Old Heads on Young Shoulders

Dispelling the myth: A young generation cannot design for an older one

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 email John at [email protected]

In a series of Design Acceleration blog’s we examine different aspects of the role that design can play in Healthy Ageing and this blog reflects a speech made by John Mathers at the Future of Ageing Conference on the 3rd of December 2020.

Through others’ eyes

Of course, young designers don’t want to design for older consumers.

They don’t understand them, they don’t know many apart from their grandparents – and they only see them every so often. So, it’s hardly surprising that so many products and services designed by young designers for an older generation are unfit for purpose!

Well, that might have been the case in the past … but I’m going to tell you three stories that show that this challenge is increasingly a thing of the past and set out a roadmap that means it isn’t something that carries on in the future.

My first direct experience of younger designers designing for an older audience was in the nineties when I was Head of Brand and Design at Safeway Stores. We were going through a fundamental redesign of our own brand ranges … redesigning three and a half thousand individual packs every year … and, in particular adding the sort of nutritional information, sourcing data and cooking guidelines that we now take for granted but simply hadn’t been used on packaging before.

(Source: Safeway Stores, Grocetria.com)

Back then own brand packaging was viewed by designers as a great opportunity to produce fantastic award-winning work. Very little attention – or interest – was paid to communicating the content on the back of pack. As a result, type sizes were small, colour contrast was ignored and attention to detail around readability was at the bottom of the priority list. However, our research told us that our older customers – in particular but not exclusively – found this extremely frustrating and a turn off.

We decided to do something about it and worked with Age Concern’s wonderful training programme called Through Others’ Eyes. We took young design teams out to store, got them to don a variety of masks which replicated various eye conditions which affect older customers, full body suits to replicate arthritis and heavy gloves to demonstrate the lack of feeling people experience in their hands. They were then dispatched with a list of products to buy, information to find out about and experiences to have.

Firstly, it was eye opening seeing all these young creatives stumbling around the store and the poor customers must have wondered what on earth was going on … but the Workshops we then held afterwards were humbling. Colum Lowe, Director at the newly formed Design Age Institute, stresses that empathy is the designer’s greatest gift and by putting yourself in someone else’s shoes you can really design for them.

The effects with our design teams were instantaneous. An immediate transformation in thinking, much more considered design and, ultimately, better packaging that worked more effectively and delivered higher sales.

This image is a great example of some of the classic sight problems many people have

(Source: Age Concern - Through Others’ Eyes)

Different eye conditions have a variety of effects on individuals, but very few people see nothing at all. And it is not unusual for someone to have more than one eye condition, complicating the way they see things.

Bottom left – Cataracts affects 14% of the population: everything looks blurred and misty, makes reading and seeing detailed information difficult, less of a problem for mobility, provided there is enough contrast in the environment.

Top right - Glaucoma affects up to 5% of the population: this shows an advanced stage of tunnel vision. People can experience problems with reading if the central vision is affected as well, but will experience major problems with mobility as the peripheral vision is very limited. With extreme tunnel vision it is often possible to read small print but not extra-large print.

Top left - Age related macular degeneration affects 17% of the population:  affects the central vision which is needed for precision work, reading and our ability to appreciate colour. People also experience problems with recognising people’s faces. People will generally be able to retain their independence in mobility. In general, magnification and high levels of illumination will assist in reading and other near vision tasks.

Bottom right - Diabetic retinopathy: there is a patchy sight loss which can vary on a daily basis and people experience problems with near and distance vision. One of the side effects of diabetes is poor circulation which can often result in poor tactual sensitivity which means that few diabetics can read Braille.

So, the heightened need for greater awareness of older consumer needs is emphasised by the pandemic that has resulted in the rapidly increasing use of technology by an older generation. The irony being that with so many more people grocery shopping online the importance of the sort of detailed on pack information we looked at all those years ago – where people now have the time to study and choose alternatives – has become more important than ever.

A very Special Project

My second example comes from one of the 40 interviews we conducted during the Discovery phase of our UKRI funded Design Age Accelerator service. In the project we are exploring how we best embed design (thinking) into the culture and operating model of the growing band of innovators, entrepreneurs and existing businesses looking to capitalise on the emerging Healthy Ageing market. The purpose is to help them to become more customer-focused, agile, resilient and investor attractive .... ultimately enabling them to deliver better services and user experiences.

(Source: Special projects)

We talked to Clara and Adrian, founders of a young consultancy – Special Projects – who, a number of years ago helped Samsung understand why elderly people were reluctant smart phone users and designed solutions that empowered people to engage more with mobile technology.

When Samsung approached them to look for solutions to address the challenge that not enough ‘old people’ were using smart phones (less than 5% of the users were sending a text a day), they felt they were on to something exciting. 

Draw on Banana’s. To discover what was hindering people’s interaction with smart phones they first created an unconventional research journey that involved field visits to homes across Europe and workshops. These featured magic tricks and hands-on activities (e.g. asking their participants to “draw” their mobile phones on a banana, using coloured pencils and stickers) to give a really good idea of people’s aspirations in relation to mobile technology. 

This immersive research journey enabled them to draw knowledge from peoples’ everyday experience, picking up contextual cues about their mental models and observing how these models guided their attitude towards mobile technology. Interestingly, the word ‘technology’ was not brought up at all in conversations, because it was “a scary topic”, so they chatted about magic and aspirations instead. 

Manual problems. What hindered people’s regular interaction with mobile phones, they found out, was not their age, or their presumed lack of technological skills, but the clumsiness of the phone’s manuals. The poor design and encrypted terminology discouraged them from even trying to set up their mobile phones.

Books, on the other hand were a very familiar and preferred way of learning new skills. Delivering their solution in the shape of a book was a way of creating an analogue bridge between them and what was until then a very unfriendly topic, technology.

Beautifully crafted and easy to understand, the manuals guided the users step by step through the process of setting up their smart phones, empowering people to use their mobiles more often and with a lot more confidence. 

‘Out of the box’ featured in an exhibition at the MoMA, in New York and in Vienna, as part of the exhibition Design Diversity at the Wagner:Werk Museum Postsparkasse – a show that challenged assumptions on design for older adults, calling for much more inclusive design.

Focus on older peoples’ Superpowers. Clara and Adrian Westaway, co-founders of Special Projects, love designing for older people. Their ‘Out of the Box’ project for Samsung highlights why design can make all the difference by solving the right problem.

As Adrian explains: “the most important thing Samsung bought from us was - don’t make a new phone, just explain your existing one better.”

The video tells the story. https://specialprojects.studio/project/out-of-the-box/

Jeremy Myerson, former Chairman of the Famous Helen Hamlyn Foundation felt this was ….. “a standout project in the field of inclusive design. It addressed a functional need - technological inclusion of older people - but it did so in a delightful, psychological, almost poetic way. Out of the Box used a pre-digital archetype of communication that appeals to the older mind”

Shaping the Future

My third and final example happened a few weeks ago with the Royal College of Art’s Service Design MA course during a 48-hour Hackathon to conceive innovative Healthy Ageing solutions.

RCA’s, Head of Service Design Clive Grinyer is an enthusiastic champion of the Healthy Ageing agenda and his 75 students from around the world – were briefed on the Healthy Ageing market by the Design Age Accelerator team, Helen Hamlyn and newly founded Design Age Institute.

The results were amazing … fifteen teams collaborated together from scratch to inspire us with extraordinary insightful ideas that challenged the pre-conception that young people were unable to empathise with an older generation.

George McGinnis, the Director of the Healthy Ageing Challenge, who sat in judgement, was fulsome in his praise and thought many ideas could be further developed which something we will explore.

Born Again Pre-School. Here’s one of the ideas that has real potential.

(Source: RCA Service Design MA 2021)

The “Born Again, Pre School” team really got under the skin of frustrated Grandparents who suddenly find their lives have completely changed. Many grandparents move from where they’ve lived all their lives to be close to their children and find themselves on Grandparent duties. They’ve amazing talents and would love a way to pass them on to the grandchildren but never seem to find the time when they are together.

The designers brought together the need to give a sense of purpose to grandparents and the desire for grandchildren to learn from them, using under-utilised school buildings to give both the children and their grandparents a completely new experience. This before and after visual sums up the impact this idea could have.

(Source: RCA Service Design MA 2021)

The Hackathon was such a success we are currently exploring how Healthy Ageing by Design can become one of the core modules of the course.

The last word

These three stories demonstrate that whether the design practitioner is part of an in-company design team, a consultancy or a graduate, I’m absolutely convinced that young designers are up to the challenge and with good briefing, asking the right questions, and walking in older users shoes they can and will produce extraordinary ideas that will surprise and delight.

I believe that young designers today can help shape the future …. and maybe those of us who are a bit older should be thinking about how we can best support them in their quest. We can fundamentally change attitudes to age – and ageism – through education. And that needs to start at school.

If we can shift young peoples’ attitudes to the environment in the space of ten years, think how quickly we can do the same for ageing.

Design for Healthy Ageing – 5 questions in 5 minutes

The Design Age Accelerator, funded by UKRI and supported by the Healthy Ageing Challenge, has a single-minded vision - to help people live longer, better lives through inspirational and effective design. The Accelerator, will support entrepreneurs, larger enterprises, public services and investors by partnering them with the UK’s leading healthy ageing specialist designers and innovators.

So, if you’re active in or planning to exploit the healthy ageing market we’d really appreciate it if you could you spare 5 minutes to answer 5 questions and complete our survey. It could be 5 minutes that helps the UK become global leaders in this emerging sector.

Click here to go to the survey: Design for Healthy Ageing - 5 questions in 5 minutes

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.

If you’d like to participate in our quest to co-design a heathy ageing accelerator email John at: [email protected] and following 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:[email protected] or [email protected]

For more about the Design Age Accelerator, visit:

Healthy Ageing by Design.

Future Public

For more about healthy ageing:

https://ilcuk.org.uk/future-of-ageing-2020-together-for-tomorrow/

https://www.rca.ac.uk/study/programme-finder/service-design-ma/

https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/research-centres/design-age-institute/

UKRI is 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/our-work/our-main-funds/industrial-strategy-challenge-fund/ageing-society/healthy-ageing-challenge/