Every year I am impressed by the quality, creativity and sheer diversity of the RCA graduate design work, and this year is no exception. Over the past year, the Design Age Institute has had the opportunity to work with teams of RCA students on projects focusing on healthy ageing, and the enthusiasm and energy shown by the teams is a credit to the students and the College as a whole.
Below is a selection of some of the most exciting work relating to design and ageing from RCA2021 which demonstrates that designing for a diverse set of user needs does not have to mean designing dull, functional objects.
In an era when we are increasingly reliant on technology for home working, of particular interest to me is the work of Jingyi Li and Changxin Zheng who have both looked at how to make technology more accessible to extreme user groups. There has never been a time when the pace of technological innovation has been faster and it is important to ensure that elements of society are not excluded or left behind. Designing with users not just for them, as is the case with Changxin Zheng’s work, is becoming more and more important and her work is an exemplar of co-design and co-creation.
