10 Facts About Transgenerational design

Transgenerational design is the practice of making products and environments compatible with those physical and sensory impairments associated with human aging and which limit major activities of daily living.

The term transgenerational design was coined in 1986, by Syracuse University industrial design professor James J Pirkl to describe and identify products and environments that accommodate, and appeal to, the widest spectrum of those who would use them—the young, the old, the able, the disabled—without penalty to any group.

Transgenerational design concept establishes a common ground for those who are committed to integrating age and ability within the consumer population.

Transgenerational design practice recognizes that human aging is a continuous, dynamic process that starts at birth and ends with death, and that throughout the aging process, people normally experience occurrences of illness, accidents and declines in physical and sensory abilities that impair one's independence and lifestyle.

Transgenerational design focuses on serving their needs through what Cagan and Vogel call "a value oriented product development process".

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Transgenerational design is "framed as a market-aware response to population aging that fulfills the need for products and environments that can be used by both young and old people living and working in the same environment".

Transgenerational design emerged during the mid-1980s coincident with the conception of universal design, an outgrowth of the disability rights movement and earlier barrier-free concepts.

In contrast, transgenerational design grew out of the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, which prohibited "discrimination on the basis of age in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance", or excluding, denying or providing different or lesser services on the basis of age.

Project produced and published two instructional manuals—one for instructors and one for design professionals—each containing a detailed set of "design guidelines and strategies for designing transgenerationalproducts".

Under terms of the grant, instructional manuals were distributed to all academic programs of industrial Transgenerational design recognized by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.