In the training sessions he conducts at Ford's sprawling facility in Dearborn, Mich., ergonomics engineer Eero Laansoo transports his fellow employees three decades into their futures. With a white jumpsuit.
The bulky outfit instantly turns a fit 35-year-old designer into an arthritic, chubby senior with poor eyesight. For the company's predominantly young product developers, the “empathy suit” literally lets them get under the skin of aging baby boomers and experience first-hand the challenges faced by many older drivers.
“To a lot of people, it looks relatively comical,” says Mr. Laansoo, a 32-year-old Canadian. “But once they try the suit on . . . something just clicks and they get it.”
As baby boomers approach their senior years, firms are increasingly translating their growing needs into business opportunities. From gadget makers to appliance manufacturers, companies are rethinking product design to cater to aging boomers and their fat wallets.
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Have a bad back? Whirlpool makes pedestals for its front-loading washing machines that ease strain. Arthritis? Black & Decker makes lawn mowers with squishy handles. Widening belly? Silver makes stretchy jeans with fuller cuts and higher waists. Vision problems? GreatCall, an American cellular company, will soon offer phones with extra-large numbers on the key pads.
And then there's the Ford Focus, the first car to benefit from the company's empathy suit. The sedan features a host of design changes, including higher seats, strap-style door handles, easy-to-read graphics and large controls with rubberized knobs.
The adjustments — which have also been made in other vehicles — were sparked after employees wearing the jumpsuit, which Ford calls the Third Age Suit (referring to the last third of people's lives), struggled to open car doors because the suit's two layers of gloves reduce tactile sensation. Lowering themselves into the driver's seat became difficult because of metal braces that stiffen joints and a wide belt that adds girth. Scratched yellow goggles that simulate cataracts made it hard to read the speedometer.
But, like many companies working to capture the lucrative boomer market, Ford steers clear of advertising its aging-friendly features. As the adage goes: You can sell a young man's car to an old man, but you can't sell an old man's car to anybody. Among customers, whether 60-year-old home buyers or 80-year-old drivers, nobody is old.
“Nobody will admit to being older because nobody wants to admit that older relates to another issue, which happens to be death,” says Lori Molnar, a Toronto-based environmental gerontologist, who does consulting and interior design.
Indeed, a new Globe and Mail/Strategic Counsel poll found that 43 per cent of boomers aged 40 to 49 and more than half of baby boomers 50 to 59 think of themselves as much younger than they actually are.
Instead of courting the 50-plus crowd, OXO International calls its Good Grips line of housewares “transgenerational tools” and emphasizes its roots in universal design, a concept that promotes products for the broadest spectrum of users. The sleek black gadgets — from bread knives to watering cans, most with large, rubberized handles — are staples in the pantries of hipsters to seniors and have won a host of design awards (the swivel peeler is even in the collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art). Still, the ergonomic devices were created after founder Sam Farber noticed his wife Betsey, who has mild arthritis in her hands, struggling to peel apples for a tart.
“This is a much younger generation of 60-year-olds and they're not the kind of people who want to be patronized. They're not the kind of people who want to hear, ‘Oh you're getting old. You need helping tools,' ” OXO president Alex Lee says. “They want the same cool things that the younger people use.”
And now high-end designers have also jumped on the trend. Michael Graves has created a tea kettle and other kitchen gadgets with comfort-grip handles for Target using universal design principles. Canadian designer Helen Kerr developed chic, user-friendly measuring cups and spoons for Cuisipro. And in 2000, Toronto's uber-hip Design Exchange mounted an exhibition showcasing kitchens, bathrooms and home offices designed to meet the needs of the aging and infirm — without losing their glam quotient.
While companies shy away from promoting their products to older consumers, it is clear that the needs of boomers — as well as their aging parents — are pushing changes in design. In fact, the Canadian Standards Association developed a voluntary Design for Aging guideline in 2003 that outlines ways to design better products, services and environments for the aging population.
But as gerontologist Ms. Molnar notes, not everyone has caught up. BlackBerrys have small screens. Remote controls are black and usually have tiny, low-contrast lettering. Many websites are written in hard-to-read fonts. Condominiums have slippery marble floors. For many companies, young adults are still king.
“Most people haven't really figured it out yet . . . they're still marketing to the younger generation,” she says. “Boomers are the people with the money, not their kids.”
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