Empowering older Australians through UX design

In a sector that traditionally does things ‘for’ or ‘to’ people, how do you design experiences that empower instead? And, once you’ve designed these experiences, how do you embed them in an organisation so they stick?

In-home services for older consumers are changing. People can now choose what they get and how it’s delivered to them. But often this choice is lost and people become passive observers in the onboarding of their aged care.

They can be left unsure of ‘what else was available’, worried that they might not be able to ‘peel an orange’ when a community worker comes into their home, concerned that they’re ‘not a sick person who needs sick attention’, but keep quiet because they don’t ‘want to make a fuss’.

In this talk we’ll explain how we partnered with Catholic Community Services (CCS) – a not for profit community aged care organisation – to imagine and build a world where this wasn’t the case. We’ll discuss:

How spending time in the worlds of older Australians challenged and inspired the whole studio and tell the stories that continue to stick with us
How design can inspire and embed organisational change
How something as seemingly simple as reframing language can help shift the dynamic of a person’s relationship with an organisation from a ‘passive receiver’ to an ‘empowered consumer’.
How we’re designing, testing and building frameworks and tangible tools to help staff (who don’t traditionally consider themselves as designers) become strong design facilitators
The tools and techniques we’ve used, and how you can apply them in your projects

Presentation audio

Sketchnotes

Empowering Older Australians Through UX Design

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