Seniors Are Helping Companies Make Products They'd Actually Want to Use

Longevity Explorers is a test group of older adults who have been helping product designers design for older people since 2014, reports InsideHook . Stanford Center on Longevity Director Ken Smith says designers often mistakenly assume that design is of less importance to consumers after age 60, while other erroneous assumptions include the idea that seniors are tech-averse. Longevity Explorers founder Richard Caro started the effort to address the fact that many products for older people were "ugly and stigmatizing." Caro explains that "there's this huge demographic of people who have sort of been put aside and told to go off and play bridge and bingo and not contribute to society." Members meet to brainstorm about aging, focusing on problems technologists should address, and providing a resource for product developers to understand target audiences. The eight existing Longevity Explorer "circles" include five in Northern California, and one each in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, with some 500 members overall.