Designing for wellbeing

eferences, discussion and reflection about the attitudes towards seniors
instead of providing easy-to-accept improvements for the current systems.
Concept design can be a vehicle for triggering discussion and trying to
understand what people actually want and what is meaningful for them.
“Showing people some ‘crazy ideas’ can help designers understand what
people really need in a new gizmo, and producing new designs is how the
designer develops this understanding” 6 . Since project Rethinking Villa
Breda was a student assignment, concept design can be explorative or
even artistic and critical. The aims of such project are not tied to the shortterm
objectives of the organisations involved, and the educational context
allows or even expects alternative ideas that facilitate and trigger discussions,
and which can shape future solutions that become realised 7 . There
are several reasons why, for instance, AVAdate evokes mixed feelings and
reactions. First of all, it focuses on a taboo related to seniors: falling in love
and having new relationships in old age. Secondly, it is an online service
with avatars, rarely thought of as appropriate for the elderly.
All these concepts approached wellbeing from the social perspective,
indicated that old people are valued and needed in the community, and
highlighted the importance of having others around to avoid feeling isolated.
However, they propose different approaches, including spending more
time with younger generations, meeting people while taking care of daily
tasks, or finding new relationships through a dating service.
Challenges of creative design in public organisations
In the public sector, some of the fundamental barriers to applying service
co-design include a fear of novelty and risk-taking. These are factors at the
6 Bowen, S. (2009). A critical artefact methodology: Using provocative conceptual designs to
foster human-centred innovation. PhD Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University.
7 Gaver, W., Martin, H. (2000). Alternatives: Exploring Information Appliances through
Conceptual Design Proposals. In CHI ‘00 Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems, ACM New York, NY, USA, 209-216.
67 · Co-design with the public sector