If you think all seniors have difficulties using technology, think again. Barbara Beskind, 90, is not only using technology but is designing it as well. Barbara aims to bring different perspectives to a team of young designers. She hopes to help the aging baby boomers.
Designing technology comes naturally to Barbara Beskind, of the Silicon Valley. This NPR article states that she started designing at age 8. It started as designing toys, when she was growing up during the Depression. She says,
“Well, in the depression, if you can’t buy toys, you make ’em. I was determined I was going to have one, and so I made it with old tires. I learned a lot about gravity, ’cause I fell off so many times.”
She lives in a senior community where falling is a problem. So she had an idea. She attempted to create airbags for a friend that would be activated at a fall of even just 15 degrees. She was still stumped on how to include a power source. But that’s the fun part.
One day she was watching ’60 Minutes’ and heard a segment on IDEO. They talked about how they wanted a diverse group of designers. They emphasized how important it was to have a wide variety of perspectives on a project. She applied for a job at IDEO. Within days, she had been hired.
Despite her macular degeneration, Barbara still is a very valuable part of the designing team. She only has peripheral vision, therefore she draws out her ideas with a thick black pen. This makes it easier to see.
Barbara’s coworkers say that her energy is contagious. She helps them, through a 90 year old’s perspective, to figure out what the aging population really needs and is capable of using. Being a designer has not only made aging more tolerable, but also enjoyable for her. At the end, she advises aging baby boomers with some advice. She tells us to “Embrace change and design for it.”
Photo by Nicolas Zurcher/Courtesy of IDEO