Generation Ageing: Design for ageing populations

In Japan, the chronic decline in birth rate has created a huge economic challenge that the country is struggling to address. In China, the one-child policy of the late 20th Century has created a generation of single children who are now grown up and need to support two ageing parents. In many parts of the world, similar demographic shifts are demanding new product and service solutions to address changing societal structures.

A global ageing population is one of the reasons that we are seeing immense strain put on healthcare services and staff across many parts of the world. In the UK, horror stories continue to surface of the fallout of increased demand for beds in hospitals, fuelled by a lack of at-home care resources and a shrinking social care workforce – and we are not alone.

So what can we, as designers and changemakers, do?

End-to-end experience

Too often, digital experiences are considered in isolation. In the healthcare space, when we consider the end-to-end experience of digital experiences, we can drive the delivery of high-quality care, improving patient satisfaction, fostering engagement, and leveraging technology to its full potential. By taking this approach, and importantly, considering any physical or cognitive characteristics at play, healthcare services and digital health platforms can identify areas of improvement, develop user-centric solutions, and promote a seamless and patient-centred healthcare journey.

These three considerations are all key for businesses and organisations to consider when thinking about designing to address our ageing population. While technology has the potential to successfully address a lot of our social and ageing needs, it’s vital to maintain a focus on human care, using our human values to drive our technological needs, and measuring our impact by societal success.