Strategic Creativity Series #06: Moving Stories

Strategic Creativity series

MOVING STORIES The Readership in Strategic Creativity at Design Academy Eindhoven

Heather Daam

Collaborating with: University of Twente, Eindhoven University of Technology, Design Academy Eindhoven, Roessing Research and Development, Tellens Group, Trivium Meulenbelt Zorg, Zuidzorg, Gemeente Eindhoven, De Loft, Indes, Arriva, Connexxion, Hermes, Divaco, Waaijenberg.

In the CRISP project Grey but Mobile Research period November 2012 - September 2014

MOVING STORIES Heather Daam

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Contents Preface 5 Heather Daam

Storytelling: a powerful design tool

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Introduction, drs Danielle Arets

— empathic adventures

The role of empathy as a core value for service co-design practitioners engaged in social innovation

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Empathic storytelling and design

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An empathic adventure: Betty’s story

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Exploring possibilities for our future care

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Prof. Robert Young Heather Daam Heather Daam Dr Yanki Lee

— co-design

If you care get involved: Co-design in the health sector

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A toolbox for collectively creative spaces

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Innovation Atelier for healthy innovations

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Dr Leon Cruickshank

Dr Elizabeth Sanders

Interview with Fabrizio Greidanus (ZuidZorg)

Co-designing with empathy 53 A case study: An empathic adventure and home-care nurses

— design with experience

Designing mobility with and for older people

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Involve me and I learn

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Moving Stories’ contribution to CRISP

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Dr Bas Raijmakers and Dr Lu Yuan Dr David Hamers Bas Raijmakers

Contributor biographies 73 Glossary 76 Colophon 78 3

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Moving stories Heather Daam

These are stories about mobility; stories that move you, both physically and emotionally. McDonagh defines empathy as “the intuitive ability to identify with other people’s thoughts and feelings”. Co-design helps non-designers contribute in a relevant way to a design process by contributing their own expertise in a creative way. Bringing an empathic approach into co-design means that designers and professionals navigate the world of another person together, uncovering new kinds of meaning. MOVING STORIES emphasises the process of empathically addressing the challenges our ageing society is facing on a daily basis in a new way.

This publication is about how design can play a role in exploring, identifying and challenging the complex field of ageing care innovation. It’s about empathy and the role that stories can play in co-designing new ideas for the mobility of older people. It is about feeling for yourself how older people experience daily life and connecting this new perspective to your own knowledge. It’s about stories that move innovation and change forward.

This is not design in the sense of finished products or services, but rather the kind of design that comes early on in the innovation process and involves diverse professionals in the process, particularly in the field of care. I’ve asked a few of my talented peers to explore this topic with me. You will hear from design practitioners, design researchers and care professionals who explore with me what innovation looks like in the field of ageing, the role design can play, and how we can weave this into design education. I’m delighted to share these perspectives together in this book.

Bringing relevant and diverse expertise into the process means more perspectives, more levels of understanding, and when done properly and collaboratively, valuable and viable results can transpire. This co-design approach relies on tools and methods to bring everyone’s knowledge to the table. When involving non-­designers, we asked ourselves: can we develop a strategy for empathy to also play a role in expanding their perspective and finding new kinds of understanding within their existing knowledge?

MOVING STORIES is not a direct means to solutions, it’s placing emphasis on the process that designers and non-designers take in co-designing empathically 5

for the older people. Empathy is feeling and reacting to another. The Empathic Adventure is my response and is a method of storytelling, which triggers the expertise of care professionals. Inspired by the older people we interviewed, each adventure translates someone’s personal story into an immersive experience for a participant that gives a new perspective; seeing your knowledge through the eyes of another. In this publication you will also meet Betty, one of our wonderful ­participants, who shared her own stories of mobility, who invited us to join her on a journey she takes on a regular basis, and who worked together with us to analyse, and reflect upon, moving stories of hers that we would tell.

MOVING STORIES has been its own kind of adventure, the journey of design research by doing design research, which means that we have been balancing the application of the Empathic Adventure in a real process of innovation, with stepping away to reflect on the value it brings. What I can say with certainty is that when we bring together the diverse expertise that surrounds older people through storytelling, it is a powerful way to empower them to contribute their knowledge, and to get innovation moving.

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Storytelling: a powerful design tool Introduction drs Danielle Arets

Empathy is usually defined as a cognitive activity that enables you to imagine how somebody else feels or how you would feel in their situation. In The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society,[1] primatologist Frans de Waal stresses that empathy its not just trying to imagine how someone feels, but that it means you are able to feel for and with somebody.

Empathy is becoming a very important topic in design research. Of course for ­designers it has always been crucial to understand their clients’ needs and d ­ esires in order to design successful products. However, as Robert Young points out in this publication (page 11), with the evolving complexity of products and the ­context of their use, designers are more and more interested in social design practices like co-design, human-centred design or design for social innovation, in order to ­engage with stakeholders and users.

For CRISP (Creative Industry Scientific Programme) design for social ­innovation is an important base. Within this national Dutch research programme D ­ esign Academy Eindhoven cooperates with three Technical Universities, two universities­in Amsterdam and over 50 industrial companies. Within this programme the Grey but Mobile project specifically focusses on improving care-related mobility ­services for the older people, supporting independent living and social connectivity.

As a Research Associate from Design Academy Eindhoven, Heather Daam strongly believes that an empathic relationship with older people is essential in order to design services that better fit their needs. During her 1.5 year research period, Daam tried to step into their shoes by using storytelling as a means to create a more empathic understanding. By employing such empathic methods in listening to Betty, an 82-year-old widow living alone, despite her difficulty to move around, Heather comes to understand that empathic listening to experiences concerning daily activities can reveal valuable knowledge on how to improve living conditions for someone like Betty. (page 22) Based on the stories of Betty and other older people, and workshops with care­ givers, Daam designed an empathic suit comprising restraints that obstruct 7

normal movements. The empathic suit allows ordinary people to experience ­restrictions. At a Design Research Space (a short extra-curricular course around this project) students from Design Academy Eindhoven were introduced to this suit. They were given small assignments, like getting on a bus or buying groceries while wearing the suit. Dr. David Hamers, Reader in Public City and the Countryside, who was involved as a coach, found it a remarkable experience how time consuming small tasks can be for the older people with extra needs (page 65) .

The design of the suit however is not the most important outcome of Daam’s ­research, as she explains in this publication. It’s the fact that she uses storytelling as a tool to design with that gives this research so much meaning. Philosopher Hannah Arendt believed that storytelling is, in essence, the act to recognise the potential that is hiding behind the mainstream, and be able to read this potential, to translate it, to tell its story. Designers have this ability, as was mentioned at a DESIS Network Philosophy Talk: Storytelling and Social Innovation (DESIS Network, for Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability), a talk that Daam initiated at Design Academy Eindhoven.

How can storytelling be used as a means to create empathy for and with users?

That question is answered by several authors in Chapter 2 which is about co-design, and by designing this project with users (older people), caregivers (nurses), setting up workshops with Zuidzorg (care organisation), Eindhoven Technical University and co-creation sessions with students, Daam tried to involve the various stakeholders within the Grey but Mobile project in her research. Dr Leon Cruickshank looks at the role co-design can play in involving care professionals, and how that adds value to the design process. In addition, Liz Sanders then shares a toolbox for preparing, enabling and supporting this process of collective creativity, from her practice-based knowledge. Also in this publication Dr Yanki Lee shares a powerful case study of a design researcher making an unexpected impact inside a care home in the UK. By doing this, Heather clearly draws the distinction between sympathy and ­empathy as is pointed out by Robert Young in this publication. Referring to the latest book Together, by Richard Sennett (who in his turn refers to Theory of Moral ­Sentiments of Adam Smith), Young clarifies that sympathy is a basic identification with the ­‘other’, whereas empathy starts with wonder. “When we express sympathy – ‘I know what you’re feeling’ – it’s a way of saying that ‘nothing is foreign to me’. It’s an ‘almost magisterial self’ which is a mode of taking control. Sympathy is close to condescension and pity – the emphasis is on me and my understanding.” (page 11) As Adam Smith, father of economics, already understood, self – interest and em8

pathy don’t conflict. Empathy makes us reach out to others, first just emotionally, but later in life also by understanding their situation. That’s why empathy is also a powerful tool for service innovation as Fabrizio Greidanus of ZuidZorg explains on page 49. Care organisations like his think it crucial that they look to a design approach when it comes to creating new services together with the client and their informal carer.

By looking at the behaviour of apes, Frans de Waal comes to understand that empathy is deeply rooted in our DNA. That brings in a different perspective to the psychological one, which entails viewing empathy as a special human capacity belonging to highly cognitive activity. However, whether we look at empathy from a top-down or a bottom-up approach, this publication and its stories prove that our empathic skills are very relevant assets with which to design.

References [1]

De Waal, F. The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society, New York: Harmony Group/ Crown Publishling Group

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The role of empathy as a core value for service co-design practitioners engaged in social innovation Prof. Robert Young

Introduction

As Richard Sennett pointed out, “Research on the two-way relationship between people and the environment has always been part of the field of design.”[10] This relationship evolved in line with the increasing complexity of products in relation to their contexts of use, supporting technologies and the behaviours and expectations of the users of ubiquitous product service systems. To contend with this complexity, designers have established social design practices such as; Inclusive Design, Universal Design, Design for All, Human-centred Design, Interaction Design, and Participatory Designing, and recently; Service Design, Co-Design and Design for Social Innovation. The latter fall under the umbrella of co-creation and assert engagement with stakeholders and end-users in different meaningful and instrumental ways.

These practices try to unearth a relationship between designing and social responsibility by holistic understanding of various needs, interpretations and personal world-views. Meanwhile, business and government leaders have also been increasingly encouraged to think and work on this two-way relationship, absorbing lessons from the world of design. The ways in which work is deemed ‘creative’ have increasingly been incorporated into economic systems and public projects, but, the question remains: What explicit values can design bring to bear? In his article, ‘Designerly Ways of Knowing’, Nigel Cross made the following distinctions about the phenomenon of study in design culture, the methods in the culture and its values compared to the sciences and humanities: — — —

the phenomenon of study in design is the artificial world, its methods are modelling, pattern-forming, synthesis, and its values are: practicality, ingenuity, empathy, and a concern for ‘appropriateness’.[2]

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The role of empathy

The role of empathy in co-design is one of the most topical and intriguing issues in the evolution of co-design practices at present, in support of social innovation within communities. Design schools are asking, ‘can we teach empathy?’ It’s a bit like that old question put to design learning – ‘can we teach creativity, or are we only able to create the conditions to nurture an intrinsic ability that already exists?’ We do know that, in this sense, empathy, like creativity, is part of an integrated, holistic process, where the practice of design appears to be as much about being as doing!

Conversely, the prevailing history of learning in academia is that we expect to have to objectivise and categorise things and put them in silos - disciplines, programmes, modules and lectures - rather than seeing them as part of integrated knowledge for society. In order to get around this orthodoxy, the tradition in design has been to learn by ‘doing’ through the project as a vehicle for acquiring values, knowledge, methods and skills. In respect of creativity, and now empathy, the intuitive approach is to create the conditions for engagement and intuitive listening between actors in the project context, where everything (knowledge, methods and skills) has to be contextualised, otherwise it has no value or meaning.

If we look more closely at what we mean by ‘empathy’ in a designing context, we can make certain distinctions. The first of these is to understand what we mean when we say that designers have traditionally exhibited an empathic approach to their work because of, “the extent to which they are pre-disposed and make systematic efforts to try to get under the skin of clients and users and see and feel the world as they see and feel it.” [7]. Also, in respect of Product Service Systems (PSS), De Lille et al [3] say: “The design thinkers’ ability to empathise with multiple kinds of people and the skill to co-create, enables collaboration to develop PSS. Empathic understanding goes beyond knowledge: when empathising you do not judge, you ‘relate’ to (the user) and understand the situations and why certain experiences are meaningful to these people, a relationship that involves an emotional connection.”

What we are actually remarking on here seems to be more in keeping with the definition of sympathy rather than empathy. In his book, Together, Richard S ­ ennett refers to this distinction, which was first drawn by Adam Smith, in his Theory of Moral ­Sentiments [10]. ‘Sympathy,’ he understands as identification with the ways of 12

life, and p ­ articularly the suffering of another, as in the adage, ‘treat thy neighbour as thyself’. There is somewhat of a mawkish aspect to this as a professional trait.

‘Empathy,’ he took to be a different kind of regard: curiosity about lives the observer cannot pretend to understand. Smith’s sort of empathy is a positive experience.

Sympathy is when you identify with the other, and want to help. Empathy is when you use wonder. Sennett draws on Elaine Scarry’s ideas of the difference between a ‘hot’ and a ‘cold’ response, where there’s a power relationship. When we express sympathy – ‘I know what you’re feeling’ – it’s a way of saying, that ‘nothing is foreign to me’. It’s an ‘almost magisterial self,’ which is a mode of taking c­ ontrol. Sympathy is close to condescension and pity – the emphasis is on me and my ­understanding.

Sennett’s study makes some further distinctions when he talks about dialectic ­versus dialogic, and declarative versus subjunctive exchanges in cooperative situations. He points out that dialectic is more adversarial, whereas dialogic is enquiring and interrogative, involving the skill of seeking another’s intent rather than just taking their words at face value. In this sense the distinction is about problem-finding rather than problem-solving and is open rather than closed.

Sennett draws an analogy with craftsmanship (in keeping with design’s intuitive approach), in that craft looks at situations in a problem-finding manner. He proposes that difficult situations of co-operation are better served by dialogic, subjunctive, and empathetic exchanges rather than dialectic, declarative, and sympathetic ones, which rely on effective communication.

Steve New and Lucy Kimbell draw on other distinctions of empathy in their article, ‘Chimps, Designers, Consultants and Empathy: A “Theory of Mind” for Service Design’[6]. Kimbell also builds further on these distinctions in her keynote to the Design Research Conference (DRC) in Chicago. Together, their work defines two approaches and four types of empathy: • Rationalist empathy – is an investigative approach to another’s experience,

carefully teasing out details with great skill to know what they feel, but not to imagine what it feels like. It’s a type of empathy, but one which is exercised by the deployment of some reductionist procedure or programme of inquiry best suited to the traditional role of a consultant, such as a medical clinician or business consultant.

• Aesthetic empathy – based on an intuitive approach and response, to under-

stand what it feels like to be someone else in a holistic rather than a reductionist­sense. The focus is on the interpretation and representation of another’s situation – which describes the typical role of the designer.

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• Cognitive empathy – relates to your ability to work out what is going on in

another’s mind, to put yourself ‘in someone else’s shoes,’ to understand their world. This type of empathy is about recognising ‘otherness,’ through imagination (design approach) or research (traditional consultant approach).

• Affective empathy – refers to a shared emotional response, actually feeling

another’s emotions yourself. This type of empathy is more than just using your imagination to get a fuller picture of another’s experience – it requires emotional toil so that the understanding is not just descriptive but embodied (i.e. method acting or some design work).

• Performative empathy – where people who may or may not have empathetic

capacities present themselves as exercising them. It’s the kind of empathy in design, when someone commissioning a project states that the end result must be user-centred, and the process must be participative, but they disagree with the outcomes if it does not fit the solution they have already decided upon.

• Anti-empathy – psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen[1] believes we owe much by

way of scientific progress and technology to individuals who operate with less than normal empathy. That a lack of empathy can lead to evil, but that it can also be associated with a propensity for systematisation and quantification. He also makes a connection between mathematics, engineering and Asperger’s ­syndrome!

How can we correlate these types of empathy and the values and practices of designers? Aesthetic empathic representations allow design practitioners to focus on their full sensory awareness. This approach aims to develop designers’ multi-sensory and non-verbal understanding from an otherwise inaccessible perspective, towards a richer comprehension of the needs and desires of community members. Designers can exploit their ability to imagine and describe user experience in a speculative sense, but this really needs to link with the cognitive domain[6] of curiosity[10]. At the above-mentioned Chicago DRC, Kimbell suggested that whilst design has adopted an aesthetic approach to empathy through a combination of ‘cognitive’ tending to ‘affective’ empathy, if it wants to go with the money that follows the traditional reductionist/cognitive consulting professions, it should, nonetheless, be less sentimental and strive for better cognitive empathy.

I also spoke at the same DRC, where the theme of the conference was ‘Exploring Creative Balance in Design’, and my presentation drew the same conclusions as Kimbell, but I used Sennett’s distinction between empathy and sympathy to point out that an overly sympathetic aesthetic approach does not lend credibility to the 14

role of design, unless it can effectively combine affective with cognitive empathy, to deliver creative and research balance. The post conference argument here is that this is not just about design going for the money, but about creating a truly holistic and explicit understanding of human experience and relationships in the context of community change or innovation. I also proposed that specific professional design capabilities are needed to achieve this.

Design capabilities to support empathy

In keeping with Sennett[10] and Heller[5], my experience is that effective communication is a key capability for empathic co-creation and collaboration. Communication creates relationships between machines or between people, and relationships form the entire web of our lives. Wherever you look – in business, science or society – it’s all about relationships. Therefore, what we really need to design is communication itself, and communication is about language. This infers that designing language and conversations is the most efficient way to impact social issues and change behaviour. Heller believes that’s what is emerging as the prevalent issue and has the biggest opportunities. Sennett maintains that presumption and assumption have no place in empathic co-operation (co-design thinking) and vocabulary. Co-designing creates opportunity at the point where a shared vision for a new future can be defined and envisioned by the community. The potential of design to have an influence on the future before any decisions get made – before any planning or prototyping is done – is really exciting, because we are designing opportunity at the point where a shared vision for a new future can be defined and envisioned.

Looking more deeply into the design of communication to promote facilitation of human relationships – what competences are needed by designers to work in the community context? Jim Platts[8] advocates higher levels of thought in professional competence. He argues that certain skills underlie the higher level processes and that these are developed in particular ways. What is essential, is guidance in reflective practice from someone who already has the skills and is able to impart them to others. It takes time and involves empathy and trust. The skills include: — — — —

Empathic listening (personal observation) Unfreezing frozen emotions (group observation) Transcendent thinking (personal creativity) Achieving insightful consensus (group creativity)

Platt maintains that the higher processes involve reflection, develop alpha-rhythm processes in the brain, which synthesise information holistically. These processes­ 15

generate insights, which are not achievable with the lower processes. Platts also developed a hierarchy of listening competences that can inform empathic ­methods for co-design: — Intuitive listening: — Empathic listening:

— Attentive listening:

— Selective listening:

— Pretending: — Ignoring:

Listening inwardly to what is suggested by active imagination.

Listening with full intent to understand as deeply as you possibly can. Listening with all your senses.

Paying attention and focusing energy on what is being said, that is, on the content.

Hearing only parts of what is being said. Hearing only those parts you agree with, or only those parts you disagree with.

Drifting off, in and out of listening.

“Uh-huh. Yeah. Right. Sure.”

Paying no attention. Avoiding.

Adopting this analysis, the challenge is to promote empathic and intuitive listening for co-designing by maintaining higher-level process thinking. The literature which studies this challenge, advocates the use of mindfulness practices as an effective way of promoting this level of consciousness.

The co-designer’s role

Give us any problem and we can help you solve it! This has been the catch-phrase of designers, but the recent expansion of design, beyond manufacturing, architecture and visual communication and into solving social problems, does not match the claim with a robust and recognised set of values, knowledge and methods.

Whilst design is now recognised as a special type of creative problem-solving, the incorporation of Design Thinking over the past decade, in fields as diverse as ­ international development, health, and the design of public services, has spread the idea that design is equally important in the resolution of problems as in ­activating communities, public organisations and governments. Doctoral research at Northumbria University is trying to help design philosophy and methodology with this process of catch-up. An on-going study by Pratik Vyas[11] seeks to understand the relationship between factors determining the co-creative capacity of multi-disciplinary design teams to deliver socially responsible design solutions.

The aim is to use the understanding developed, to enable co-design teams to maintain higher-­level process thinking (conscious awareness) towards the practice of empathic co-designing, by way of better co-operation using mindfulness practices. The research is therefore studying the relationship of the key factors of: ­Co-­operation, Co-designing, Systems Thinking for Complexity, Mindfulness 16

Studies and Practice, using a combination of complexity science and researchthrough-design methods.

The start of this process involved laddering the elements of each of these key factors, for example:

The doctoral studies of Pratik and others at Northumbria have raised an important ­series of issues for co-design: — Can we really develop trust between designers and community members?

— How do we stimulate volunteers to become community champions?

— Can we really learn to hold on to our own need for identity and purpose whilst still seeking a common good (managing ego and ownership of creativity in the co-design process)?

— How do we really put people first and assist them in becoming the champions of effective co-creation?

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Answering these questions might help us to address some of the bigger challenges facing the role of co-design practitioners engaged in social innovation.

— Can we develop a shared vision for the things that we want as opposed to those that we don’t need in society?

— What would it take to get big business to see social innovation in community contexts as a shared strategic goal?

— How do we create commitment to consistent engagement over the long-term, in the face of short-termism in business, government and society?

Increased understanding of the role and practice of empathy in the co-design process is seen as an important cornerstone to addressing these bigger challenges.

References [1] Baron-Cohen, S. Zero Degrees of Empathy. London, Penguin, 2011 [2] Cross, N. Designerly Ways of Knowing. Design Studies 3.4 (1982), p 221-27.

[3] De Lille, C., Roscam Abbing, E. and Kleinsmann, M. A designerly approach

to enable organizations to deliver product-service systems. In International Design

Management Research Conference, 8-9 August (Boston MA, USA, 2012).

[4] Design Research Conference Illinois Institute of Design. 2013. Retrieved 26

June 2014 from https://www.id.iit.edu/conferences-and-events/2013-drc/ [5] Heller, C. (2012). Long Overdue: Communication Design and Social Innovation.

Retrieved 26 June, 2014 from http://unreasonable.is/skills/long-overdue-communication-design-social-innovation/ [6] New, S. and Kimbell., L. Chimps, Designers, Consultants and Empathy:

A ‘Theory of Mind’ for Service Design. In, 2nd Cambridge Academic Design Management Conference, 4 - 5 September 2013, p 1:14. Retrieved 26 June 2014 from http://www.lucykimbell.com/stuff/New_Kimbell_Empathy_2013.pdf.

[7] Nussbaum, B. The empathy economy. Bloomberg Business Week,

7 March 2005. Retrieved 26 June 2014 from http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-03-07/the-empathy-economy [8] Platts, J. The Fruitful Use of Silence. In: Developing Philosophy of Management Crossing Frontiers, Forum for European Philosophy conference. (Oxford, UK, 2002).

[9] Sennett, R. The conscience of the eye: the design and social life of cities.

London, Faber & Faber, 1991 [10] Sennett, R. Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Co-operation.

London, Penguin, 2012.

[11] Vyas, P., Young, R., Spencer, N. and Sice, P. Can awareness-based practices benefit

co-creation in community social innovation. In: ServDes Conference, April.

(Lancaster, UK, 2014) 18

Empathic storytelling and design Heather Daam

Storytelling is a commonly used methodology in Design Research in order to bring in the user’s perspective. By developing customer journeys, initiating role-­playing or making up personas we can create a better understanding of the t­arget group we design for. How can storytelling contribute to better care-giving for the older people? Can we, as designers, create a better empathic understanding­to improve services? These were leading questions for developing the Empathic Adventure.

Empathy and design

Empathy and design seem to go hand in hand. McDonagh[5] defines empathy as “the intuitive ability to identify with other people’s thoughts and feelings – their motivations, emotional and mental models, values, priorities, preferences, and inner conflicts”. Already in 2009, Design Researchers Kouprie and Sleeswijk-Visser identified that a “widespread recognition has surfaced for the importance of designers to gain empathy with the users for whom they are designing.” Robert Young (Director, Centre for Design Research, School of Design, Northumbria ­University), in his article on page 11, emphasises that an empathic approach ­includes discovering new perspectives through the combination of putting yourself into the shoes of another and through a shared embodied experience and emotional response.

Simply put, bringing the understanding of ‘users as part of the design process’ is done in order to create products and services that will have more likelihood to meet people’s needs[3]. We want to know our target group better so that we can create products and/or services that add value to their lives. In parallel with the design world acknowledging the value of empathy as a valuable part of the design process, we have seen the introduction of many tools for empathy building.

In this regard, the field of ageing is no stranger. Empathy tools such as ‘ageing suits’ have been developed to place designers into the shoes of older people to get closer to their lives and experiences. MIT introduced AGNES, the ‘Age Gain Now Empathy System’,[1] AGNES gives students, product developers, engineers, etc. the opportunity to feel what it is like to be an older person navigating our world. Ford created a driving experience for their design and engineering teams to feel like their ‘real’ 19

drivers[8]. There seems almost to be an obsession with designers creating empathy for our ageing society - by literally having them walk a mile as one of its members.

Patricia Moore could be described as the godmother of ‘wearing someone else’s shoes’. She is considered one of the founders of the Inclusive Design movement – a design discipline that considers it crucial that we design products and services for all potential users. In other words, that no one should be excluded. With the help of hidden prosthetics, Moore immersed herself in the life of an older woman.

She convincingly transformed herself from a 26 year-old into various personas of an 80 year-old – for a period of three years. Moore made friends, as a person in her eighties; she suffered defeat by youngsters as a lady of advanced years; and she dealt with death, pain, joy, struggles and achievements – all as an older woman. Using her experience she went on to design countless products such as the infamous OXO potato peeler, and she now works on health and housing solutions for older people, all based on her intimate understanding of how challenging the world is as an older person in our society.

Researchers McDonaugh, Thomas and Strickfaden in North America are focused on creating empathy via workshops for designers so they can see what it’s like to have disabilities such as bad eye-sight or diminished tactile sensitivity,[4] which are commonly occurring symptoms often related solely to aging. The Dementia ­Experience is located in a mobile trailer where the general public can experience how it feels to lose control of your own mind and to feel overwhelmed by this debilitating­disease. Well researched stories are related via a loud speaker with thoughts d ­ irecting your moves, and spaces seem to change and warp as you attempt to complete a series of quite simple tasks with great difficulty and confusion.

These examples show that there are many approaches and methods that designers are creating in order to gain a better, almost embodied, understanding, of users.

All this, whilst asking ourselves how we can translate this approach into a co-design context such as working with an older people care organisation, and empower non-designers to empathically contribute in the design process. The notion of the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) and its Socially Responsive Design and Innovation (SRvDI) hub that we should design for empathy was an important insight for our research. An empathic approach to design, or as they call it ‘designing with empathy’, is well established as an important process for designers.

But to translate that to a context where non-designers are involved, one needs to first focus on designing for empathy, meaning the goal in itself is to design those ‘vehicles’ that enable non-designers to “navigate towards collectively articulated destinations”[9].

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The practice of empathy in design

Empathy is not only about knowing things about someone, but about understanding­by relating to them and “feeling together with them”[3]. How do design and empathy relate to one another? Furthermore, how can a better understanding of empathy inform the design process?

Merlijn Kouprie & Froukje Sleeswijk-Visser addressed the definition of empathy through the lenses of both psychology and design, and took that understanding to refine the approaches of an empathic design process[3]. As a result, Kouprie and Sleeswijk-Visser view empathy as a process in which two inter-related components of empathy – affective and cognitive – can be distinguished. The first component is about ‘identification with the ways of life [of another]’, which is what Richard Sennet refers to as sympathy[7]. This ‘affective’ component is about relating to someones emotions or feelings. Baron-Cohen emphasises the importance of the second component, and connects to the idea of empathy as being a process that elicits a ‘cognitive’ reaction. He sees empathy as taking the perspective of another and responding with an appropriate emotion[2].

In order to apply this understanding into developing empathic techniques in design, Kouprie and Sleeswijk-Visser propose a framework for empathy and design process in four phases. In each phase the designer must have a different kind of relation or exchange with the the future users of the design; 1. discovery: entering the user’s world, making contact either in person or by studying material from user studies 2. immersion: taking user’s point of reference, wandering around without judgement in the user’s world to expand one’s knowledge and discover influences on the user 3. connection: resonating with the user by recalling one’s own memories and experience through reflecting and creating one’s own understanding on an emotional level 4. detachment: leaving the user’s world, stepping back into the role of designer in order to make sense of the user’s world and create new insights for creation.

In designing for empathy, this framework, or process, serves as a foundation for a method that uses a storytelling element as a ‘vehicle’ for co-designing – involving non-designers in the design process. Stories are a powerful tool in this context since they transport us into other people’s worlds (not just their shoes). The Em21

pathic Adventure has been designed to allow non-designers the chance to contribute their knowledge in a relevant way and empathic way in the design process.

The Empathic Adventure

The Empathic Adventure is an immersive experience designed for professionals and semi-professionals to contribute with their own expertise to the innovation process, particularly in the area of ageing and care. The participant ‘walks in the shoes of an older person’ by dressing up in a simple ageing suit, listening to an audio narrative, and tracing the steps of a typical journey that person takes.

These three elements; physical, audio and a journey are always followed up by an opportunity to translate that experience into the design process, for example, by defining opportunities or new idea generation.

Say you meet Betty. To do this, put on restraining gear that recreates her physical challenges – uneven soles strapped to your shoes that make every step a little bit unstable, and a shoulder strap that pulls you down affecting your capacity to reach and to look up, glasses that make it difficult to see small details. All of these factors make you easily notice the different influences and the ways that Betty must navigate our world. While you embark on a journey to the grocery store – which is your task for the Betty adventure as it is something she does every week – you listen through an earpiece to her telling you about her own journey to the store and to thoughts about her mobility. This physical and audio experience allows you to relate to her story, transporting you into her world. It’s not that you are acting like Betty, rather, you see, and understand, and feel your journey from this different perspective. The next chapter presents a deeper insight into what an Empathic Adventure entails.

Not another ageing suit

The storytelling element of the Empathic Adventure offers a crucial difference to many of the previous examples. These stories are a result of the designer and older person discovering and reflecting together, for example on Betty’s trip to the grocery store.

The design researcher goes on the phase of ‘discovery’, doing deep qualitative research with older people. By building relationships through numerous personal visits, they get to know the individual in a very personal way. Different qualitative research techniques such as interviews, photography, observation, shadowing, generative workshops and so forth help to explore the following areas together with participants.

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The suit, the journey and the reflection

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After analysing all of the data, we returned to participants like Betty and also asked her to also analyse and reflect on some of the material. In this way we could be certain we had thoroughly captured relevant stories from different perspectives that emerged about their mobility. These stories became the material for the Empathic Adventure. By telling them in immersive ways, participants wander into the world of the other and discover new meanings.

The focus on the journey itself is what Reik refers to as ‘reverberation’,[3] relating to the Kouprie’s third phase ‘connection’ about experiencing someone else’s experience, in this case with all your senses, and at the same time you are drawing your own associations and building a deeper (cognitive) understanding on an ­emotional (affective) level. What we noticed is that during the Empathic Adventure­ the participant is actually experiencing all three phases at once, as their ­experiences with older people from their daily work surfaces and they build a new kind of understanding of this knowledge.

Learning from Betty and our adventures, we came to understand that empathic design is a rather complex process. The Empathic Adventure is never without a second phase, which supports – in a co-design approach – the participants (non-­ designers) in reflecting and transforming their experiences into new, deeper insights. For this reason we set up reflection and co-creative workshops specifically­ designed for the contribution that the participant would make, such as defining problems or idea creation. We found this ‘detachment’ phase very important, ­especially during our case-study working with a care organisation that was keen to learn how they can turn the knowledge they have into new valuable products and services for older people.

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Not only for professionals

It’s one thing to bring the Empathic Adventure to care professionals, but non-professional care givers are becoming more and more important, and they lack the training they often need in order to support their loved ones, and to watch out for their own wellbeing. As the climate of care changes, this growing group of people becomes more and more relevant. We propose that by connecting to them with the same empathic design thinking and process, the Empathic Adventure could offer care organisations one way to introduce care to non-professionals, to build empathy and to reflect upon their own actions.

This emphasis on designing for empathy means we are creating space for a critical reflection on the design of tools, processes and methods for co-designing in this field of ageing and care. Applying this level of thinking in an empathic design approach, we are able to involve care professionals, unearth their knowledge, and empower them to contribute in a relevant way to innovation in ageing and care.

References [1] Agelab. 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2014 from http://agelab.mit.edu/agnes-age-gain-now-empathy-system [2] Baron-Cohen, S. Zero Degrees of Empathy, London, Penguin, 2011.

[3] Kouprie, M. & Sleeswijk Visser , F. A framework for empathy in design: stepping into and out

of the user’s life. Journal of Engineering Design. Vol. 20, No. 5, October 2009, pp 437–448 [4] McDonagh, D, Thomas, J & Strickfaden, M (Dis)ability in the Designer’s Tool Kit: Developing

Shared Language. Design Principles and Practice workshop. Vancouver, Canada, 2014 [5] McDonagh, D. Empathic research approaches to support the designer:

a supra-qualitative research for designing model. Design Issues, (in press), 2006.

[6] Moore, P. California College of the Arts. Lecture 2 February, 2010.

Retrieved 26 June, 2014 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr3ibtQuf2o [7] Sennett, R. Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Co-operation.

London, Penguin, 2012.

[8] Tegenlicht, Het Grijze Goud, 2 February 2014, aired 21:05h. Reference 41’22”, Retrieved

15 July, 2014 from http://www.npo.nl/tegenlicht/02-02-2014/VPWON_1209784 [9] Thorpe, A., Gamman, L. Design For Agnostic Space – Reviewing Design Strategies

for Conflict Accommodation. In ‘Wicked’ Design Scenarios. In Cumulus Helsinki

Conference. (Helsinki, Finland, 2012).

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An empathic adventure: Betty’s story Heather Daam

The Empathic Adventure is a way for designers and non-designers to step into the world of another person and ‘feel together with them’. By experiencing a typical journey that someone takes, we create a better understanding for designing Product Service Systems. This story explains the Empathic Adventure of Betty – a cross-media experience that requires putting on an ageing suit, listening to an ­audio narrative, executing some daily activities Betty would do, and tracing the steps of a typical journey.

This is the Empathic Adventure story of Betty You begin your journey by getting to know Betty through an audio introduction:

Today you will get to know Betty. She is an 82-year-old widow who lives alone. She has a very positive outlook on life despite her difficulties with moving around. She is very socially active and takes good care of herself.

While you are on your adventure, please keep in mind that even though you are going on a trip to get to know Betty, you are still yourself. Do your best to feel the experience, but there is no need to act like an older person. You will be solving problems, tackling situations and manœuvring in this adventure – as yourself.

In your bag you will find everything you need to go on your adventure to get groceries. This is something Betty does every week for herself, and she is very organised and has a clear routine. She typically uses a volunteer organisation, the Witte Raaf, that takes her by bus, but for shorter distances she takes her wheeled-walker. You will be following a similar path that Betty takes, but you’ll be making up your own routine, the one that suits your experience best. From time to time you will hear Betty’s voice telling you more about her mobility.

Enjoy your adventure!

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Cindy, elderly homecare nurse at ZuidZorg

Foggy glasses

Audio with Betty’s story & reflection

Shoulder straps pulling downwards

Arthritis gloves

Shopping accessories

Walking aid

Arthritis knee braces

Small steps restriction

Unstable and unbalanced walking

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Then you step into the ageing suit that simulates Betty’s physical condition.

Grab your walking aid, shopping bag, and head towards the grocery store. Your task is to get the groceries on your list within the budget you are given.

Grocery List:

food for 1 person 2 x dinners, budget € 7,return empty bottles for money - pasta - sauce for pasta - meat - vegetables for pasta - 2 pieces of fruit - something sweet for after dinner - bitter lemon, 1L bottle

During your journey you are listening to an audio track that, from time to time, has the voice of Betty speaking about her own journey, and her mobility. You hear things such as:

“When I get up in the morning I have to think about how I want to spread out my energy.

Because my energy is limited. I have to check if I need to take my wheeled-walker, for example. I always have to think about it. Because of my legs, I can’t walk far. They’re not supple anymore and it’s become hard to put one leg in front of the other to walk.”

“On a day that I go get groceries, after I am back I first have a rest, have a cup of coffee, then I unpack my bag. And then on that day I heat up a ready-made meal. I do this consciously to spare my energy - saving energy is a priority for me.”

“I’m convinced that when you have a positive approach, that it has a positive influence on the body. That’s part of my character. The doctor says that he has to do all sorts of tests on me because as a specialist he can be fooled by my optimism. I’m 86, so I have to take that into account. We have to be realistic that it could all be over soon. If you’ve had a good life, you perceive death in a different way. Like me, I’ve lost my husband, but for someone who has been divorced it’s worse. I’m bold enough to say that. They didn’t have a good life together. All these things play a role.”

“At our age, making contact with others is important. When I was younger I went to all sorts of places, partying, working etc. so this wasn’t an issue. Then, you were happy when you could stop for a moment to sit in a chair. But now the situation is different. I am home alone.

So now it’s more important. I’m more aware of it.”

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“So mostly when I do the groceries, I head to the coffee bar in the shop. I sit down and every time someone comes by – because I’ve lived here for over 57 years – then they sit down too.

Or sometimes a neighbour that I often walk with comes along and we sit for a while together. I also belong to a walking club, for people with rheumatism, where we discuss the latest neighbourhood news, like the new speed bump, people’s illnesses and what kind of courses we’re taking and trips we will go on, because maybe I’d also like to join in. Some like museum trips, which I also love.”

Return from your journey and reflect on your experience together with your partner who has been observing you. Together you will navigate this new perspective!

Betty's own journey getting groceries Telephones for ride to volunteer mobility service De Witte Raaf.

Friendly driver’s assistant shows up on time at Betty’s door,

walks her to the van and helps her in with her bag and trolley.

Arrives at Albert Heijn supermarket.

Arranges that driver will drop off the full grocery bag at the end of her route. Van leaves.

Takes out cash from the machine.

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Gets shopping trolley and puts her belongings inside.

Walks through the store to select her groceries.

Asks for help to choose between products.

Stops to have a coffee break and visit with people.

Pays for groceries and packs them into her bag.

Sits on the bench by the window.

Checks over her receipt to see her discount and check that prices are correct. Waits for the van to arrive.

Driver’s assistant comes into the store and carries Betty’s grocery bags.

Gets into van.

Driver’s assistant helps her out of the van and to her door.

Driver’s assistant brings grocery bags into her kitchen.

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Exploring possibilities for our future care Dr Yanki Lee

As a design researcher practicing action research methodology and working in the field of ingenuity for design, I am always searching for opportunities to work with communities and to connect to their collectiveness. The Edgware Road Project, developed by the Serpentine Gallery’s Possible Study Centre in London, provided me with a unique opportunity to get into an existing community. Since 2009, I had been the adviser for the project and worked with other designers and artists to engage them in a few care homes as part of skills-exchange projects. After advising others for a period of time, I was interested in becoming a designer-in-residence myself. Mine was a six-month project with 18 working days. I was already known by care home staff members, which made it easier for me to research through immersion inside care facilities. I was commissioned to conduct a piece of design research activating residents as well as enabling workers in care homes to develop design proposals for our future care environment.

Mapping: Who to consult in care

Consultation refers to a two-way flow of information and opinion exchange but if the people we are supposed to consult with, have either dementia or severe ­memory problems, what should we do? Being there might be the only way to engage with them. At the same time, the care workers are working under great pressure and will not have time to be consulted. By being there, the dynamic changes.

Working as a designer-in-residence at the Westmead Elderly centre in London – a residential care home with 42 residents living in four sections – I was asked every time I visited. “Who are you?”, ‘What are you doing here?”, “Do you need help?”, “Could you call my daughter?” “Do you want a cup of tea?” I was even involved in a care home theft! During my visit I occupied a ‘guest room’ where I maintained a workspace for where I could leave my tools. One morning, when I went back to my ‘designed’ space, I found I had lost a jar of sweets, which I use as an incentive to participate.

Then the manager came to me and asked, “Did you lose something?” He opened his drawer and showed me the jar, “One resident has been acting like a daydreamer and browsing around the home. He slides into other residents’crooms and randomly picks things up and places them somewhere else. He took your jar and walked around with it for a while and I saw him and thought it didn’t belong to him.” Not only my jar, but also residents’ keys and other personal items were disappearing. A few days ago we met a ninety-­ 33

something resident who says she doesn’t have dementia but always forgets. She complained that she feels insecure because there is always a man walking into her room. The lives in this home are not unlike those in a soap drama. This simile well describes the experience of 42 strangers living together because they became dependent upon one another. It is difficult to understand until we actually live in it!

Cross cultures for care

Of course, it’s more important to think about the subject matter on which we want to advise. Most residents in a residential care home do not have much choice; they may have been referred to the care home by the local council care manager or by family. They are classified as incapable of looking after themselves and need to move out of their own homes. Some may be recommended for sheltered housing units but many move straight to a residential care home. On the AgeUK website, there are more options for older people regarding making changes in their living arrangement but most of the residents in the care home were sent to the home after being hospitalised. “I fell at home and woke up at the hospital, then I was here.” This was expressed in frustration by a care home resident. This lady was one of a few residents who displayed a clear mind when they were moved into the residential care home. Being a designer-in–residence over six months at the Westmead Elderly­­ Centre in London allowed me to get into the culture of care homes. As an institutional environment, it is controlled by the managerial culture of dementia care workers – one resident’s comments were very enlightening. I call her Ms Manners, a 93-year-old who loves to judge her fellows in the care home. “Ms Yelling yells for tea and toilet all the time while the care workers will give her anything she yells for. Ms Misbehaving, who just talks nonsense and cannot express herself and is constantly ­walking around laughing, but care workers love her and she can get whatever she wants…

For me, I am just sitting in the corner listening to what is happening since my eyesight is not very good – or I just stay in my room.” I asked, “Why don’t you talk to the others or try ­developing some conversation?” “I can’t, there is no one here I can talk to – staff members are too busy and they are not used to talking to residents, and residents are living in their own inner worlds.”

These comments reflected what’s happening within a care home: care workers are so busy and are only able to fulfill the basic needs of residents. For example, once, the activity manager told me, “Older people need animals, music, dancing or to talk about holidays!” She keeps a cat in the care home, brings dogs to meet residents, school children sometimes come to sing and they hold a Christmas party every year. But what about the other aspects of life? Like what Ms Manners expressed about the need of companionship or friendship.

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Possibilities in care

W. Benjamin (1968) wrote, “Living means leaving traces”. So if these residents are living in the care home, where do their traces lead back to? When I visited another care home, I spotted the memory boxes on the walls and its activity manager explained, “they put things in that are connected to their lives… they were done by school children who came to talk to residents… significant things in people’s lives, and made them into figures and put them into boxes…” As an experienced care worker, the activity manager also has a box and she puts things into it and she is expecting her family to bring those things out at a later date in her life to trigger her memories. For example, she loves chocolate and there is a wrapper for her to recall it, a ticket from her holiday and a theatre programme, all sorts of things she wants to see and that represent her life. I asked, “What if we were to conduct something like ‘memory boxes’ in your care home, how do you want the process to happen? We can do something different so that carers can use it… but they need to have special training… We need something to stimulate them and make them think… pictures to represent people’s interest…”

Westmead Memory Traces is a system designed for use in residential care homes where most of the residents have a diagnosis of some form of dementia. It’s about personalising institutional spaces by transforming generic hallways, and about giving back meaning and orientation. I made the first series prototype for internal doors within the care home, including those for residents’ rooms, bathrooms and other function rooms. Its main function is to create new door symbols/decorations that inform both residents and care workers of each room’s function or which person occupies it. A two-hour workshop was conducted to engage care workers at Westmead Care Home. Collectively, we went through a three-part process based on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Quality of Life Index for Active Ageing: being, belonging and becoming.

1. BEING is about how people think about themselves 2. BELONGING is about how people connect with the environment 3. BECOMING is about how people achieve their goals, hopes and aspirations

Both care workers and residents were engaged throughout the three parts. Firstly, they were interviewed separately. Care workers were invited to talk about ‘what roles do they think they are carrying out/ acting in care homes?’ and ‘what do they think the residents want?’ Residents are engaged to express what they want for themselves, and their expectations from their carers. Then, care workers were taught how to ‘talk’ to residents so they could capture inspiring moments from their lives. From there, the memories were captured and images from magazines and the Internet 35

were selected to represent those moments. Finally, we laminated all the selected images and put them together to create the memory trace for each resident and prototyped the designs for the door symbols. The traces will stay on the home’s doors, sharing residents’ characteristics and providing information on specific room functions. More importantly the system creates traces that can trigger ­people’s­memories and, potentially, new interactions. With this system, more ideas have arisen around developing the symbols for residents’ bodies that can be used within the physical environment of care homes, giving individuality back to people living and working in residential care.

Make it public: Our Memories Day for future Care

Inspired by participatory observations and interactions with dementia patients and care workers and the development of different design activities to encourage care workers to engage the residents, I expanded them into Our Memories Day, a one-day workshop community event as part of Possibility Forum in Summer 2013.

Care workers and residents were both invited back to participate as a community and work together with other citizens to create fun photos, colourful tablecloths and traces.

The three activities were operated in a sort of fun fair setting. Apart from the toolbox of Memory Traces, there were two other activities I designed through participatory observation in different care homes: 1. Memory Photobooth tool – a mobile photobooth that brings joy to people by capturing and sharing happy moments with family, care workers and friends.

It was inspired by the close relationship between residents and care workers at Penfold Shared Unit. We did it in order to test alternative ways to gain people’s consent. It allows them to physically walk into the booth, which shows that they are asking to be photographed.

2. Memory Happy Colouring tool – large format black and white line drawings for residents to colour-in together like an interactive crossword tablecloth. It was inspired by a care worker who said, “The act of colouring reminded older people with dementia about their childhood and is the best way to calm them down.”

Each participating care worker was asked to invite one resident from their unit/ home and work with them to go through the three stages. It was done within an hour and a specially designed certificate was given to the care worker as proof of training and as a thank you for their participation.

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Designing our future Care

Do you know who is living inside these gated care homes? Are there any actors, secretaries, farmers or nurses? Or did they simply turn into dementia suffers who need 24 hour care? Why do care homes become isolated institutions? Why do we need to live in such an environment when we grow old and lose our independence? How can we break down the barriers between the inside and the outside of our care environment? Could design research introduce new ways of ageing well in communities? These are questions that are not asked often enough.

“Sometimes I feel people from the community don’t understand residential care. They feel sometimes that when people come into residential care, that’s it, they can’t do anything for themselves any longer… I think people should come in to have a look because they are people there… they are individuals… people look at residential care homes, all they see is old people, but they are more than that, it’s people’s lives and they’ve got histories to tell, and they should be able to do so.” said one of the managers from Westmead Elderly Resources Centre.

So, please go in and stay to find out for yourself.

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If you care, get involved: Co-Design in the Health Sector Dr Leon Cruickshank

Not many people working in healthcare use the term co-design. It’s easy for ­designers to assume that others are comfortable with the term but the reality is that very few people talk about co-design on a day-to-day basis. This is not to say co-design is not highly relevant to innovation in the health sector; it’s that while designers might say ‘co-design’, others might simply think in terms of collaboration, group working, or even just doing a project together.

We have all experienced projects that have been enjoyable, and also ones where we felt able to make a really useful contribution, with ideas flowing between people in an energetic, exciting manner, leading to fantastic outcomes. Why are some projects like this and others less fulfilling? From one perspective, co-design seeks to really understand why some projects have this creative flow, and then designs ways of doing projects that increase the likelihood of this creative flow reccurring.

Good co-designers look to facilitate projects or processes where all the relevant people can make the best possible contribution.

Co-design is not all that well known for a number of reasons – in a practical sense, how many healthcare professionals have time to read the, sometimes, obscure design literature out there? Equally though, co-design has sometimes not been served well by its proponents in its 30 years of existence.

The problem has been that designers educated in the traditional manner find it extraordinarily difficult to ­focus on helping other people be creative.

They are trained to see themselves as the source of creative value in a process and that their gift is in creative problem-solving. However, as we see in the CRISP project, there is a new breed of designers emerging who realise that – whilst they have been trained to be creative in a particular manner, there are many others who are just as creative, if not more so, than designers – often in radically different ways to the traditional, art-school designer.

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Co-design is also about enabling these, often intensely creative, people who have not been trained in design to make a positive contribution. The interesting thing is that these really creative people can be anywhere in the organisation, from the highest paid to the lowest. Co-design seeks to give everyone the possibility to contribute, with the aim of helping the really creative participants (who often don’t think they are creative at all) express themselves and have a strong voice in a project.

Co-designers shape a project to harness very different types of creative contribution.

The results can be extraordinary.

To use a musical metaphor, in co-design everyone has a voice, and while not every voice warrants a solo, overall, the massed choir is just as moving as the inspired individual. Combining strong creative voices from across the organisation with a massed choir of contributions can produce outcomes that are spine-chilling.

The notion that any participant could make a critically important contribution runs counter to the strong hierarchies often found in healthcare. Sometimes there is an essential culture in a strong direction which is followed without debate.

There are also strong self-contained communities with their own identity and disciplinary perspective. For example in the UK we have a Royal College of Surgeons and active trade unions.

The power of co-design comes from crossing between participant ‘tribes’, exploring the effect of combining contrasting perspectives and understanding. The fact that these new, unexpected connections are very likely to result in genuinely new innovations is very well proven in literature stretching way back to the 1970s[1]. The challenge facing the co-designer is to develop approaches that help healthcare professionals to step out of these embedded, hierarchical positions.

Through this opening up, co-design helps participants to maximise their contributions, often surprising themselves as well colleagues.

Processes for good co-design are a very active area of research (this is code for ‘we are still looking for answers!’) but there are some very interesting and effective approaches already being implemented. One approach to getting people involved in co-design in the public sector is the creation of processes, resources and a support community to help anyone do a co-design project without needing to involve 40

designers at all. This is the approach taken by the UK charity, The King’s Fund.

In collaboration with King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’s Charity they have developed a toolkit for co-design in the healthcare sector. This is a set of online resources for undertaking a process they call EBCD (Experience Based Co-Design), and has been implemented in ‘more than 60 healthcare organisations, in countries including Australia, Canada, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United States’.[2] This is a freely downloadable resource, and while it is a valuable resource, there are problems with this approach. Co-design relies on getting ­beyond normal power relationships and assumptions. Achieving this is difficult and often needs skilled facilitation to help people get past these norms, an aspect of co-design which is not addressed by this toolkit.

A contrasting approach is undertaken by Diede Gulpers, Michael Höhne, Matijs Eijkemans and Martijn Geelhoed. They were tasked with helping a healthcare centre to bridge the gap between management’s vision and the perceptions of the people on the ground. To achieve this they produced ‘a board game in which employees are c­ hallenged to re-enact the behaviour that is fitting with the new vision of the ­company’.[3] Rather than having a fixed set of rules and a recipe for this game, the written documentation is supplemented by a facilitating ‘game master’, who responds to the way the game is played and shapes outcomes. For example, for participants to really get maximum points in the game, they must proactively search for improvements and new possibilities beyond the rules of the game. The lesson is: don’t just follow the rules by rote, look for opportunities to improve things.

When we play we tend to be more open, informal and relaxed about social interactions, like when we are in what play-scholars call the magic circle.[4] Using this magic circle is a clever way to help break down hierarchies. The danger here, though, is that the understanding developed within this magic circle is not transferred into the real world; but just seen as play. Also, change does not happen quickly. It may be difficult to get groups to play the game many times for new understanding to really become embedded in practice.

This notion of embedding innovation and new forms of practice is taken up as a central component of the Helix Centre (www.helixcentre.com). This is a £2.8million project led by the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. They have set up a centre of co-design in health services housed as a permanent space within St Mary’s Hospital, London.

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This embeds a ‘play space’ deeply within the fabric of day-to-day operations in the hospital. It will enable explicitly user-led innovation (through events and projects) but also will be a more casual space where people with ideas (from whatever occupation or professional status) will be able to develop these ideas with support and facilitation from designers.

The success of any co-design, whether through workshops, toolkits, games or innovation centres, is dependent on the engagement of a broad spectrum of people.

This places a responsibility on people in healthcare (­ including patients, families, carers as well as professional healthcarers) to step into co-design processes and make an active contribution. If you care, get involved.

References [1] Granovetter, M. The Strength of Weak Ties. The American Journal of Sociology, 78(6),

1973, 1360–1380.

[2] The King’s Fund. 2014, Accessed June 2014 at http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/ebcd [3] PROUD Masterclass and Seminar About Co-Design. In People Researchers Using Design.

Esch-Belval, Luxembourg, 2013). 2013. Accessed in June, 2014 from www.luxinnovation.lu/content/download/11689/106273/version/1/ file/Program_Co-Design+16may2013_FINAL-WEB.pdf.

[4] Huizinga, J. Homo Ludens a study of the play element in culture. Boston, Beacon Press, 1944.

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A toolbox for collectively creative spaces dr Elizabeth Sanders

How can we cultivate collective creativity?

In this short paper I will present a toolbox containing tangible and intangible components that are needed to design experiential spaces to provoke and support collective creativity.

Background information about creativity

I’ll talk about individual as well as collective creativity. Individual creativity is expressed by one person. Collective creativity takes place between two or more people. As it turns out, we know a lot more about individual creativity than we do about collective creativity.

Most of what we know about creativity is from an ‘inside’ point of view. Psychologists assumed for a long time that creativity was a cognitive phenomenon, i.e., something taking place inside the head of the individual. Most of the research that they conducted about creativity involved eminently creative people such as famous artists, authors or scientists, or it focussed on logical puzzle-solving. So the literature on creativity applies primarily to the most creative of people and not necessarily to everyday people or everyday problems.

More recently, psychologists have shown that emotion plays a huge role in the expression of creative ideas. For example, we are more creative when we are in a good mood and when our sugar levels are up. This is a broader and more useful perspective on creativity, but it is still limited to the inside point of view.

There is interest today in how to cultivate the creativity of all kinds of people, both individually and in groups. And there is an urgent need to better understand how to support people working creatively and collectively on difficult chal43

lenges such as healthy eating, for example.

Collective creativity is only just beginning to be explored and researched. However, since there is not yet much of a base for understanding collective creativity in the literature already published, I will be drawing primarily on personal and professional experience, as a consultant at the front-end of innovation, in describing the toolbox for cultivating collective creativity.

Please note that individual and collective creativity are not mutually exclusive.

We need both, and we need to learn how to balance them. All collectively creative experiences should include some time alone.

A toolbox for making spaces that provoke and support collective creativity

Here is a toolbox that can be used to design experiential spaces that provoke and support collective creativity. These spaces can be used by all kinds of people and not just those who already know they are creative.

The focus of this paper is on pop-up places for creativity rather than workspaces that people inhabit for longer periods of time.

In pop-up situations, the session might last a few hours to a few days. The place might then be removed or transformed after the session ends.

The toolbox contains and describes tangible as well as intangible components that need to be considered in order to design these spaces. The tangible components of the toolkit are places, tools and materials. The intangible components are the timeline of experience and the conceptual spaces for creativity.

First, choose the physical environment where collective creativity will take place.

You will need to prepare the environment for the collectively creative experience before the people get there. Be sure to consider: 44

How will it feel to arrive? The place should feel like it is a long way from the ‘office’.

There is a front door with someone to greet you and make you feel welcome.

What kind of atmosphere should there be? The atmosphere should be as fresh and healthy as the food that is served there. Natural light will flow into as many parts of the place as possible and the large windows will offer views of nature. Plants and other natural materials make it feel more like home.

What about the walls? There are many large walls on which to post, organise, ­reorganise and share materials for all to see. However, in the absence of movable walls, large sheets of foam core will do. The walls move to adapt to the action that will take place. Movement of the body has a positive impact on creative output so be sure to consider activities that get people moving all around the place.

How big should the place be? The size of the place will depend on the number of ­people involved. There will be enough room in the main meeting place to hold round tables and chairs that seat groups of five or six. The furniture enables a variety of postures and can be easily rearranged to accommodate physical activity.

The place is big enough to support the collaborative physical construction of fullscale prototypes, too.

How should the place be organised? The place should support individuals and groups of varying sizes working, playing and making. This means that you will need small, private places to support individual creativity and larger public places to facilitate collective creativity.

Next, consider the tangible materials and tools that people need for thinking, making and enacting.

The materials available for people to think, make and enact with are just as important as the places where they are used. The materials should include, but extend way beyond, whiteboards and post-it notes. Collective creativity is much more than brainstorming! Carefully considered materials can help people to visualise and express complex or emotional thoughts either as individuals or as collectives.

The core set of materials should support the Participatory Prototyping Cycle (PPC) of making, telling and enacting[2]. The PPC is a framework for action in design.

Prototyping unfolds as an iterative loop of making, telling and enacting in the future design domains. You can enter the PPC at any point, i.e., by making things, or 45

telling stories about the future or enacting future experiences. And from each entry point, you can move in any direction. Creative sessions include one or more times around the loop.

The materials for making future artifacts include paper, photos, paint, clay, markers, fabric, cardboard, natural materials, Lego bricks and parts, etc. The materials for telling future stories include storyboards and scripts. The materials for enacting future scenarios of use, include props that are useful for improvisation such as hats and personal objects. Puppets can also be used for enactment if people are not comfortable with full body enactment.

In collectively creative spaces the qualities of the materials are very important. Materials that are incomplete or ambiguous are more likely to lead to new ideas. The abundance of the materials is also a factor. There should be more than enough for everyone, but attention must also be paid to the organisation of the materials since an overabundance of chaotically organised material can be overwhelming and confusing.

You will need to think seriously about the arrangement of the materials. The organisation of materials should serve to reduce information overload by clustering likeitems, attracting attention with beautiful arrangement and displays, and provoking new ways of thinking by deliberate juxtaposition of different types of materials.

There are other tools that you will need for finding, capturing, collecting and storing information, images, ideas, and insights. The Internet is your main tool for the front-end activities such as finding, capturing and collecting stuff. Some very useful sites are Flickr, Reddit, Pinterest, Imgur and Google Image Search. But the later activities of collecting, organising and sharing of information, images, ideas, and insights are best done on the walls for all to see and to interact with. The walls and surfaces hold and display the collaborative visualisations made by people who are thinking, making and enacting together.

Make sure the people are well prepared for the creative experience.

Creativity happens over time and it takes time. For example, people need to get into the mood and the topic, there are moments of reflection and associating to on 46

what’s already there, discussing one another’s creations and adding to them, etc..

So you will need to make, and follow, a plan for the timeline of creative experience.

How long will it take? Take as much time as you can get for the collectively creative experience. It will be fun and the time will easily be filled with activities, insights and ideas.

How is it best to prepare the people? Prepare people for the experience by assigning homework that they should complete before they arrive. The homework can take them through the incubation phase of the creative process.

What if things change? Make a plan and follow it, but be prepared for unexpected events and surprises. Embrace change by being flexible in the process and in your expectations for outcomes.

Finally, nurture the conceptual spaces for creativity.

The conceptual spaces for creativity include the individual mindset and the social atmosphere. The individual mindset acknowledges the individual’s own creativity, giving them permission to be creative and providing them with recognition for

creative results. The social atmosphere for collective creativity provides support for a wide variety of behaviours including active collaboration, quiet reflection, playful pretending, relaxation, and physical making. Mutual respect and trust between the participants is key.

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When the individual mindset and the social atmosphere are working together and the people are in the right kind of place with access to good materials and tools, there will be pride in, and a sense of ownership of, the collective vision.

Next steps

These are some of the tangible and intangible components that are needed to design experiential spaces that provoke and support collective creativity. They can be combined in an infinite number of ways. It’s time to experiment!

Related Readings [1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Sanders, E.B.-N. (2012) Creativity in Strategic Thinking. In Wolters, H.M.K., Grome, A. & Hinds, R. (Eds.) Enhancing the Army’s Strategic Thinking Capability: Insights to Assess, Develop, and Retain Strategic Thinkers. Research Report for U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Sanders, E.B.-N., Stappers, P.J. Convivial Toolbox: Generative Research for the Front End of Design. BIS Publishers, Netherlands, 2012.

Sanders, L. (2013) New Spaces, Places and Materials for Co-Designing Sustainable Futures. Current: Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Design Research Journal, Issue 04, Spring.

Westerlund, B., Sanders, E.B.-N. (2011) Experiencing, Exploring and Experimenting in and with Co- Design Spaces. Proceedings of the Nordic Design Research Conference: ‘Making Design Matter’. 298-302.

NB: The figures to this paper are from [2] 48

Innovation Atelier for healthy innovations Interview with Fabrizio Greidanus of ZuidZorg

Health care organisation ZuidZorg has 50,000 clients in the Eindhoven region and almost 4,000 employees. The organisation will be confronted with major changes in the coming five-ten years and started up an Innovation Atelier with the ambition of becoming one of the leaders in shaping the future of care and wellbeing. To live up to this ambition, ZuidZorg collaborated with design research company STBY to found the Innovation Atelier. ­Fabrizio Greidanus, head of this internal team, explains why it is important for care ­organisations to innovate constantly.

The Netherlands is facing important changes in the field of care. “Soon we will start noticing the effects of the government policy that increasingly outsources care to the municipality… That has a huge impact on the function of our organisation”, explains Greidanus. Hence, ZuidZorg’s initiation of the Innovation Atelier to create an accessible place where people collectively set to work on suitable solutions for future challenges.

The goal has been to establish a climate where employees and clients feel welcome to participate in boosting innovating ideas. ZuidZorg has instated ‘innovation leave’ to stimulate people to get involved. During these hours employees can work on the development of their own ideas. “This is how we see care innovation”, explains Greidanus. “It is essential to get the support of employees for innovations to become implemented in the organisation. They are the ones dealing with things on a day-to-day basis, and are a direct link to our most important people – our clients and informal carers.”

To give an example of how this Innovation Atelier operates, Greidanus explains how they tried to get involved with new ideas on the role of ICT in the care ­environment. “We founded a panel of senior citizens who were asked to test all kinds of apps or new technology and share their experiences. Via our involvement with www.thuisleefgids.nl (an online stay-at-home guide for older people), we asked users their opinion on relevant things such as stairlifts, automated medicine dispensers, and personal alarms.” Greidanus also stresses the fact that this was all done in what is called a Living Lab environment, meaning revamping the 49

e­ nvironment where the innovation will be used later. Greidanus – “We can do more via screen-to-screen contact – we are awaiting this technology to lift off, however, we do understand that everyone needs real contact, a hand to hold”.

The example also makes clear that innovation is not just about developing a good idea. Greidanus – “As one German innovator in the Telecom industry expressed, ‘Ideas are not valuable; they are just a few words on a post-it.’ All the ideas we develop can also be found on the Internet. What matters is what we do with these ideas”. That is why ZuidZorg thinks it crucial to involve all people in the formation of ideas, so this will be embedded in all plans and structures. “By giving employees and clients a role in innovation, the daily practice of services in the care organisation is never far removed from the innovation team. That is a crucial message that we formulated together with design research agency STBY”.

This also explains how the Innovation Atelier is not only a room to incubate new ideas, for ZuidZorg it is also a means to redefine what innovation is, and to help government and other regulators to better understand which role the care organisation plays in renewal and innovation. “With our innovation team we discuss how we can best redefine our activities for the politicians and press linked to the media.

We are also relevant for people outside of the care organisation: the care users.

We will have to do it together, not alone like we have in the past. Together with the client and their informal carer we will decide what professional care is needed.”

This is especially important when one takes into account the recent report of the Centraal Plan Bureau (Dutch Central Planning office) that stresses the ‘greying’ of our society. Not only will we face a growing number of older people, because of better healthcare and better living expectations, but also the future care consumer is well educated, has excellent information about care and is critical about tuning the care to his preference.[1] This of course also requires high costs. […] Care is the fastest growing large item on the governmental budget. Together with the upcoming ageing society, this causes questions about the ability to finance healthcare in the long run.[1] Greidanus endorses these findings. “The older people nowadays have more and more diverse wishes. They want to keep on in the direction of their own lives and organise the care they need themselves. Furthermore, because of our ageing society there will be fewer people available to work as professional ­carers in the near future and care will lean on informal carers more and more.”

This makes it even more important to innovate in the field of care, thinks Greidanus. “I have noticed that users are generally involved in innovation processes at a late stage. This should be improved, and we are trying our hardest to 50

do so. Most people are working within the confines of their own care organisation and there is very little collaboration or co-creation. But more and more educational institutions and schools are getting in touch to discuss collaborations.�

To communicate what they have learned so far in setting up the Innovation Atelier, ZuidZorg, together with STBY, wrote a report that also includes insights from interviews with innovators and a small literature study. It specifically addresses how care organisations can organise themselves to be more innovative. Design-­ driven innovation and design thinking are playing a key role in the approach. One example is how design uses empathy with the future users of innovations (both clients and employees), to understand what has the greatest value in their designs.

Another is to create visualisations of insights and understanding, as well as ideas and concepts, in order to share them more easily between the different experts involved – technology providers and nurses for instance. A third design approach is to work in short cycles of understanding, designing, prototyping and testing, to see quickly if ideas work or not.

The Innovation Atelier has embarked on a new journey to reimagine and redevelop care services. It will be exciting to see what this initiative, at the heart of a care service provider, will bring in the near future.

References [1]

Van Dam, F., Daalhuizen, F., De Groot, C., Van Middelkoop, M., Peeters, P. Vergrijzing en ruimte; gevolgen voor de woningmarkt, vrijetijdsbesteding, mobiliteit en regionale economie, Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, Den Haag, 2013.

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Co-designing with empathy A case study: An Empathic Adventure and Home-care Nurses Heather Daam

The Context

The Dutch care provider, ZuidZorg, offers services such as the care of older people still living independently at home. As one of the partners in the Grey but Mobile project, ZuidZorg is keen to learn new ways to involve their employees in the process of innovation. They especially value taking a designerly approach.

“We already know a lot about older people. We don’t really need to know more”, said Gerard van Bakel (Manager of ZuidZorg Extra, which provides wellbeing services). In other words they wanted to work collaboratively to find new ways to do something with the knowledge they already have. We considered this a great opportunity to apply the Empathic Adventure and a co-design process to empower Zuidzorg care professionals in turning their knowledge into valuable new ideas for the older people they are serving.

The Approach

Empowering care professionals – in this case, home-care nurses, managers and leaders of the organisation – to contribute to the design of innovative ideas, is about facilitating them to uncover and activate the potentialities of their knowledge.­ Therefore, we divided the process into two main phases.

The first was working with home-care nurses to collectively identify design ­problems, or ‘opportunity areas’ with designers. In this case we introduced homecare nurses from ZuidZorg to the Empathic Adventure, a platform to dig under the surface and draw out, through the journey, their knowledge about the older ­people with whom they work on a daily basis.

In the second phase of our process, the areas of opportunity that the nurses d ­ efined, were used to build upon during an ideation workshop with designers working 53

with mana­gers and leaders of the organisation. The goal of the workshop was to ­empathically and actively co-design new pilot projects that ZuidZorg can nurture and implement.

Empathic Adventure and home care nurses

Two workshops took place in different locations – one in a local neighbourhood office (a central location in a client-dense area), and one at the ZuidZorg head office, outside the neighbourhood where they regularly meet clients. In each workshop we invited nurses who cared for older people in their own homes on a daily basis, and we prepared a toolbox for the Empathic Adventure, with a process designed to first see them off on the journey, and to then support them in defining relevant opportunity areas.

The nurses were introduced to Betty’s story (which can be read in detail on page 27), and as part of their Empathic Adventure they were given directions to the local grocery store along with a shopping list. Notebooks were given to observers of the journey helping by recording thorough observations by looking holistically at the environment, interactions, objects, actions, and feelings of the person doing the Empathic Adventure.

A collaborative reflection workshop was prepared with questions to support their analysis of their experiences and observations, including a simple but powerful method to express the found problems by visualising them as a billboard ‘selling’ their opportunity to the organisation.

During their journeys in the guise of Betty, the home-care nurses quickly began to understand why certain behaviours and reactions are meaningful to older people.

“I now understands why it takes two hours to do something quick, like getting groceries,” and I understand now why she can focus so much on one little detail … I was only thinking about butter, where can I find the butter, and wandering around passing other things I needed. I walked a lot more than I needed to because I was so focussed.”

These kinds of insights, along with the notes they took during observation led to many discussions and exchanges between the nurses and designers as they worked towards understanding the deeper meaning of their experiences. It enabled them to uncover key themes during the analysis phase. They worked collectively to visualise on their billboard the areas of opportunity that they found the most important and relevant to be addressed in the next phase.

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The Process

THE PROCESS S TA RT PHASE 1

YOUR JOURNEY 2. GET SUITED UP Put on the pieces of the aging suit and grab your aids to feel like Betty.

1. MEET BETTY! You will get to know this 82 year old lady while you shop for groceries like she does.

S TA RT PHASE 2

3. LISTEN UP

YOUR REFLECTION

Start the audio track and listen to Betty’s description of her journey.

6. LET IT ALL OUT Once you’ve returned you externalise all of your thoughts, observations and reflections.

4. GO GET GROCERIES Be yourself during the journey and find your own way to navigate any challenges.

5. FOLLOW CLOSELY An observer follows and takes notes about you and your surroundings.

7. DISCOVER THEMES Analyse all your data to identify themes and any new perspectives and discoveries about them.

9. SHOW US! Stand up and share your conclusions, then discuss as a group.

8. MAKE IT VISUAL! Select key themes to define as relevant design challenges, and visualise them.

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Problem 1

AARGHH!!!!

Things go too quickly, and all at once! Being restricted by your own body, and having no control over moments where you have to do many actions at the same time makes it extra stressful. → e.g. at the cashier you need to check prices, hand over money, take change, handle the receipt, be quick, pack groceries all at once.

Problem 2 NEGATIVE DOMINOS

You are always making compromises because of your limitations, and this can have a negative domino effect. → e.g. bad personal hygiene because it’s too much work to care for yourself. → e.g. you don’t buy certain things (food and clothing) because they cost too much. → e.g. loneliness because it’s too much effort to go out or invite people over.

Problem 3

KNOWING HELPS

ZuidZorg is not the only source that helps our clients, there are others in their surroundings who also need to know how to help, so that older people don’t feel like a nuisance having to ask. → e.g. people in the supermarket aren’t helpful in the right way for older people.

Problem 4

HEY SOCIETY! EVERYONE IS WORTH CHATTING TO!

When there is no interaction you feel less like you are part of society and feel left out. → e.g. people look at you when you walk around, but don’t talk to you and it feels unnatural. Older people don’t bite!

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Problem 5

SAY YES!

If someone is told ‘no’ too many times, they feel like a nuisance and don’t ask for help any­more. → e.g. When there is extra time, nurses offer to do something extra. However they end up having to say ‘no’ because they are asked to do things they are not allowed to. Then people feel like a bother and stop asking altogether.

“I’m so happy that we have the chance to do this, I feel so often that I have so much knowledge about the people we work for and nobody uses it. This gives me the chance to contribute.”

“You figure out easily how quickly things go for older people, and how much energy it takes to do everything, I needed to make choices based on my energy level.”

“I think its great to think together about changes – how my input can help the older people, what I am doing here can help them.”

Phase 2: Ideation co-design workshop

In a follow up workshop with some ZuidZorg decision-makers, home-care nurses and designers used these opportunity areas to build upon, leading to the creation of potential pilot projects that can be further refined and tested.

This workshop consisted of 14 participants, half of whom were designers, in order to stimulate a co-design approach. We included two different methods to build empathy and understanding with the opportunity areas to be worked on – a photo analysis of Betty’s journey and a short Empathic Adventure. Finally, the teams of three each addressed one of the opportunity areas by brainstorming new ideas ­using the Pilot Canvas that was designed specifically to help them frame and ­detail pilot project ideas.

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Participants writing their analysis of the image while looking at, listening to and observing Betty’s story.

Participants creating many ideas using an adaptation from the DIY Toolkit’s Fast Idea Generator . (www.diytoolkit.org)

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A canvas designed to help the teams detail their concept, as well as to iden­tify­ concrete steps for ZuidZorg to take.

The Results

Pilot 1: An aid doesn’t need to be boring! + Depending on existing creative programmes that ZuidZorg Extra offers, we can ­create workshops for older people to personalise their (mobility) aids, or have them personalised, both functionally and aesthetically. + Fulfilling a need for distraction through social contact, people will be triggered to comment or notice you and create a conversation in response to aids that have become special and personal.

Pilot 2: Tweaking the system - a new kind of volunteer + Building on the volunteer system that ZuidZorg already has for their meal delivery program, they can diversify the kinds of people that will volunteer as they increase the kinds of activities they could do, for example they could stay for dinner, or help with things around the house. + Raising the quality of life for both volunteers and clients is a win-win situation.

Pilot 3: Giving a kick in the butt! + Making people less dependent on care, preventing them from seeing care as something to consume and making care more efficient. + Coaches come and work with clients to re-distribute the care they receive, and to support them to make small changes for themselves to improve their quality of life.

Reflections

The aim of this case study was to research how stories create value while innovating new PSS. Storytelling tools and methods were created to trigger the knowledge of employees and apply it to the design of new innovative ideas for the older people they serve. During the process we learned that when given a platform such as the Empathic Adventure, the knowledge of the care professionals (nurses) comes to the fore in the design process, and that following this with a co-design workshop, the managers and leaders are able to connect to these insights through the same stories and to create new ideas for the organisation to implement. This organisational process saw different people contributing with their own knowledge and skills in relevant ways. We see that storytelling can play a key role in connecting knowledge in an empathic way to create new value through the design of realistic and exciting new ideas for older people.

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Designing mobility with and for older people Dr Bas Raijmakers and Dr Lu Yuan

For three years we have been running a project on the mobility of older people within the CRISP programme, called Grey but Mobile. This project investigates how older people, who still live in their own homes, manage to live independently, using all kinds of mobility services, for instance to visit the doctor or to do their grocery shopping. With a population that is growing older, rising healthcare costs and a growing self-service economy, it is clear we need to re-imagine the current mobility services from the perspective of the older people, and those who support them. An existing pilot project in Friesland, called Skewiel Mobiel, which was originally set up by Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Twente, formed the starting point for this particular CRISP project, Grey but Mobile.

Grey but Mobile is a joint effort of many stakeholders all of whom understand that none of them can solve this issue alone. Care organisations, for example ZuidZorg, public transport companies such as Connexxion, and local councils like Gemeente Eindhoven, need to collaborate with older people and designers in the creation of the mobility services of the near future. Skewiel Mobiel in Friesland had already established that, in particular for shorter distances like going to the grocery shop (sometimes as close as 100 meters from someone’s home) where the mobility services were lacking. Grey but Mobile took the perspectives of older people, designers and stakeholders and also collaborated with all of them, to explore what services could be developed. All along we also reflected on how we worked with all these partners, in order to establish which ways of working are most successful and should be well documented – so they can be applied by others as well.

To do this, Grey but Mobile developed a framework of three different types of knowledge that need to be created and connected in order to develop mobility services for older people: 1. Strategic user insights into older people’s everyday lives with regard to mobility and its social implications 2. Adoption of a design-driven innovation approach by the stakeholders of these new services 60

3. Acceptance of innovative mobility services by older people and those who deliver the services To be successful with creating new mobility services, all three need to be tied together into one approach.

Strategic user insights

There are many methods and tools for co-creation in healthcare, and storytelling plays a big role in most of these. But, remarkably, the stories themselves are collected time and time again from scratch, and not retained for the next project. In Grey but Mobile we explore how we can do more with the stories we collect, for a longer time, with the goal of turning them into a strategic resource for innovation in healthcare in general, beyond just mobility. How can these stories be a strategic resource for everyone who develops services for and with older people? The Empathic Adventures by Heather Daam and Maartje van Gestel contribute to this effort by not only allowing the wearer of the ageing suit to experience how it feels to be old, physically and emotionally, but by also offering the adventures that are selected from ethnographic studies with older people. These stories are replayed via an mp3 player and headphones during the adventure, and also form the basis for set tasks for the wearers of the ageing suit, such as taking the bus to do your grocery shopping.

One such insight is for instance: As an older person I need to change my life constantly to remain independent and socially connected because my physical and mental capabilities change all the time, and the world around me changes too. This points towards ingenuity as an important skill for older people to have, to deal with these changes. It also points to the need for an ongoing effort in helpng older people with the changes they go through, rather than helping them to shift to a new stable situation. These are all valuable insights when designing new mobility services for older people, and they deserve a longer life than just one project – they are strategic insights that can inspire guiding principles for an organisation, too.

Adoption of a design-driven innovation approach by the stakeholders

As designers, we bring stakeholders together in workshops, where we introduce the experiences of older people, as stories but also as insights, and show what you can do with them using design approaches. This starts with observations (of workshop participants’ own experiences during their Empathic Adventures and of the stories from older people shown in the workshop – an explorative, divergent activity) and is followed by the analysis of these observations to achieve insights 61

(a conclusive, convergent activity). Switching between diverging and converging is one of the elements that designers often bring in as a typical for their approach.

Having solid, well-evidenced insights is a perfect starting point for the generation of ideas, which is a creative effort that diverges again from the insights. In Grey but Mobile this is often performed by design students, who create inspirational ideas that deserve further exploration. Given the right circumstances, many ideas can be generated in a short time, (see Liz Sanders’ text in this same volume), which then requires a second converging, to be performed together with the diverse group of stakeholders involved, to find the best ideas and elaborate on those to create first prototypes. The original stories and insights help to achieve this convergence because they are the evidence from the everyday world in which the mobility services will have to ‘survive’, later. Such evidence is also needed to convince other stakeholders (not involved in the idea generation and concept creation themselves) to further develop the ideas. A second way to filter the many ideas is provided by the stakeholders, who will have to play a role in supplying the service.

What is feasible given their resources and infrastructure? In Grey but Mobile, user insights are integrated with business insights through the combination of different perspectives from older people, designers and stakeholders. Such integration supports stakeholders to adopt this so-called design-driven approach.[2] Acceptance of innovative mobility services

In cases where the previous two approaches have been well applied, the chances that the new service will be accepted and fit into older people’s lives, as well as into the organisational structures of service providers, rose considerably. We also started to study how and why older people accept new Product Service Systems (PSS) such as Skewiel Mobiel. Based on the initial results of the Grey but Mobile team, Schotmans and Ludden[1] suggest that the key barriers to PSS implementation are user-acceptance, and radical shifts in business culture. Acceptance seems to grow when people are able to associate (the results of) using radically new PSS like Skewiel Mobiel with past experiences or habits. In this way, radical innovations can remind people of familiar habits. Skewiel Mobile can, for instance, reconnect older people to the chatting they used to have in the supermarket, which was just as important as getting the groceries. The results from this study have not been completely processed yet, but we expect them to shed further light on why the first two approaches work well and how they can be improved.

Eventually the three approaches will merge into one framework for the development of mobility services with older people and all stakeholders involved, rather than just for the older people. This is urgent because many current services need 62

to be re-imagined in such a way that older people feel confident to use them.

The services must fit their rapidly changing lives and their personal and social histories, and must build on their behaviours, skills and expectations, which are not static either, but change all the time as their health and social environment changes.

References [1] Schotman, H. & Ludden, G. D. S. (2014). User Acceptance in a Changing Context:

Why some PSS do not suffer acceptance problems. Journal of Design Research.

[2] Lu, Y. and Baha, S.E., Engaged Scholarship for Designing Product Service System

Innovation Opportunities in an Industrial Design Course, Invited paper.

In International Conference International Conference on Service Sciences and Innovation.

(Kaohsiung, Taiwan, May 29-31, 2013).

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Involve me and I learn Hands-on research in design education Dr David Hamers

Ageing instantly

Crossing the street is easy. And, of course, entering the bus is also a piece of cake.

But wait a minute, today it is more difficult than I remember. This curb is quite high and getting across takes me four times longer than usual. To enter the bus I need help. I have to kindly ask the man behind me to give me a hand. Can I also ask him later to assist me leaving the bus? I think I can. I feel I have to.

Ageing is quite an experience, especially when it happens almost instantly.

Wearing an ageing suit, trying to walk away with one foot tied to the other, your arms strapped to your body, and a weight attached to your back, is no walk in the park. It is an adventure: an Empathic Adventure. Being shown statistics about our ageing society is one thing, wearing an ageing suit is quite something else. ­Certainly,­the first approach will tell you a lot about the challenges that we will have to face the coming decades – on the labour market, in urban planning, in public transport, in healthcare. Seeing the numbers and reading the graphs makes you think ‘this could be a serious problem’, but it could also provide us with interesting opportunities. Probably a lot of older people would like to participate in all kinds of activities as much as they can. Perhaps some of them will need a little help with that. Let’s invite them to participate and let’s give them a hand when necessary. But an abstract notion of what is necessary is not enough to gain insight into the when, the where, or the how. Trying to negotiate a curb with your feet tied together helps to make things concrete. As does attempting to enter a bus with your arms pinned and a weight pressing you down.

Involving students in design research

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”, said Benjamin Franklin. As a writer, philosopher, scientist, politician and inventor, Franklin was well informed about the diverse ways in which one can gain insight into matters, e.g. by reading, arguing and experimenting, as well as by being told, being taught and being involved.

At Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) we tell our students a lot of things. I have the impression that most of them listen to us – most of the time. Of course, as a 65

design school we also teach them, continuously. Semester after semester we test our students to see if they remember what they were taught. Most of them do – some of it. Additionally, we involve our students, more and more. We do this in the design curriculum as well as in design research courses. We involve our students so that they learn, for instance about ageing – what it means for individuals, institutions and society, and about what design can do.

One of the ways we involve our students in doing design research is by ­inviting them to participate in Design Research Spaces (DRS). As DAE readerships (Strategic Creativity and City and Countryside) we invite both DAE Bachelor and Master students as well as students from other institutions, such as Eindhoven University of Technology, to take part in hands-on design research workshops. In these workshops a DAE research associate conducts part of his or her research in collaboration with selected students. They are joined by a DAE tutor and reader who connect the research workshop with the students’ regular design curriculum, backgrounds, to design research methods and wider societal issues.

Involving the students in the DRS organised for the CRISP Grey but Mobile programme meant, among other things, letting them experience instant ageing (by wearing the ageing suit) and introducing them to older people. We asked our students to follow some of the older people in their daily routines, record their experiences (by photographing and filming them) and listen to their stories (by interviewing them) about the ways they look at their changing lives as a result of changing capabilities.

The footage and findings were then shared and discussed in a workshop with representatives from diverse external organisations that work with older people, e.g. a transport company and a home for the elderly. The physical experiences, the interviews, the photos and films were discussed whilst trying to keep a number of different questions in mind: What does this man do when he goes shopping?

How does this woman feel when she has to climb these stairs? What do they think when they enter a bus? By watching closely, paying attention to details, and combining (or alternating between) rational analysis and a more empathic approach, the workshop participants acquired a more in-depth understanding of the issues involved. This understanding, at last, provided the participants with a basis for an idea brainstorming session – a session about possible prototypes of concrete ­design solutions to some of the problems that were discussed.

Relevance for education and social relevance

Design solutions were discussed, but they were also explored and experienced. By not only talking about research but also having an opportunity to participate in it, the students – as well as the other workshop participants – experienced first-hand 66

what design research can entail and how it can be relevant to them. And, what’s more, by being involved the students could learn through research what design as research can mean for others.

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Design Research Space Impressions Students captured their design research in different forms – photos, short films, journey diagrammes, and physical simulations. These are some photos of their work, and their reflections on taking part in the Design Research Space.

“I guess the Design Research Space was a kind of adventure, it was an experience in which we were challenged, we were all challenged to look further than internet research and see how we could do research on a more personal level and use that research to also actually do something, make a concrete result.”

—Janna Meijer

“The Design Research Space was about different ways of researching, new ways of researching, it was about interacting.

We learned how to interpret all these different kinds of information you can collect. This is really about values, about different mediums and various ways to do research, about various people and about learning to analyse it all.”

–Nuya Lindlar 68

“We learned to really dive into how people live, how they do things, how they ­experience things. And from that you get so much information and so many insights.

You can take all of this to create something, I really like that part, I never knew that I did before. In previous projects, we were always just like, ‘ok, quick research on the Internet or books maybe’, but never really stepped into the life of our target group. It’s really important to do that, I see that now.”

—Mandy van der Heijden

“After this, I’m definitely thinking more and more about my own concepts and where they come from, what I am basing them on.

If I really want my concepts to mean something, if my products really need to have a value in society, then I need to do certain things and types of research that are specific towards the project that I’m working on.”

—Janna Meijer 69

Moving Stories’ contribution to CRISP Bas Raijmakers

‘Moving Stories’ is part of one of the eight main projects within the CRISP programme entitled Grey but Mobile – exploring mobility services for older people, and the results it has produced drive the overall goals of CRISP ever onward.

CRISP is a four-year project, started in 2011 and due to end in 2015, with many smaller, connected projects within it. Through the contributions of these projects, CRISP itself also becomes more defined, takes on a more concrete shape as a vehicle to make design more strategic, and to render society more resilient through design.

CRISP aims to strengthen society and the economy by making both more creative

The health and well-being of older people is gaining attention as a central issue in making our society stronger, and as crucial for keeping government spending on care within limits. Health related costs are growing fast and the only way to keep them under control is for all of us to lead more healthy lives. This is most pressing when it comes to care for older people because that is the group incurring the most health related costs. Unfortunately, easy solutions leading to more healthy lives are not at hand – we cannot, for instance, simply suggest that everyone just exercises more and expect care costs to plummet as a result. Nor is it only a question of physical health which confronts us – mental health and well-being, from Alzheimer's disease to loneliness, are just as much part of this complex situation.

To address these issues we need to create change systemically, throughout all levels. Create is the right word here because achieving such fundamental changes requires being creative on a large scale. In dealing with these issues, society as a whole needs to become more creative on a regular basis, rather than relying on a few, new, creative ideas or solutions from a few creative people.

Designers have a strategic role to play in this

Designers can help us to nurture creativity on this large scale and this is exactly what Heather Daam, with her partner Maartje van Gestel, have been doing in the Grey but Mobile project. Their efforts have not been focused on themselves creating solutions for the mobility of older people, but on empowering people working in care to come up with these solutions - a focus on creating systemic change 70

rather than coming up with a single, brilliant new idea. Maartje van Gestel focused on visualising stories of older people's mobility in such a way that they can act as a springboard for developing ideas for new services. (A separate publication in this series will be made about this.) Heather Daam focused on transferring some of the key skills that designers have, to staff at care organisation ZuidZorg and other organisations. One of these skills is to be able to step into other peoples shoes and see the world from their perspective. The basic empathic skills to do this were already present in the people at ZuidZorg (and are common throughout the care sector), which is an advantage over other sectors because empathy is a key element in the approach of designers to innovation. Designed by Heather Daam and Maartje van Gestel, The Empathic Adventure is a direct confrontation with being old through experiencing physical restraints whilst listening to stories of not so mobile older people – The Empathic Adventure takes empathy to a further level, where it becomes possible to explore and question older people's mobility rather than just sympathise with their situation. The exploration and questioning are in fact research and analysis that lead to a deeper understanding of the situations older people find themselves in and how they respond to these circumstances.

This analysis is more useful than just being sympathetic, accepting these situations and feeling sorry for older people. Achieving as in depth understanding is of course also of strategic importance, because strategic decisions, such as which services to develop and which not, can only be taken with confidence when a deep understanding is in place.

Organisations must learn about the strategic role design can play

Designers understand that it’s necessary to first achieve a deeper understanding as a stepping stone towards good ideas, and also, that a good idea is useless if it is not prototyped, developed and implemented with care. Ideas in themselves are cheap, finding the good ones requires a deep understanding of the situations and people involved, and excellent ideas require careful nurturing and building to develop them into sustainable services – there are quite a few steps to follow. This second phase requires another set of design skills along with the empathy, research and analysis skills needed for the first part. Heather Daam has, together with Maartje van Gestel, organised many workshops to empower both Grey but Mobile partner ZuidZorg as well as other organisations like public transport company Hermes and the Eindhoven city council, to make them familiar with the creation of ideas based on deep understanding, and then developing these into more solid plans for new services. With ZuidZorg in particular they have been working with the care organisation's top innovators (none of whom have a design background) as well as a range of healthcare professionals engaged in providing care on a daily level, 71

to explore how these design skills can be embedded sustainably in the organisation. This has led to some good ideas and plans concerning the implementation of new services, and, more importantly, it has demonstrated to ZuidZorg and other partners how design can play a strategic role in their organisations by integrating some design expertise into the skill set of their workforce. Heather Daam, with Maartje van Gestel, has shown these organisations that design skills are too important to be left to designers alone. In doing so, they have achieved a significant, strategic success for design.

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Contributors’ biographies

Drs Daniëlle Arets

Drs Daniëlle Arets is Associate Reader (Associate Lector) in the Readership (Lectoraat) Strategic Creativity. Daniëlle Arets also occupies a key role as a Knowledge Transfer manager for Design Academy Eindhoven, disseminating the knowledge that results from CRISP to creative industries and educational establishments.

Arets has a long record of organising debates for a wide array of public, educational and commercial institutes, and this experience has made her a strong advocate for inter-disciplinary research and design. She aims to bridge academic and design thinking through strategic, creative tools and techniques, and, of course, many more debates.

Dr Leon Cruickshank

Dr Leon Cruickshank is a Reader in Imagination at the design research laboratory at Lancaster University. He has been researching new relationships between designers and non-designers for the last 20 years. Driving this research is a desire to allow more people to become more active in shaping our society, environment and media. The need for a radical change in the way we think about designers and designing has led him to research design processes, the role digital technology can play in facilitating new types of interaction and the design of knowledge exchange. He has published widely on these topics, and is the author of the book ‘Open Design and Innovation: Facilitating Creativity in Everyone’, published in the UK by Gower Press.

Heather Daam

Heather Daam is a designer and design researcher who works with people. She has come to believe in the value of different disciplines sharing knowledge towards a common goal, and in empowering people as experts of their own knowledge and experience. She is interested in understanding the role a designer plays in drawing different people and stakeholders into the design process, and in focussing this involvement on the people who are to benefit from that design. Her strengths include leading workshops, encouraging people to think together, and generating enthusiasm in the process.

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Fabrizio Greidanus

Fabrizio Greidanus is a quartermaster at the Innovation Workshop at ZuidZorg, a large home care organisation in Southeast Brabant. Trained as a nurse, Greidanus had various positions in health care, such as in intensive care, ambulance and diabetes. The last 12 and a half years he has worked as a manager and in Nursing Care at ZuidZorg. At the Innovation Workshop the aim is to ensure that clients continue to live independently at home for as long as possible. This can be with the aid of (technical) innovations or other solutions. Fabrizio strongly believes in a design thinking philosophy for innovation which takes account of the perspective of a client or users – this gives the best chance of success, acceptance and sustainability.

Dr David Hamers

Dr David Hamers is a spatial researcher. He was trained as a cultural theorist and economist, and in 2003, he obtained his doctorate at Maastricht University’s department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences with research into representations of the American suburb. Since then, Hamers has been working as a researcher in the field of urbanisation. He is a senior researcher for Urban Areas at PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving) in The Hague. His publications mainly deal with the development, design, and use of space within and around the city. In addition to his work as a researcher, He works with spatial designers and artists. Since 2009 he has been a reader (lector) in City and Countryside at Design Academy Eindhoven Dr Yanki Lee

Dr Yanki Lee is a social designer, design researcher and activist who researches democratic design practice for social inclusion and innovation. In 2000 Yanki was awarded her MA in Architecture from the Royal College of Art (RCA), went on to join the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD) as a Research Fellow and to carry out her PhD research – ‘Design Participation Tactics; involving people in the design of their built environment’, that explored a range of methodologies to design ways in which people can participate. She recently set up the HKDI DESIS Lab for Social Design Research at the Hong Kong Design Institute investigating social issues through creative design encounters Dr Bas Raijmakers

Dr Bas Raijmakers PhD (RCA) is Reader (Lector) in Strategic Creativity at Design 74

Academy Eindhoven and leads the in-house CRISP research team. Bas has a background in cultural studies, the internet industry, and interaction design. His main passion is to bring the people for whom we design, into the design and innovation processes, through the use of visual storytelling. He holds a PhD in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art, in London. He is also co-founder and Creative Director of STBY in London and Amsterdam: a design research consultancy specialising in design research for service innovation. Bas works for clients in the public sector and industry, around the globe.

Dr Elizabeth B. –N. Sanders

Elizabeth B. –N. Sanders is the President of MakeTools, a design research company with a focus on collective creativity and innovation. She is also an Associate Professor of Design at The Ohio State University, where her focus is on facilitating trans-disciplinary learning experiences and co-creative practices that can ­address the significant challenges we face today. Liz introduced many of the tools, techniques and methods being used today to drive and/or inspire design from a people-driven perspective and she has practiced co-designing across the broadest possible range of design disciplines. Her numerous design awards, patents, publications, presentations, and her proven track record in the marketplace, have established her as a global leader in the field of design research Prof. Robert Young

Robert Young is the Professor of Design Practice in the Department of Design, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences, Northumbria University, head of its ‘Innovate’ academic community and Director of the Centre for Design Research, which has specialised in human-centred, research-led design practice projects with private and public sector organisations there since 1989. He began the first Knowledge Transfer projects and doctoral studies in the School and has assisted twenty-four candidates in gaining their PhDs. He has advised two previous Design of the Times programmes, in the North East and in Cornwall, on social innovation and service design projects with communities of practice. He is currently serving on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Dutch Government’s Creative ­Industries Science Programme, CRISP. He is a partner in two recent AHRC Networks – Design Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) UK, and Service Design Research and is Coordinator of the Northumbria DESIS Lab, which undertakes collaborative social innovation learning projects with public and third sector ­organisations.

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Glossary

Creative Industry Scientific Programme

The Readership in Strategic Creativity is embedded in CRISP (Creative ­Industry­ Scientific Programme). CRISP is a Dutch national research programme ­ of more than 60 organisations, in which Design Academy Eindhoven ­collaborates with the Technical Universities of Delft, Eindhoven and Twente, VU and UvA in Amsterdam and over fifty design companies and service providers in the Netherlands. CRISP is supported by the Dutch M ­ ­ inistry of Education, Culture and Science. For details about all CRISP projects, see: www.crispplatform.nl.

Grey but Mobile

Enhanced Care Service through Improved Mobility for Older People (Grey but Mobile) is about improving care-related mobility services for older people, supporting independent living and social connectivity. Importantly, the quantitative and qualitative effects of these proposed services have to contribute to the improved health of older people as well as to the economic efficiency of care.

Today, older people live in their homes longer, predominantly because of improved home care. For reasons of efficiency and costs, this is considered a good development, but it has a downside too. Older people often live alone, and solitude is regarded to be one main cause of health problems. Keeping older people socially connected and involved, requires them to remain mobile – current mobility solutions, however, do not cater specifically for this group.

Mobile-care projects are currently being initiated in the context of the organisation of services. A major constraint is the availability of vehicle designs and of interfaces between services and the means of mobility. A new class of vehicles is envisaged that will specifically relate to the needs of this age group: mobile solutions that will match the environmental, physical, mental and societal needs of older people.

Scientific partners in this project are University of Twente, Eindhoven ­University­ of Technology and the Design Academy Eindhoven. Industry partners are ­Roessing Research, the Tellens group, Trivium Meulenbelt Zorg, Zuidzorg, De Loft, Indes, Arriva, Connexxion, Divaco and Waaijenberg.

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Open Design Spaces

Open Design Spaces is an initiative of the Readership Strategic Creativity at Design Academy Eindhoven – the team of Research Associates of the Readership works on collaborative projects within CRISP. Open Design Spaces extends this collaboration to students and tutors at the academy to introduce them to what academic design research entails. These short workshops are a way for students to participate in this research programme, a bridge between the Readership in Strategic Creativity and the educational programme of the academy.

The Readership in Strategic Creativity at Design Academy Eindhoven

The Readership explores how design and creativity can play a strategic role in society and the economy in general, and in service innovation in particular.

Academic knowledge is created through designing, within the strong design culture of Design Academy Eindhoven. The results of the programme are used in the educational programme of Design Academy Eindhoven by way of Open Design Spaces – a four week design-research module for students around a topic related to the research of a particular Research Associate. Further to this, results are disseminated through public debates, conferences, workshops and publications – the work can be followed via several digital channels. For more details see www.designacademy.nl/strategiccreativity.

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Colophon Moving Stories The Readership in Strategic Creativity at Design Academy Eindhoven Editor:

Heather Daam

Editorial team: DaniĂŤlle Arets, Bas Raijmakers, Ellen Zoete Contributors:

Drs DaniĂŤlle Arets, Dr Leon Cruickshank, Heather Daam,

Fabrizio Greidanus, Dr David Hamers, Dr Yanki Lee, Dr Bas Raijmakers,

Dr Elizabeth B. -N. Sanders, Prof. Robert Young

Proofreader:

Jane Hardjono & Jimini Hignett

Graphic design: HeyHeydeHaas Printed by:

Lecturis, Eindhoven

Edition:

500

CRISP Grey but Mobile research group:

Ehsan Baha (TU/e), Simone Boerema (RRD), Laura van Geel (TU/e), Maartje van Gestel (DAE), Rick Schotman (UTwente), Peng Xiang Jia (TU/e) CRISP project partners:

ZuidZorg, Gemeente Eindhoven, Connexxion Guest tutor Open Design Space:

Hilde den Bieman Supporting tutor Open Design Space:

Dr David Hamers Participating students Open Design Space:

Daria Biryukova, Frederik Deschuytter, Kylian Frieling, Juhee Hahm, Mandy van der Heijden, David Kappe, Ricky Kloosterman, Laura van der Kruijs, Nuya Lindlar, Janna Meijer, Bastiaan de Nennie, Daan Steinhaus, Wouter Vastenouw, Nanda Voskamp, Julia van Zanten, Fabian Zeijler Special thanks to:

Betty, Maartje van Gestel, Dr David Hamers, Daniel Rossi, Virginia Tassinari & my family Images:

Maartje van Gestel (WYDS) and Heather Daam 78

Publisher:

Design Academy Eindhoven Emmasingel 14 Eindhoven, the Netherlands www.designacademyeindhoven.nl/strategiccreativity email: opendesignspaces@designacademy.nl ISBN: 8-94-91400-17-9 Price: 10 euro Readership Strategic Creativity, 2014 Reader (Lector): Dr Bas Raijmakers PhD (RCA) Associate Reader (Associate Lector): Drs Daniëlle Arets Visiting Research Fellow: Ré Dubhthaigh MA (RCA) Research Associates: Michelle Baggerman BA, Alessia Cadamuro MDes,

Heather Daam MDes, Maartje van Gestel BA, Cynthia Hathaway MDes, Susana Camara Leret MDes, Karianne Rygh MDes, Mike Thompson MDes, Jonathan Wray MDes The Readership Strategic Creativity is partly funded within the Creative ­Industry Scientific Programme (CRISP). CRISP is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. www.crispplatform.nl

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-­ NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. © 2014 Heather Daam and the authors

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Empathy is a key constituent in the way designers approach innovation. As we will show in this book, empathy enables designers to explore and question older people’s mobility issues rather than just sympathise with their situation. Such in depth understanding is needed as a stepping stone towards good ideas – for developing mobility services for older people for instance. How can designers deploy their empathic skills to support innovators at care organisations towards developing new services?

Moving Stories is a project by Heather Daam, Research Associate at Design Academy Eindhoven, and part of the Grey but Mobile project within CRISP (Creative Industry Scientific Programme).

CRISP focuses on Product Service Systems, requiring designers to think and work more broadly and more strategically in response to large-scale societal challenges. To address the big challenges surrounding care today, change needs to be created systemically, throughout all levels of current services. Create is the right word here because achieving such fundamental changes requires being creative on a large scale – society as a whole needs to become more creative, and designers have a crucial role in getting us there.

This book is part of a series of publications of the Readership in Strategic Creativity at Design Academy Eindhoven. The Readership explores how designers trained at Design Academy Eindhoven can create academic knowledge through design.

Bas Raijmakers PhD (RCA) Reader in Strategic Creativity at Design Academy Eindhoven