Aging in Place-It Starts With Design

Aging Today, a bi-monthly newspaper from the American Society on Aging (ASA) ran a story by Kate Finn on Design + Empathy = A Brighter Future for People Aging in Place. This is the second of a three-part series on technology and aging.  The article talks about a course at the University of Illinois:

Deana McDonagh, associate professor of Industrial Design in the School of Art+Design at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), teaches a course called “Disability + Relevant Design” (D+RD), in which students learn about “empathic design.” In empathic design, designers collaborate with end users, develop a shared language, observe authentic behavior (the user performing real-world tasks) and engage in empathic modeling (designers experience the user’s disabilities).

The students in the program have a significant project. They:

identify problems that need solving, collect and analyze information, devise and refine conceptual solutions, draw designs, create models of products and get feedback from users. Plus, they have to produce a book chapter on the process and outcomes of their designs, and present the results in a formal setting.

The article reviews some of the projects, including redesigning a wheeled walker, reconfiguring the Wii remote for users with arthritis, and researching designs for aging in place.