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Do not design 'special' products for elderly people.
The conventional approach to design through style or materials is obsolete.
Physical independence is the treasure. Design should encourage the body to work in a healthy way.
Find the balance between undersupport and oversupport.
Understanding good body use (what we should do) is far more important than data on what we can do.
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COMMENTARYDESIGN AND ELDERLY PEOPLEPeople still think that elderly means pathetic, poor and unfortunate. Elderly people have not been considered important in the past with the result that designers have not had any significant opportunity to design for them.However, things are changing fast. As David Hobman of Age Concern points out, the elderly market is the largest market there has ever been. Early retirement and the growth of pensions means that a sizeable part of the new market is commercially significant and has the money to pay for design. What is such a market looking for? In a recent study my organisation undertook with an American research corporation, the fundamental requirement of elderly people that emerged was that the product should enhance and not degrade their health. This conclusion, however does not have as easy application as might at first be thought. Questions arise such as what should the body do to retain or regain health? What do we need to know that we do not already know? For example, why have designers and ergonomists not solved the problems of injury caused by using products? Visual Display Units and office chairs offer glaring examples of what can go wrong. They are also startling considering the 'design' that has gone into these products. Can this really amount to a criticism of the whole basis of our conventional design? An opportunity of great importance now presents itself to designers and it is not just theoretical. We must be able to demonstrate our art. Guidelines for designers working on this subject include the following: Do not design 'special' products for elderly people. Elderly people are not disabled. A shoe or saucepan designed for a disabled foot or hand is unlikely to suit an elderly foot or hand. Provided elderly people are considered at the right stage, all products should be suitable for young and old. 'Design for the young and you exclude the old. Design for the old and you include the young', said Professor Bernard Isaacs, of The Centre for Applied Gerontology, Birmingham. The conventional approach to design through style or materials is obsolete. When Helen Hamlyn of the Hamlyn Foundation coined the phrase 'New Design for Old', it suggested to me a new way of designing products determined by the way they are used and the effect on the health of the body, rather than careless, stylistic dictates which ignore or are ignorant of important human needs. Physical independence is the treasure. Design should encourage the body to work in a healthy way. Older people say that the most important thing in life is physical independence for as long as possible. We do not escape from early misuse of the body. 'The body sends you a bill later,' as T'ai chi Master Li put it recently to her students in a class teaching the ancient Chinese mind/body discipline which is now becoming better known in this country. Designers have to understand their responsibility related to this and put it into practice. Find the balance between undersupport and oversupport In order for the body to remain healthy it has to 'work'. The design of products should encourage the body to work in a healthy way but not, of course, to an extent where stress is caused. Herbert Spencer, the philosopher, once wrote: 'Each faculty acquires fitness for its function by performing its function; if its function is performed for it by a substitute agency, none of the required adjustments of nature takes place, but nature becomes deformed to fit the artificial arrangements instead of the natural arrangements.' Understanding good body use (what we should do) is far more important than data on what we can do. Ergonomic data may depict an articulated dummy to show what the body is capable of reaching. It is not part of design or ergonomic education to know whether such actions are healthy or natural. Elderly people may be able to reach a certain height, but should they? Peter Laslett's lecture to the Society, published in this issue of the Journal, demonstrated not only the special potential of people in the Third Age but also some of the similarities between older and younger people. Provided certain things are understood, products for elderly people can suit younger ones, too. Here is a design opportunity which could be of advantage to all members of the community.
ALAN TYE, RDI |
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