News

November

The Design Council and the Technology Strategy Board have awarded £100,000 grants to three service design projects which will help older adults live independently for longer, by offering better approaches to nutrition.

This follows a competition, run through the Government’s Small Business Research Initiative, to develop human-centred service solutions that help to ensure the independence of adults in older age that would be ready to be rolled out nationally and commercially.

FutureGov has developed Casserole, a scheme based on Meals on Wheels, to connect food enthusiasts with their community by getting them to make ‘an extra plate or two’ when they cook.

Sidekick Ventures’ League of Meals is a tool to digitise adults’ home receipes and share them with a private social media network to organise home cooked meal events.

Vision Culture CIC has developed Improving Nutrition in Older People, a service which looks to improve the knowledge and skills of older people in order to maintain their long-term wellbeing ‘in a less clinical manner’.

Mat Hunter, chief design officer at the Design Council, says, ‘These next-generation services will help us maintain our quality of life as we age.’

He adds, ‘All three teams show how understanding real human needs inspires better solutions and we believe that this design-led approach will encourage the wider economy to embrace this emerging business opportunity.’

A Technology Strategy Board spokesman says the three projects have been given 12-month contracts with the hope of conmmercialising them after this period based on success.

Article from Design Week