Assisted living, a relatively new industry, provides an alternative to traditional long-term care. These residences serve the increasing numbers of elders who need help with daily activities but wish to maintain independence. Although they are promoted as resident centered and noninstitutional, research based on consumer input indicates that many older adults and their family members do not find the buildings to be particularly friendly, warm, or supportive In "Humanistic Design of Assisted Living," John P. Marsden has translated research-based information into innovative and practicable design strategies that directly address those unfavorable perceptions. Marsden provides an overview of assisted living's evolution then addresses the current information resources available to designers. He discusses successful humanistic design and presents a conceptual framework, based on consumer-based research, composed of six themes: familiar housing cues, protective enclosure, caring cues, human scale, usability, and naturalness. He applied this framework to specific guidelines for building exteriors, interior entries, and common shared spaces. His recommendations are supported by photographs that demonstrate effective design strategies as well as some less-successful examples.

This comprehensive and accessible book presents essential design guidelines for housing owners, operators, administrators, policy makers, gerontologists, interior designers, and architects.

Informing Design will focus on research as it pertains to the interior design discipline. Dickinson and Marsden suggest a pedagogy in which design-decision making is informed by more than speculative hunches, preferences and intuition. The book consists of a collection of contributed chapters with leaders in both design practice and education sharing their expert knowledge with a building type in the specialty areas. Through exposure to actual interior design research studies, theories and trends that are geared to the specialty areas of design, students will be able to assess the credibility and quality of the information; distinguish between information that is based on empirical research, best practices, or opinion; and apply the findings of others. As design educators, the authors hope to provide students with the background necessary so they may become more fluent and comfortable with informed design.Features:-- Defines the term research, discusses the research process, defines interior design programming and explains the difference between research and programming-- Discusses data collection methods and research terminology to provide design students with background information necessary to read published investigations and use findings to inform design-- Chapter on sustainability used as an overall philosophy for approaching design-- Chapters address building types within the design specialty areas of corporate, retail, learning environments, hospitality, and healthcare-- Instructor's Guide provides suggestions for planning the course and using the text in the classroom