Things to consider
KEY ISSUES
As the old saying goes, ask a silly question and you will get a silly answer! Successful social design, social innovation and social enterprise are as much about identifying appropriate questions and issues to be addressed by intervention as it is about creating the responses to those questions. Before you can design (or co-design) a solution, you need to fully understand the problems that are faced.
You are asked to work with local stakeholders to identify what issues need to be addressed to improve their quality of life and well being. The aim is to identify which of the national themes discussed on this site are of greatest relevance to your local community and the people you wish to work with on the project. In short, you need to co-design your local brief before you design your response.
The Audi Design Foundation ran a workshop with designers, researchers and advocates for design to identify some national and international hot topics and key questions that design might address. How do the questions below relate to your local scenario? Do you and your stakeholders have the skills to address these questions? Are they important to you? If not what questions are more relevant to your local community and their situation and how will you use them to create your own design brief?
Hot Topic I: Another Culture
Brief / question
- Consider how society can move from an imbalanced youth-centred culture to a balanced age-inclusive culture?
Situational context
- Marketing and advertising drive consumer consumption and are typically youth-focused; older people are undervalued. There is a need to expand products and services so as to include and positively attract a wider age group. This could involve branding image, new kinds of products and services and visual communications.
Hot Topic II: Pleasure Zones
Brief / question
- Older people are actively seeking pleasure more than ever before. How can design contribute to satisfying these desires?
Situational context
- The older generation typically holds 60 to 70 per cent of disposable income and is looking to spend it!
- They seek experiences that enrich their lives through learning, travel, companionship, physicality and home life.
- Creating independence and choice are as important as adventure holidays and serial dating.
Other comments
- How can design help older people to please themselves, gain new experiences and socialise with others?
- How can the security and confidence of older people be explored and improved?
- In what ways are the elderly overcoming these barriers for themselves?
- How might design contribute to actively engaging older people in mental stimulation, eating and mobility?
- How can designers, and the general public, contribute to improving elderly people’s quality of life?
Hot Topic III: Ageing Gracefully
Brief / question
- The number of over 80s is said to rapidly increase over the next 20 years with increased need for support. In what ways can we design better provisions to cater for this growing demand?
Situational context
- As we age we encounter multiple impairments, these are both physical and mental-cognitive and all require increased support through products, services, environments and information. How can we move from an institutionalised approach to a caring community that provides care with dignity when it is most needed?
Other comments
- As the number of people over the age of 80 is set to rise massively over the next two decades, so society will need a more independent elderly population
- Communities need to learn to be more caring and respectful