and creates value for product and service providers. And 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.
Now is the moment to ensure that Design needs starts being part of the healthy ageing solution and so on May 1st the Design Age Institute (DAI) will begin work.
Jeremy Myerson, Helen Hamlyn Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at Oxford Institute of Population Ageing has led the DAI project in partnership with Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, the Design Museum, National Innovation Centre for Ageing at Newcastle University. Jeremy describes the goals of this important initiative.
Leveraging design expertise for an ageing society
Two uncontested facts about the UK:
first, we have an ageing population that can be especially vulnerable in a public health crisis; second, we have one of the world’s largest and most advanced design sectors, with a hard-won global reputation for crafting brilliant solutions. One might have been forgiven for thinking that the needs of the former could be easily met by the creativity and expertise of the latter. But despite lots of effort and good intentions, this has not turned out to be the case.
In fact, quality of design (or lack of it) has been identified as a key barrier to successful ageing in the UK. Evidence suggests that access to decent housing and usable technology can make a huge difference to our lives as we age, for example, but we are currently falling short in those areas where design matters most.
Source: UK Gov 2016 Foresight Report on the Future of an Ageing Population
So, why is there a mismatch between what our ageing society needs and what our designers can bring? The UK’s so-called ‘longevity market’ is still barely a market at all, as most products and services to support older people tend to be specified only at the point of medical crisis when public money kicks in. This market is also fragmented with lots of small firms making aids and appliances in a ‘special needs ghetto’ lacking investment for proper design and tooling, when high standards of inclusive design and deep-pocketed investors are needed.
There is little coordination of design at a national level, resulting in some duplication of start-up effort and a shortage of successful innovations to hold up as exemplars. Promising design research produced in our universities and research institutes is not being translated effectively into new products and services. And emerging technologies are not being interrogated in sufficient depth from a human-centric design viewpoint.
The Design Age Institute
All of these reasons underpin the thinking behind the launch of the Design Age Institute, which starts its work on 1 May 2020. This new initiative will be led by the Royal College of Art in partnership with the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, the Design Museum, National Innovation Centre for Ageing at Newcastle University, and the International Longevity Centre. It has been set up in recognition that design needs to stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution — not a barrier to successful ageing, but an enabler.
The Grand Challenge on an Ageing Society, part of the UK Government’s industrial strategy, provides the context in which the institute will operate — and the current coronavirus crisis, which is exposing so many isolated older people to harm, adds a special resonance to its activities.
The new institute’s programme will do four things.
First, it will conduct research on both the supply-side and demand-side aspects of design for ageing, creating the UK’s first national directory of design expertise in this area and scoping the opportunities for design-led innovation.
Second, it will build a national design-for-ageing network with industry commitment and investment.
Third, deliver demonstrator projects at points of greatest need.
Fourth, engage public audiences in the debate about the future of ageing through a programme of design lectures, showcases and exhibitions.
In the midst of a terrifying pandemic which is targeting the UK’s older citizens in large numbers, a focus on safety, sterility and isolation is essential right now to save lives. But beyond the lockdown, we need a vigorous national debate about how we will support healthy ageing and elder care in the future.
Design determines success
Social connection, economic independence and active lifestyles are important themes, and design (especially of the built environment) will be a key determinant of success. Our homes, neighbourhoods and workplaces will all need to do a better job of adapting to demographic change. Design, which makes new ideas visible and translates people’s needs into tangible form, can be an agent of change by showing the art of the possible.
The RCA’s Design Age Institute owes its genesis to the 2016 Foresight report Future of An Ageing Population, which was led by Oxford’s Professor Sarah Harper and to which I contributed as part of an academic expert group. This report revealed how policymaking alone would not be enough to engineer a transformational shift in support for ageing communities in Britain — designers of the key elements that make up our environment and infrastructure needed to be part of the story.
The great graphic designer Alan Fletcher once described design as ‘a mental utensil’ — essentially a practical tool that requires a lot of thought to get right. In the field of ageing research, now is the time to put new design thinking into practice.
Footnote
The power of design in the ageing market was showcased in the 2017 Design Museum exhibition New Old seen by 80,000 visitors that examined how innovation and design can reimagine how we live the later stages of our lives.
Source: NEW OLD Design Museum exhibition 2017. Photograph: Luke Hayes
Curated by Jeremy Myerson and sponsored by the Helen Hamlyn Trust and AXA PPP healthcare, the exhibition was organised into six sections — Ageing, Identity, Home, Community, Working and Mobility. The exhibition looked at how design can help people lead fuller, healthier and more rewarding lives into old age, asking the question: how can designers meet the challenge of a rapidly ageing society?
From robotic clothing to driverless cars, the exhibition rethought how design approached ageing.
Each section featured a special design commission by a leading designer or design team, creating new solutions for demographic change as well as addressing the challenges’ of ages. New projects by Yves Béhar /fuseproject, Konstantin Grcic, Future Facility, Special Projects, IDEO and Priestman Goode featured in the show.
John Mathers and Julian Grice advise the Healthy 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.
For more information and advice about your Healthy Ageing by Design project contact John or Julian:john.mathers2@btinternet.com.com or julianmpgrice@gmail.com
For more information on Helen Hamlyn Centre visit: https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/research-centres/helen-hamlyn-centre/about/helen_hamlyn_centre_for_design_history/
https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/blog/leveraging-design-expertise-for-an-ageing-society%20
View the UK Gov 2016 Foresight Report on the Future of an Ageing Populationhttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/816458/future-of-an-ageing-population.pdf
UKRI are committed to embedding design into all the Grand Challenges. For information and advice about UKRI’s Healthy Ageing Challenge visit: https://www.ukri.org/innovation/industrial-strategy-challenge-fund/healthy-ageing/
