Patricia Moore I Research Revolution

In my essay two weeks ago I focused on the idea that designers have the tools within our reach to design for people with whom we have shared experiences and with those we do not. I emphasized that we can ask questions, spend time together and use the powerful communication tools available to us today to reach these goals even at very large distances. While these research tools can be very effective, as we explored in class, it can still be difficult to relate to someone with very different abilities or cultural background. Is there anything we as designers can do to better understand the needs of a more enigmatic user? In 1985 designer and gerontologist Patricia Moore underwent a dramatic transformation to explore this question and her work undeniably benefited.

Moore is an accomplished designer who has worked with a comprehensive list of major clients including Baxter Healthcare, General Electric, 3M and At&t and has served on advisory boards of dozens of major foundations. She is most known for her work with OXO developing their line of universal kitchenware products. Moore is one of the major leaders of the Universal Design movement, emphasizing equitable use for people with all kinds of physical and cognitive differences.

In order to design for the elderly, Moore’s particular passion, she went to medical school to become a gerontologist. Additionally, in 1985 she took a revolutionary step. Using makeup and prostheses she transformed herself into an eighty-five year old woman. She spent weeks venturing out into the world every day not only appearing elderly but wearing splints and prostheses which caused her to have stiff and painful joints, altered vision and poor hearing. Some of her time was documented on video and she wrote a book exploring the role of design and access in shaping the experience of aging. She gained insight it would be impossible to learn from focus groups and statistics by actually living as someone else. Her work pioneered the use of experiential product research, challenged our conceptions of with whom we can empathize and identify and brought incredibly valuable insight to the experience of aging and the specific needs of an aging population which is steadily growing.