Design of Assistive Technology for Ageing Populations (Journal)

Description

Call for Book Chapters

The World Bank report on Golden Ageing argued that ageing societies are not pre-destined to experience stagnation or a decline in living standards. This offers an opportunity for designers to lead in the development of products, services and environments that enable older people to not only maintain, but increase the quality of their living standards.

According to a new report for the European Commission by Technopolis Group and Oxford Economics, the total consumption by or on behalf of the 24m people over 50 years was close to £400bn in 2015 and is expected to grow by 40% until 2025. The 80+ age group represents an expanding market, estimated at £21.4 billion a year, or 1.6% of GDP. (Source Innovate UK/Technology Strategy Board 2014). The global connected home market is estimated to be $150b by 2020. As an example, “53% of American consumers predict a singular remote that controls everything in the home will be the norm in the next 10 years”. (PWC)

The market is expected to grow strongly from 2020 onward, based on the assumption that a ‘new’ generation of older people, who are more tech-savvy than the previous generation, will be more inclined to invest in smart home solutions. In parallel, BCC Research predict that the global market for ICT solutions for healthcare monitoring in private homes will triple from $11.3b in 2016 to roughly $33.1b by 2021. Predicted services change the focus from treatment to prevention or management.

The challenge for the design community is to ensure that across the life course, technology is being used to its best effect to help people solve challenges in living, to not let ageing and disabilities get in the way of their life. This will involve the use of assistive and related and connected health and care. How do designers understand the evolving needs of an ageing population to ensure that their products have longevity/adapt to the changing needs? How can big data/real time data be used or integrated into products and services? What anew interfaces/communication modes are going to be available? How will these be tested? Will they be intuitive to use? How will product and service design integrate e.g. in telehealth to deliver benefits to end users? What is the business model to ensure that bespoke products are also designed for those with special needs? How can medical products and aids be designed to be less stigmatising using new aesthetic consideration and smart materials?
There is a significant opportunity for the design community to ensure that assistive technology is not only people centred, but inclusive, adaptive and meets current and future needs and is joined up.
The timeliness of this call for papers is obvious to all those working in the sector who understand the value of older people and in enhancing quality of life. Therefore, we would welcome the receipt of potential chapters for a book to be published in 2019 by Springer relating to key areas in
•Technologies
•Methods
•Health and well being
•Design
•Solutions for specific conditions

Timelines
• 1 October 2018: Submit summary of approximately one page of the proposed chapters as well as 5 lines brief resume (CV) of authors for possible inclusion in the book.
• 15 October 2018: Acceptance decision.
• 15 January 2019: Draft chapters due
• 15 February 2019: Feedback to the authors
• 15 March 2019: Revised chapter due
• 15 April 2019: Manuscript submission to Springer

Editors
Professors Andree Woodcock and Louise Moody from Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Coventry University ,UK
Professor Deana McDonagh, UIUC, USA
Professor L.C. Jain, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

We will be pleased to offer one complimentary copy of our book to the corresponding (or the first listed author) of each chapter as a token of appreciation.

Co-authored chapters are acceptable. The average length of each chapter is approximately 20 pages.

Please send your chapter proposal to the Editorial Team contact as:
Prof Andree Woodcock
Email:adx974@coventry.ac.uk

Period	1 Oct 2018
Type of journal	Specialist publication