Talk

1. Ageing, design and technology:
a contradiction in terms?
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
twitter/insta: @iotwatch

2. First UK distributor of Arduino.
Consultant at designswarm.
Founder of Good Night Lamp.
Organiser of the London Internet of Things meetup
since 2011.
Writing a book on smart homes.
Steering a bottom-up internet of things certification
mark.

3. Good Night Lamp™
Helping families connect and sync up across time & places.

6. Universal access
We use mobile phone networks, this is the most complicated
way but is the more universal.
It’s also the most expensive.

7. Universal access
It means we can cater to customers who experience very different
ways of living:
Global families
Recovery from illness
Chronic stress
Anxious about social media

8. This wasn’t designed.
We started with a simple need of connecting my family.
The rest has come from being public, clear about the objective
but open enough.
And sticking to a vision for ten years.

9. This is unusual.

10. Most businesses fail within 2 years.
Of any kind.

11. This applies to the space of design & ageing.
The space of design is littered with great intentions and much
failure.
It takes decades to find a stable market for what you are
designing.
People have to ‘accept’ your product as part of their lives, no
matter how useful it might be.

12. The most creative ideas are often the ones that are impossible to
implement and make real.
We often call that ‘Design Fiction’.

13. Some examples:
Superflux.
See What I Mean
Buddy app
Amazings
Bestic
Design Council
Paro
Sphere

14. Thoughts:
Prepare to be ready to react to the unexpected at every point of
your product’s development.
User research is never done, it hides in the User experience work
you do and the service you provide.
You are selling something to someone.
Design is a sales exercise as much as a problem solving exercise.

15. Gracias!
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
alex@designswarm.com
twitter/insta: @iotwatch