Introduction
The population of the world is ageing. It has been forecasted that, by 2050, the number of people classified as old in the world could rise over 2 billion. Because of this substantial demographic shift, many researchers and designers have concentrated on improving ageing people’s quality of life from multiple dimensions such as transportation service, social care and shopping experience.
The Design for Future: Retail Frontiers Exhibition explores how silver shoppers’ shopping experience can be improved through new product development and service design. The exhibition is based on results obtained from a 3-year international collaborative research project between the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton and the Academy of Art & Design, Tsinghua University.
The project's main aim was to understand and investigate the challenges that elderly consumers face during their grocery shopping process. The study looked at how the different cultural and societal behaviours in the U.K. and China affect this experience.
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In the Design for Future exhibition, there will be a display of the key findings together with several newly designed product concepts that could improve shopping experiences for older consumers. Enjoy observing how some of these new products will change the future world around you with better design.
The project team would like to sincerely acknowledge extraordinary supports from the funding body Economic & Social Research Council, project mentors Dr Ashok Ranchhod, Professor Maria Evandrou and Professor John Ensor and our research partners including Tsinghua University, Brunel University, Nanjing University, Age UK and Age Concern.