Improving Life Quality by Countering Design Exclusion

This paper concerns itself with design exclusion, and strategies developed to counter this at the Royal College of Art (RCA), in London. It showcases work resulting from the DesignAge programme, from ‘design for our future selves’, an annual competition for final year MA students at the RCA, and most recently, from the Helen Hamlyn Research Associates Programme, with teams of recent RCA Masters graduates with major companies and voluntary sector organisation. This work has helped to flesh out the concept of Inclusive Designs, in particular by developing an ‘empathic’ design process whereby RCA graduates work with ‘critical’ user groups - often consisting of older people - to develop ‘inclusive’ products and services, and introduce new thinking into companies.

Architectural engineering · Physics · Quality (philosophy) · Computer Science · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Engineering