In 1978, a young industrial designer working for Raymond Loewy’s design office in New York took leave from the office to do some hands-on research. Patricia Moore chronicled her adventure in a book, Disguised: A True Story, which circulated widely in the design world of the 1980s. For several months, Moore dressed as an older lady, with a grey wig, cane, and an outfit that convincingly passed as a senior citizen’s fashion choices. Walking the streets of New York City, she noticed others not noticing her. ‘An old lady of eighty-five was someone to be ignored,’ Moore wrote. ‘She was not the object of hostility or resistance – it was just that she didn’t count.’
DESIGN / FEATURE
Moore’s learnings from this exercise were twofold. First, she noted that design served the elderly poorly. Design industries took what she called a ‘Darwinian approach’ to design in which the ‘fittest and healthiest customers’ were the only ones who mattered. As a result, they were missing opportunities for new markets and overall improvement. Design considerations such as shelving that does not require reaching or stooping, or alternative interfaces like tap-on light switches, could represent new avenues for design and hospitality.
The second result was Moore’s own response and reaction to being part of the ‘ignored’ elderly segment of the population.
Despite the general design orientation of the book, the space given to practical suggestions was small compared to Moore’s own responses. The book played up the drama of the experiment: Moore found herself lost and confused at a design conference, where no one talked to her; some days she appreciated people helping her with bags, only to find the next day a bus driver ‘treats me like a crotchety old bag ruining his day by riding his bus’. This adventure into the world of the elderly, it seemed, largely reflected on Moore’s own experience of poor treatment.
Moore’s experiment took place in a design world that paid very little attention to disability or older age, and this ‘Mad
ABOVE Light Rail Project in Phoenix, Arizona, designed by Patricia Moore to serve users with disabilities
“An old lady was not the object of hostility or resistance – it was just that she didn’t count”
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