Keywords

1 VUCA, Global Ageing and Elderly Mobility

The Today’s world is characterized by what the economist experts called VUCA. An acronym that stands for: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity. The current situation is in fact characterized by sudden changes (volatility); future unpredictability (uncertainty); the high number of factors that generate an effect and the consequent difficulty in analysing them(complexity); the clarity lack in the phenomena interpretation (ambiguity). All these factors, correlated among themselves, contribute to creating an environment difficult to control by the markets and the industry of any sector [1, 2].

Furthermore, the world we are living in is also getting older. In fact, due to the aging of the baby boomer generation (Those born between 1946 and 1964) combined with the increased longevity and the decrease of birth rate nowadays the world is more and more populated by a new aged population [3]. In Europe, according to WHO the people aged 65 and older is forecast to almost double between 2010 and 2050 and the number of people aged 85 years and older is projected to rise from 14 million to 19 million by 2020 and to 40 million by 2050 [4].

The instability generated by the VUCA condition, together with the aging world phenomena affect many sectors and automotive is certainly one of them.

In fact, despite the instability, the future uncertainty, and the sudden changes all experts agree on a future 2030 deeply innovated and transformed which will be characterized by the wide diffusion of electric, connected, and robotized vehicles, the loss of relevance of vehicle ownership in favour of mobility services with a radical change in the structure of the sector. Innovations that can be summarized under the acronym MADE which stands for: New Mobility trends and behaviours developing around the world, the arrival of Autonomous technologies, the development and use of Digital features, and the rise of powertrain Electrification [5].

Considering the expected increase of elderly people and considering the Active ageing program activated by WHO [6] ageing mobility is certainly one of the most strategic sectors to enhance the quality life of elderly also because this problem is expected to grow in the future [3].

The strategic importance of the Elderly person’s ability to move independently is a significant factor that enables them not only to continue working after retirement [7] but also, to maintain daily routines and consequently social bounding [8].

Furthermore, Travel needs for the older population may be even greater than the younger population since they have more time for non-home activities, and they need more social services and healthcare [9].

2 Human Centered Design and Co-design

Born as an alternative method to purely technology-driven innovation, Human Centered Design is a multidisciplinary process where the user participates in the whole project since the earlier stages. In this process the user is not merely a consumer but also a co-creator of the product with specific behaviors, goals and needs [10].

HCD practitioners need to manage two tensions: making sense of the current situation together with giving shape to the future. In fact, they need to ensure that what they design not only makes sense for them but also for stakeholders and the reference contest [11].

In this perspective, Co-Design is a tool that helps to shift from a design “for” the user to a design “with” the user, involving him/her at any step of the development process [12].

By interacting directly with users through observations, focus groups, workshops, and other tools, designers can have more probability to grasp their real needs, their frustrations, their behaviors because the designer view is always challenged and confronted with the user mindset. This continuous encounter between designer and user, facilitate joint creativity and joint learning resulting in an increased level of product usability [10].

This approach is particularly effective when dealing with a topic like digital interfaces specifically designed for elderly since this category involves the comprehension of specific elderly deficits to design services and products that are used by them in the correct way.

3 Case Studies

The Authors conducted an in-depth analysis of several projects regarding elderly mobility with a specific focus on the methodological side. Each project is briefly described and analyzed on the influence that co-design gives to the process of any project. Aim of this case studies analysis is to provide an overview of the current state of the art of the Design research methodology and find possible trajectories side for future innovation of the elderly mobility.

3.1 Real-World Laboratory Schorndorf

The Real-world laboratory SchorndorfFootnote 1 project is characterized by the development of a flexible bus system for the city of Schorndorf with the aim to address different user group needs (included older users) and various stakeholders demands.

Considering mobility as a socio-technical phenomenon [13] and willing to develop an effective mobility services with the public members as co-designer, a specific method was developed called “Transdisciplinary development of Socio-technical system” or TraSy. The TraSy method shown in Fig. 1 consist of a cycle that start from (1) analyzing the behavior of potential users (2) over the identification of user groups and possible use of the new system (3) to the generating of ideas and concepts and (4) lastly testing and evaluating the new system.

Fig. 1. 
figure 1

© adapted from Gebhardt et al. [14]

Schematic representation of the user-centered procedure and the participants in the respective phases as used in the TraSy method

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3.2 Silverstream

Within the frame of H2020-ICT 2014 SILVERSTREAMFootnote 2 project is developed to address the challenges associated with new technologies for future urban mobility. SILVERSTREAM develop and demonstrate a radically new light and affordable vehicle concept (L-category) for the ageing population in congested European cities with scarce parking space.

To understand the real needs and expectations of the possible end-users and to examine the dynamics between each other a significant step is to rely on an ecosystem where insights, ideas and feedbacks are generated involving the possible users in a process of open innovation. That is the reason why the contest of City of future living lab (San Raffaele Milano) was chosen and a special methodology called coCreation was built with four different process:1-Codesign, 2-Co-implementation, 3-CO-experimentation, Co-evaluation. This process is circular and can be iterated multiple times as shown in Fig. 2. Tool used within this methodological approach were documentation, shadowing, interviews, usability test, questionnaire, observations.

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Co-creation methodology of SILVERSTREAM project.

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3.3 Flourish

FLOURISHFootnote 3 is a project which explores how innovations in autonomous vehicle technology could be delivered in the UK aiming to enable older adults to travel independently and with flexibility in these vehicles.

Among the different partners the one responsible for the design of the Human Machine Interface was Designability, a charity committed to creating innovative products that support people living with disabilities and long-term health conditions.

Designability to deliver an effective HMI opted for a User centered Methodology to better engage with users and stakeholders which were considered the heart of the design process: they were consulted through the whole process, influencing design directions and supporting designers in delivering solutions that meet their needs and desires.

According to their report, [15] Designability design the HMI within 5 stages as shown in the Fig. 3: 1-Ideate, 2-Build, 3-Test, 4-Review 5-Deliver (with a possible iteration of the steps 2 Build, 3 Test and 4 Review).

Following the aforementioned process, Designability team used the following methodologies: ethnographic research, Interviews, Focus group, Observations, Survey, contextual research, concept review, Journey mapping, personas, scenario and Prototype testing.

Fig. 3.
figure 3

Design process of the HMI of FLOURISH (image from http://www.flourishmobility.com/).

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4 Conclusions

The progressive world aging society and the consequent increase of the elderly population highlights the necessity of a mobility system redesign. Beside the inclusion of elderly needs in the current transportation system, it is also forecasted a strong innovation in the automotive sector synthesized by the acronym MADE [5]. On the one hand this innovation implies a great innovation for the mobility system, but, on the other hand it also presents the high possibility of creating exclusions especially for fragile categories such as the elderly [16].

In this perspective the Design Research suggest the Human Centered Design and the Co-design as effective approach to design a new mobility system with the co-participation of the users and stakeholders at any step. With an in-depth research of the current elderly mobility panorama, the authors have here reported the common features of the methodology used in the three significant case studies selected before:

  • All projects are Human Centered Design since their focus is to improve the mobility of older people according to their needs. These needs have been extracted with tools typically belonging to the category of Human Centered Design and co-design such as: interviews, observations Shadowing, focus Group personas and usability testing.

  • All the methodologies used are circular and then they offer the possibility to iterate the process multiple times by offering more space to integrate user and stakeholder feedback. The increased flexibility helps also the designer to better select the tool needed and to solve problem arising during the project

  • They all have the objective of helping older people to feel more independent, safe, and healthy in their own mobility.

Given these characteristics, this study confirms the trajectory already signalled by Sanders and Steppers in 2014. [17] Indeed, even for mobility design, there has been a shift from designing for the consumer to designing with the target users and it is credible to imagine a future where mobility will be designed by the users themselves.

Co-participation is certainly a central value not only because it enhances a better understanding of the specific users’ needs but also because it establishes a relationship between the product-service designed and the user itself. Moreover, this methodology also changes the role of the designer himself. In fact, it fosters the transition from the designer-engineer to the bricoleur, a professional figure able to connect different aspects of the project in a consistent and effective way.