Using a Co-Design Methodology for Research on Environmental Gerontology

Abstract

Environmental gerontology has addressed the description, explanation, and modification or optimization of the relationship between seniors and their environment [1-3]. In all likelihood it seems imperative to have a serious understanding of this relationship and yet, imagining other people’s experiences (seniors, children or adults) is one of the most difficult tasks one can undertake. This is probably why, in the past few decades, a few designers have moved closer to the needs and aspirations of future users [4]. In the 1970s in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, a “Collective Resources Approach” (CRA) was born as a result of trying to increase the value of industrial production. The CRA attempted to empower trade unions and workers at the local level by exploiting the needs of the highly integrated Scandinavian economies to constantly improve their technology using the workers experience to do so [5]. This “democratization of design,” as some authors call it [6], considered the workers (users) of the machinery as “experts,” who provided significant input into the design procedure. This idea of including users in the process of designing an object was soon adopted as a marketing strategy for product development and enjoyed significant success [7].