Interactions - March/April 2008

Designed to Include
Mark Baskinger

Carnegie Mellon University | mbasking@andrew.cmu.edu

With the baby-boomer population approaching mature adulthood, there is an increasing buzz about universal design for everyday objects. The year 2014 is very significant, as the last baby boomer will turn 50, with the upper tier of this generation turning 68. So many companies are actively pursuing new product-development initiatives that appeal to broad audiences and specifically address the multitude of issues we may experience with aging. Through these inclusive strategies, we may find an increasing array of products that are easy to use, understandable, functional, and relevant. If companies are successful, we may no longer see the stigmatizing, clinical, overly techno-mechanical product forms that speak to the disabilities of elders and special-needs populations. Instead, we may find accessible, inviting, attractive forms that transparently imbed assistive features and prove to be widely accepted.

As a designer who started in communication

(graphic) design and branched out into industrial (product) design through graduate studies and professional work, I view all designed artifacts as embodiments of communication that act as catalysts to enhance human experiences with systems, environments, ideas, information, and with each other. It is in this space that I find a very exciting future for product forms that are useful, usable, and desirable, but also intuitive, informative, and inclusive. In this forum, I will introduce three recent research projects that touch upon some inclusive design strategies.

Inclusive Futures: The GE “Autonomy” Project The ubiquity of major appliances affords an opportunity for a socially responsive change in thinking to address issues of design usability for the aging population. By focusing on the abilities of various populations rather than the disabilities that make them different, an inclusive

The Strikezone concept defines an optimal vertical workspace to place most activity and interaction within a range that limits excessive bending and reaching for most adults.