Progress Plan

Progress Plan + Goals

Goal: Create a future scenario that allows for a new view of the lifestyle of the retired and elderly, and to design a service to accomodate their desires and expectations to future technology.

January:

– Research on coming technologies on which development research is done today, and are considered to be in common usage in the next decade to 15 years.
Sources: TechCast, TechEBlog, Touch, Wired, v-2.org, ID-Lab and Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture at Oslo University (TIK) among other websources and research publications. – Create a three axis diagram of different types of user interfaces related to age and culture, in order to see better which type of interface can be considered for the intended target groups(i.e. what works well in Japan, might be completely ridiculous in Italy, and what`s practical and sound in Norway, might be considered too plain in Japan..) This will then be compared to new interfaces under development, ref. Surface, Intelligent Textiles etc.– Interviews with future users. Age group 50-60, will be retired within 10-20 years. Find out about their preferences, wishes and demands to their technological products today, and which kind of social framework guides these preferences. What kind of lifestyle will they seek when they`re retired? This information will be cross-referenced according to age and cultural frame.

-Research existing solutions. “Competitive Analysis”.

February:

– Do a Trend analysis of the well grown up tech. users of today. What do they appreciate with respect to form, functions and interface?

– Create Future Scenarios. These will be based on information found in the research phase and Trend analysis, and will contain as much detail as possible regarding cultural frameworks (habits, norms), as well as projections from established research sources and personal cultural experience. – Ideation process. Sketch ideas to fit into said scenario in order to find a product concept to fit the new lifestyle of the elderly. March:

– Idea development and concept definition. Making variations of the concept to fit different cultural settings.

– End of month: Deadline for choosing a final concept.

April:

– Shaping and initial modelling.
– Interface definition
– Modelling

May:

– Evidencing
– Graphic work for presentation. Mid May: Final Presentation.

The New Old

The New Old project will start by making the basis for a future scenario, involving;– research on future technologies for the next 10 to 15 years, in order to attain a realistic knowledge base for the technology that will be used by the target group for this project.(this I do also taking into consideration that many of tomorrow`s users will be more prone to accept today`s technology and interfaces than tomorrow`s).– a three axis diagram showing which type of interfaces are accepted by which age groups in which of these three cultures: Norway, Italy and Japan. These are cultures with great differences in many aspects of their social framework, but having lived in all of them, I also know many similarities. I wish to draw on my experiences for this project and try and incorporate this knowledge in the base scenario.– interviews with members of the target group; that is people of adult age today, who will be forced to consider their future as retired, and what they imagine their lives will be like based on their knowledge and interests of today.

– trend analysis based on today`s research of social systems and social framework in the main three different cultures of this research.

This will form a basis for a future scenario into which I will project a product design concept. This product could be based on social interaction between elderly, physical activity or play, emphasising a healthy look on this social group and considering a new lifestyle for the future old.