RSA designDIRECTIONS 2008-09

Action for age
designing a better future
A new way of thinking about the world.

In this project we should be more interested in the journey than in the destination.This is a brief which concise of design not as an output not as a product but as a way of thinking about the world; a service, a set of interaction. By 2020 half the adult population in Britain are gonna be over 50.

For lot of old people, they suffer from loneliness, from isolation. How can you as a young designer help this social group to be more connected, to be less lonely, less isolated???



PROCESS:
01. Reading and analyzing
02. Decoding the brief
03. Identifying and analyzing the problem: Isolation and loneliness to old people
04. What is that problem a result of?
05. How can designers be brought into this mix?
• How can designers address some of the social factors
• How do we start as designers
06. This problem might be divided into two groups:
• Social isolation (which is a very low number of social contacts)
• Loneliness (which is actually something else)

07. Decide on which group am I going really to concentrate
08. Involve other people in my work
• It s not designing from our own point of view, it s really important is to understand what is like to be living as older people’s life
• As a designer, I should design with those people rather than for them, invite them to give me ideas so I can set out the scene quit clearly.
• Ask them questions
• Get their ideas
09. Build on previous interviews with the group, and introduce others
10. Moving forward through out the brief
11. Coming out with new potential solutions
12. Test my ideas back with people constantly
13. Who will deliver the service?
• Get the provider’s point of view (that might give other opportunities that I didn’t think about)
14. Finding the means, the media, the best way of bringing these lives and make them real, make these experiences come alive.

Resources:

The Oxford Institute of Ageing

The Oxford Institute of Ageing is a multi-disciplinary research institute committed to high quality, strategic research, informed by good policy and practice, leading to a greater understanding of societies as they age.

The brochure contains information participants may find useful as part of their research

Age Concern

http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/

Age Concern is the UK's largest charity working with and for older people.

The following link allows you to find your nearest Age Concern office:

http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/local.asp

The following are Age Concern publications aimed at supporting older people and which may be useful to stimulate thinking around new services and networks:

• Working with Older Men
• Going Solo
• Living well in your neighbourhood
• Your Guide to healthy living

The Journey to the Interface: how public service design can connect users to reform

A pamphlet for DEMOS by Sophia Parker and Joe Heapy

This pamphlet brings together what DEMOS (a think tank) and Engine (a service deign company) have learned about working with service organisations. It draws on the principles and practices of the emerging discipline of service design and argues that service design can offer policy makers and practitioners a vision for the transformation of public services. Contains useful and interesting case studies.