Enhancing Future Community Connectivity for Ageing Well in Place: Co-designing technology and environments

BACKGROUND: Suitable living environments for an ageing population require more than meeting accessibility and housing requirements. It is about contributing and staying connected to society and communities of support and interest.

This community building requires the connection of different types of enabling environments, including the physical, social and technological.

Technology and ageing in place is often approached from a mostly health perspective, with smart home solutions that focus on safety, security and health monitoring.

More studies are needed focusing on the use and design of technologies that target the needs and challenges of staying connected.

So, our aim is to alleviate social isolation and loneliness, through enhancing connectivity factors related to later life experience.

OBJECTIVES: In order to future proof 'ageing in place' for our future selves, there is an urgent need to understand the challenges and opportunities of Technology Futures for increased connectivity.

This equally requires a design-led approach to 'future proofing' older people's use of technology to advance and enable preferable Technology Futures.

The major objective of the project is to investigate how a people-driven and design-led understanding of technology can enhance community building, increasing social connectivity among future ageing generations.

This includes exploring what community connectivity would look like if co-designed with current and future older people, and how community and connectivity can be co-designed digitally.

Lastly, the project aims to understand international perspectives on design practices and preferable living environments, where digital technologies are increasingly integral to staying connected.

This study seeks to answer the following research questions: • How can a design-led and people-driven understanding of technology foster increased social connectivity and community building among current and future ageing generations? • What would community connectivity look like if co-designed with current and future older people? • How can community and connectivity be co-designed digitally? • What are the best international design practices regarding preferable living environments with integrated digital technologies for staying connected?

METHODOLOGY: We will utilise an Inclusive Design approach, which was defined at the Royal College of Art by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design in 1993, and remains the foundation of our design research practice.

The overall research methodology will include design ethnography, with specific research activities co-developed in collaboration with staff from the Guinness Partnership.

The design research will consist of four phases, following the professionally recognised design-led approach of the Design Council's Double Diamond (Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver).

IMPACT: We expect to create new knowledge in three key areas: Technology Futures for ageing populations; remote digital co-design practices from COVID-secure methods developed in the project; and comparisons to best practices from international comparators.

The proposed research is expected to have impact on three levels: internal community level (individual awareness at the Guinness Partnership); external community level (public awareness); and the societal level (research dissemination of developed evidence base to inform future design of living environments for ageing populations).

The Guinness Partnership owns 65,000 homes across England, 8,000 of which are homes for older people, providing housing and care services to around 140,000 residents. This offers significant potential for rapidly deploying the findings of the project on a large scale.