This book focuses on various aspects of research on ageing, including in relation to assistive technology; dignity of aging; how technology can support a greater understanding of the experience of physically aging and cognitive changes; mobility issues associated with the elderly; and emerging technologies. The 80+ age group represents an expanding market, with an estimated worth of GBP21.4 billion a year. Everyone is affected by this shift in demographics - we are getting older and may become carers - and we need to prepare ourselves and adjust our surroundings for longer life. Products, services and environments have been changing in response to the changing population. Presenting international design research to demonstrate the thinking and ideas shaping design, this book is a valuable resource for designers; product developers; employers; gerontologists; and medical, health and service providers; as well as everyone interested in aging.

European cities increasingly face problems caused by transport and traffic. For many people transport provision is unsatisfactory and current arrangements are leading to a deteriorating environment. A fundamental problem is that our currently fragmented approach makes it difficult to understand fully the circumstances and needs of transport users. In any overall approach public transport is a crucial component. Designing Mobility and Transport Services shows how these issues can be addressed and resolved. The development of an inclusive, validated passenger experience measurement instrument is the first step in understanding the situation and thus tackling it. It is needed if we are to create high quality, user centred, integrated, accessible public transport services, which are capable of attracting and retaining public transport users whilst meeting sustainability targets. The METPEX research project was devised to tackle these issues. Coordinated by Coventry University, the METPEX consortium brought together 16 European partners from 12 countries. The project's underlying rationale was the proposition that if transport operators and authorities were provided with a robust, reliable and tailorable means of measuring the whole multimodal passenger journey, they could improve service provision. The book describes how such an improvement can be achieved, to attract travellers out of their private vehicles, thereby reducing congestion and pollution and increasing health and well-being. It provides a template for a creative approach and a meta-design narrative in designing for transport systems to enhance mobility choices by improving the door to door journey and thus underpin sustainable transport initiatives.

This book focuses on various aspects of research on ageing, including in relation to assistive technology; dignity of aging; how technology can support a greater understanding of the experience of physically aging and cognitive changes; mobility issues associated with the elderly; and emerging technologies. The 80+ age group represents an expanding market, with an estimated worth of GBP21.4 billion a year. Everyone is affected by this shift in demographics - we are getting older and may become carers - and we need to prepare ourselves and adjust our surroundings for longer life. Products, services and environments have been changing in response to the changing population. Presenting international design research to demonstrate the thinking and ideas shaping design, this book is a valuable resource for designers; product developers; employers; gerontologists; and medical, health and service providers; as well as everyone interested in aging.

Design occurs in a rich social context where the effectiveness and efficiency of social interaction and collective performance are key to successful outcomes. Increasingly, design is being explored and developed as a collective, collaborative, participatory, and even community process. The heightened recognition of designing as a social process has stimulated interest in collaborative design. This book contains the proceedings of the international conference "CoDesigning 2000" held in Coventry, England, September 2000. During this meeting exponents from a wide range of design domains came together to present and discuss perspectives on and new knowledge and understanding of collaborative design, and the evidence for enhanced design performance through collaboration. Within this volume different motivations for, conceptions of, and findings about collaborative design are addressed in 50 contributions by different research groups. Structured into 6 sections according to the main fields of interest, it provides a survey of the state of scientifically based knowledge and trends emerging from collaborative design research and their implications for a wide range of domains.