Co-designing for future: empowering seniors in shaping policies

Abstract

Policy has increasingly been recognised as a significant area for design collaboration. Given that design is inherently future-oriented, its role extends beyond solutions and feedback: design processes can nurture community members' autonomy, deliver their perspectives to the policymakers, and inspire shared visions. In that aspect, policy design naturally aligns with co-design, with their shared aims for fostering inclusive participation. This paper examines the intersection of co-design and policymaking by integrating futuring into co-design, focusing on a critical societal challenge: preparing for the future of ageing societies. The ageing population is increasing rapidly and there is a pressing need to bridge design and policy to enable social support. We argue that a co-design approach is crucial in recognising seniors as autonomous stakeholders in shaping their own future and futuring approach can magnify co-design's contribution to policymaking. In this project, we combined futuring and co-design to explore four potential future scenarios and policies with 22 South Korean seniors, caregivers, and policymaker. This research contributes to the field by highlighting the effectiveness of co-design and futuring in promoting senior citizens' participation in policy design process and underscoring the role that design can play in policymaking.