“The Times” Silver Manifesto – why good design would be a good start

Today “The Times” published a “silver manifesto”, listing 50 ways to make life better for older people.

The list is rather eclectic ranging from major issues such as treating older people with respect and keeping them out of hospital to minor niggles such as making the text on menus bigger and banning inaudible public announcements.

There is nothing specific about putting ageing at the centre of all design – although “Reward inventions and innovations that make life easier for the elderly” scrapes in at #49.

I think that if we encouraged all our creative minds to consider older people when designing products and services , it would automatically follow that menus would be more legible and announcements clearer. And by doing this we would be going some way to showing older people the respect they deserve.

And actually if we sorted out all the niggly stuff, life would be easier for all of us, whatever our age.

Image: Push out plug by Glen Crombie, Designing for the Future Competition, Collyer’s 2010