50+ Designing for 50+ Workshop

School of Design, Singapore Polytechnic organised 50+ Designing for 50+ Workshop held on 7-10 Sept 2009.

As one of the many participants, I enjoyed the experience working with students and like-minded 50+.

Following is the program:



To learn more about the workshop, just visit the official website at:

http://www.designedby50plus.com/2009/index.html


Here are some points I extracted from the web pages:

"Design is everywhere. Whatever we use, wear, experience, like and dislike are designed for."

"Design is about changing the existing condition of living to a preferred condition, and the users need to have a say."

"The 50+ designing for the 50+ workshop consists of a structured framework to provide for the stimulation of new ideas, new thinking and new possibilities of 50+ living and activities to bring about awareness in our students towards a basic understanding and appreciation of the rich experience of our 50+ through working together."

"It is a workshop, where for the first time in Singapore, the 50+ users get to express and co-design what they need, want and desire."

The Objectives of the workshop are:

* "To showcase design recommendations, new ideas, new thinking and new possibilities for 50+ Living Well."

* "To develop in both students and the Silver Population an awareness of the possibilities of designing their ways of 50+ Living Well."

* "To promote awareness of 50+ Living Well in our young students through an understanding and appreciation of the rich experience of our 50+ through this collaborative workshop."

* "To develop an awareness of the process of design as a meaningful and creative activity."

* "Thus the 50+ will be able to work with designers in future collaborations."

* "To stimulate the market with new ideas and thoughts and ways of understanding the 50+."

I enjoyed the designing process as a wide range of user research methods were used and applied effectively, such as "REAL PEOPLE Methods (Design Ethnography, Shadowing, etc.)" and "CO-OPERATIVE Methods (Participatory Design, User Forums, Lead User, etc.)"

"The OUTSIDE-IN approach rather than the traditional INSIDE-OUT approach" make users like us felt that our needs are the main focus of the workshop. The students who use the input of the users are designing something with the user in mind.

I think the state-of-art design approach is very stimulating "The main goal is not to solve a specific problem, but to DISCOVER and UNDERSTAND the user life's patterns and his/her unmet needs and desires. And then DEVELOP DESIGN and EXECUTE on radical concepts that will stimulate the market."

Here are some "Facts & Figures"

Total Number of Facilitators
20

Total Number of Singapore Polytechnic Students
80

Total Number of 50+
60

Total Number of Participants (Including the facilitators)
160

Workshop Duration (Monday-Thursday 9am-5pm)
4 days

Number of Working Groups
20 groups (3 Seniors + 4 Students in each group)

Total Number of Ideas Generated
Unlimited!

To learn more detail, visit the official website at:
http://www.designedby50plus.com/2009/ideas.html