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 Speech at the Royal Society of Arts
London June '97 as part of the
Design Council - Design in Education Week
by Roger Coleman, DesignAge
Royal College of Art, London

© DesignAge, Royal College of Art, London
    Our ageing population should be regarded as an opportunity rather than a problem: it is becoming increasingly healthy and active and has substantial spending power. Roger Coleman describes how design students are collaborating with elderly people to develop products and services that will not only help older people to retain their independence but will make life easier for young and old alike.
 

Age is with us, now and for the foreseeable future, but unless we acknowledge this truth in our own lives and grasp the extraordinary opportunity it represents, we run the risk of creating a huge problem out of the greatest human success story ever - living to enjoy an active old age.
By 2020 every second European adult, all 130 million of us, will be over 50, constituting the largest single consumer market ever seen; there is already incontrovertible evidence that youth markets are shrinking in absolute numbers and in value while older people command an increasing proportion of wealth and disposable income. Paradoxically, older consumers barely feature in market research, are ignored by advertisers and shunned by manufacturers and retailers alike. This 'age barrier' is holding back important changes and making it difficult for people in all walks oflife to welcome what we can all now aspire to: a long and active later life. A combination of factors has induced a dramatic change in the overall ratio ofyoung to old and a substantial increase in life expectancy. The result is a marked ageing of populations throughout the developed world that is now becoming apparent elsewhere too.
  In effect an extra stage has been added to the life course. Identified by Peter Laslett as the Third Age, it offers an opportunity for self-fulfilment not previously available to more than a minority. In the West, growing evidence suggests that the effect of improved diet, medicine and living conditions is to prolong not just life expectancy but active life. Furthermore, if the majority of older people can remain economically independent, spending their money on an improved quality of life and thereby creating demand for new goods and services, then the old people 'problem' could turn out to be an opportunity in disguise. We fear growing old because we rear the onset of a process described by predominantly medical models that emphasise deficit, decline and dependence, giving rise to a general acceptance of ageing as a progressive diminishment leading to death. The reality is different: in general, older people are fit and active and becoming more so; they prefer to think in terms of their competencies and abilities rather than what is no longer possible. We now urgently need new models of ageing based on vitality, activity and autonomy, measuring the abilities and activities that can be sustained into old age. Much of the work at DesignAge has been about developing an understanding ofall these issues; the original brief, set by Helen Hamlyn who founded and has supported DesignAge throughout its existence, was to explore the implications for design of ageing populations'. Not designing for old people per se but looking into the future at a personal and social level; for example, not more gadgets for opening bottles and jars, but jars and lids that are easier foreveryone to open. Lifestyle is important here in the sense of having an understanding of the daily content of older people's lives and some insight into how they might choose to live in the future, given the right opportunities. Thus the idea of 'Designing for our Future Selves' was born, throwing out a challenge to the design world and building a bridge between young designers and older users.
   

'Designing for our Future Selves' became the theme for an international conference, a European network of designers, educators and researchers, and a long-standing collaboration with the University of the Third Age (U3A). This began in earnest with a workshop in London in 1995, attended by U3A members, organisations of older people, an invited group of older designers and postgraduate design students from the Royal College of Art. It has since developed in two parallel directions. First, U3A design study groups have been investigating aspects of their daily lives: keeping design diaries which contribute to a matrix of design challenges and situations in which these interact with older people. Second, a series of user forums have taken place involving older users, design students and industry.

Design challenges have been explored, providing new briefs for student work and students have been able to consult older users at all stages of product development. In addition, we have published, books, articles and videos and built up a collection of 1,000 items at the RCA. Abstracts of these have been electronically catalogued and will soon be accessible by Internet, creating an educational resource to support students and staff who are taking an interest in the subject. [http://designage. rca. ac.uk].

The RSA has been an important partner in this activity: the 'New Design for Old' section of the RSA Student Design Awards is now open to students across Europe, a teaching pack has been prepared on the subject, and an international travelling exhibition on design and ageing has been brought together by the RSA and seen in the UK, Finland, Denmark and The Netherlands and it will go on to other EU countries. An international intensive programme has been established, again with support from the European Design and Ageing Network which is co-ordinated from the RCA and now has its own Worldwide Web site. [http:/valley.interact.nl/DAN/home.html.]

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