Sector : Education
Services : Design management, branding, inclusive design
Sector : Education
Services : Design management, branding, inclusive design
Design Age Institute
Bringing products and services for the ageing economy to market
Future of Ageing Image, @Luke O’Donovan
Design Age Institute (DAI) was set up within Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design to build on 30 years of inclusive design to address the UK Government’s Grand Challenge on ageing. Funded by Research England (UKRI), the institute objectives are to enable people to live five healthier happier lives at home and five years longer in work.
01 Challenge
Fiona’s role as Senior Design Manager was to set up and lead bringing 14-16 pathfinder projects to market. Pathfinder projects are leadership projects, that find a route to market for desirable products and services for the ageing population, for others to follow.
02 Solution
Together with DAI Director Colum Lowe, Professor Jeremy Myerson and the Design Management team, we scanned the environment with existing research and developed the innovation platform for the types of projects we wanted to bring in.
We ran three open call outs for projects and a Transport and Mobility competition funded by Innovate UK, alongside approaching organisations to collaborate with. From this over 16 projects were selected for funding and design management mentoring as part of the UKRI funding, with an additional eight as part of the Transport and Mobility competition.
03 Outcome
Projects were exhibited at Design Museum, Future of Ageing exhibition Summer ’22 and Designing for our Future Selves Spring ’23 and at V&A Dundee Autumn ‘22. These exhibitions showed how the design of products and services is transforming the way society can support everyone to age with greater agency and joy.
Curated by Victoria Patrick DAI Impact Manager projects included Centaur a personal electric vehicle, lighting for joy for Clarion, Coaroon an indoor coat with Ava Innes and Self Made Studios, Tides a massage device with Cellule Studio. Home Office to Age in Place with Northumbria University. Fiona also commissioned Out of Office, a follow on report with guidance on working from home as we age authored by Dr Katherine Baker and Dr Elilene Zitkus.
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