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Co-designing with Older Adults to Create an Age-friendly Evaluation Tool for Public Places

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Design.
The population of those aged 65+ years old (“older adults”) is increasing. With this change, attention is being placed on their health, wellness, and roles in society. Specifically, studies on healthy aging are addressing ways to update our thinking about older adulthood. This increase in the aging population has also triggered a focus on evidence-based research to understand both aging and the currently aging cohort of Baby Boomers (those born between 1946–1964). Primary concerns for older adults focus on targeted healthcare and age-friendly residences. While these efforts are critical to older adults, they focus primarily on the biological aspect of aging. As a companion to these efforts, this research seeks to address the experiences of older adults in public places (i.e., libraries, parks, retail stores) in the interest of supporting their social and emotional wellness. These places can be areas of rich interaction, exchange, and discourse. Participation in this “public life” is the hallmark of integration and independence. To foster this engagement, public places must be designed to address the social, mental, and physical needs of older adults. Supporting older adults in public places is a new reality as their percent of the total population continues to grow. Current inclusive design efforts at public places are primarily driven by Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) code that requires ramps, handrails, and other features to provide accessibility. In practice, the application of these requirements varies wildly, and the requirements are seldom planned together. (An example of this is a park that provides both accessible parking and restrooms yet locates them at opposite ends of a parking lot.) These efforts may provide access, but they do not support a desired situation. Instead, solutions need to address both the needs of the aging condition (i.e., larger print sizes for vision loss, intuitive layouts to reduce cognitive load) and support the needs of participation at these places (i.e., helpful people nearby for support, lowered noise volumes for socialization) to foster ideal experiences. Successful examples that support older adults exist; however, they are rare and typically driven by self-motivation and awareness of the architects, planners, or other decision makers in the design process. By interacting with stakeholders on both sides of the problem, this research uses older adults to identify age-related needs at public places and learns from designers about how the insights can best inform their process. Primary research activities include a survey to identify generational needs; interviews to understand the decision-making process by designers and planners; co-creation workshops with older adults to understand current/ideal experiences and develop a solution; and testing to validate the culminating design. The resulting “Age-friendly Evaluation of Public Places” tool seeks to identify the likely experience of older adults at public places. Older adults, themselves, perform the evaluation and score their experiences based on specific preferences, needs, and wants; categorized into four qualities (Approachable, Intuitive, Equitable, and Valuable). A positive score signals a likely good experience for older adults; a negative score suggests a likely poor experience. Using a new Four Needs framework specifically designed for older adults, the evaluation establishes a new benchmark for age-friendly place design.
Paul Nini (Advisor)
Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Douglas Crews, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
218 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fromme, A. (2018). Co-designing with Older Adults to Create an Age-friendly Evaluation Tool for Public Places [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152406532908789

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fromme, Adam. Co-designing with Older Adults to Create an Age-friendly Evaluation Tool for Public Places. 2018. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152406532908789.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fromme, Adam. "Co-designing with Older Adults to Create an Age-friendly Evaluation Tool for Public Places." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152406532908789

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)