Patricia Moore: an early voice in designing for older people

This article from 1985 describes Moore's three-year social experiment, in which she, at the age of 32, artificially simulated the effects of ageing (through latex make-up, splints to simulate stuff knees, taped and gloved fingers to simulate arthritis). It's an uncomfortable read for someone in 2018. Why do we need a young person to fake being elderly in order to learn what that experience is like?

But older voices were not being listened to, and Moore was. She used the experience for good, to shed light on practices like shopkeepers routinely shortchanging older people, and the terror of being caught halfway across a pedestrian crossing when the lights change. She went on to design products that meet older people's needs, such as easy-to-open medicine bottle caps.

Moore's approach is outdated. We like to think she would use practices like co-design to centre older people's experiences now. We would really like to think your average policy-maker would no longer listen to the voice of privilege over the voice of lived experience, but sadly that's probably not the case.