DBA members were invited to respond to two different challenge briefs:
Challenge 1
Active Ageing - Designing for our future selves
It's official! There are now more pensioners in the UK today than children under 16, according to the Office for National Statistics, that's 12 million people. Already a third of the British population - 20.7 million people - is over 50 and it is a demographic reality reflected by statistics wherever you look.
Within Europe as a whole, one in two adults will be over 50 by 2020. In Japan the country with the highest age expectancy in the world, the situation is even more severe. By 2055, its current population of 127.7 million is forecast to fall by 30 per cent to just under 90 million by which time 41 per cent of the population will be over 65.
As the age balance of the population shifts, so should our attitudes to designing for an ageing population, because we are looking at our own future.
How can design thinking provide a blueprint for our active later lives?
Already, many commercial companies are paying unprecedented attention to older consumers acknowledging their consumer clout. In the UK, 50-plus households spend around £250 billion annually, over 40 per cent of national household spending. In comparison the under 30s, the traditional focus of marketing attention spend just £62 billion per year or 10 per cent overall.
How can design combat negative stereotypes of ageing, embrace their diversity and communicate their aspirations and needs?
By the autumn of 2010, legislation in the form of The Equality Bill introduced in April 2009 will require that all public services in the UK be 'age-proofed' to make them accessible for older and disabled people.
What will those services be and how can new technologies be harnessed to their effective delivery?
Against this background, there is an urgent need to forget the stereotypes of ageing being associated with deficit and decline, and for design to support active ageing so that older people continue to be socially, intellectually, physically and economically active as they enjoy a longer lifespan.
How can design deliver the products, services, environments and media that support and enhance our functional and sensory needs and quality of life over this longer lifespan?
DBA design teams were invited to create a project that addresses an aspect of Active Ageing. The project could be a product, service, environment or communication - or a combination of them. You should design the experience you'd like to encounter yourself in a number of years' time.
Areas that might be explored include:
Challenge 2
General inclusivity
Entrants were invited to address one or more of the following open, inclusive themes:
By either designing a mainstream product, service, environment or communication that deliberately includes the needs and aspirations of currently excluded groups of peopl or creating a design with young disabled people specifically in mind, focused on mainstreaming their everyday lives. The concept should create a tangible business opportunity for Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SME's) or larger companies.
The project could draw on the following design disciplines:
The key to a successful solution will be how well the following are completed:
