Design Clinic as Follow-Up on Workshop with Community Members

Following the Co-Designing Workshop with Community Members held on 3^rd July 2019, ProtoPolicyAsia ran a Design Clinic with Older Adults (OA) on 16^th October at Sunway University. Seven prototypes had been developed at the earlier workshop and were subsequently voted on by workshop facilitators and Champions. From these seven prototypes, the ‘travel kiosk’ were chosen for further development at the design clinic.

The OA group was given the task of building upon the travel kiosk idea to design objects, stories, and experiences that would help others understand how OAs experience travel and what it means to them. They began by exploring how young adults, middle-aged adults, and government actors experience and understand transport and the gaps in understanding OAs needs. From there, the participants considered two future scenarios:

• Scenario A: 50% of the world’s population consists of OAs, and
• Scenario B: To combat climate change, all privately owned transport has been banned and all travel is taken via public transport.

The participants considered what role the ‘travel kiosk’ would play in these future scenarios and how they would want to use such a devise. These explorations highlighted the importance of transport to OA’s social identity and self-perceptions of independence.

Using the preliminary designs and other inputs given by the OA groups, ProtoPolicyAsia is working on a portfolio of pieces that will tell their stories. When ready, the prototypes will be released to the public through a number of public events to obtain citizen’s and policy-maker’s response to these ideas. So stay tuned…