Whole life design

What we can learn from our mobile phones

In February, a friend sent me this New York Times, Wirecutter¹ visualization about how to make our homes age-in-place friendly:

B: Am sure you have seen this…..but just in case you haven’t, this is a cool way to visualise aging challenges and promote the solutions (link). Key message….to do it before you need to. Enjoy, x

I clicked through the impressively-created visualization and responded with my first impression:

J: Thanks a lot! This article could be retitled “decorate your home hospital-style.” Or how to add a lot of gadgets. Of course, Wirecutter is a consumer magazine.

My concern about the institutional-feeling of the home additions stimulated a wonderful, thoughtful response that I share below with my friend’s permission – after a few things I find important to say about design.

The goal: function and beauty with which we want to identify

First, let’s note a key point that is not often said aloud about what will likely happen eventually as we get older. It’s a simple thing: we will more easily lose our balance. Even fall. Although not always fall. Mostly lose our balance and need to catch or steady ourselves.

Right now in light of this quite likely experience², when we finally decide we really need more support to continue living safely and comfortably at home on our own, we dislike the options we find – how they look and make us feel – and often try to put them off even longer. (In the wearable personal safety alarm business, our average customer age was 80+. The person was often wearing our smartwatch because they finally reached the stage when it was a better alternative to losing independence – either for their own self-confidence or because their adult children were worried.)

There’s still a big gap in the market when it comes to beautiful, privacy-respecting, simple options for our homes that are more about comfort and human connection than medical data.

It could be soooooooo different. Here is a wonderful opening for new design.

How the mobile phone became beautiful

Early mobile phones in the 1980s-1990s were marketed strongly around safety. My first ever mobile phone looked like this picture³. I carried it in a bag. Weighed more than 2 lbs (1 kg). I was a sales rep driving alone around New York City visiting customers. Safety had first priority with my employer who provided it.

A conversation using the phone by battery lasted for about a 30 minutes. If you plugged it into the car’s cigarette lighter while you drove, you could keep talking. Full recharge took hours.

Even when we would now consider these early mobile phone designs unattractive, they actually demonstrated strong design. Samsung Chief Designer Mauro Porcini³ says meaningful design meets two non-negotiable criteria:

1. Human – useful, emotional, symbolic. It solves a real need, connects emotionally, and carries meaning beyond mere function. With my first clunky mobile phone, I felt safer and even a little cool because I had one.
2. Innovative – new, unique, distinct, extraordinary. The design introduces something genuinely different, even if the innovation is subtle. It pushes beyond what is already expected. Early on, the mobile phone replaced safety devices like two-way radios or the need to find a phone booth.

When a design is truly meaningful, we can identify with it – as I did with my big bag of a phone, affectionately called a “brick.” The mobile phone’s original safety meaning never disappeared. Instead over the years, additional design added layers of meaning on top:

• Safety
• Connection
• Identity and coolness
• Productivity
• Entertainment

It has become a full part of our lives and how we express our ourselves.

Doesn’t living independently at home deserve meaningful design, as well?

Coming back to how my friend articulated it

B: Hello happy Monday! Some thoughts about what we need in design…which I have distilled to three different groupings. From sunny Z 🙂 x

1. Purposeful – increase awareness and educate. As we have been living with the changes needed to help (my husband’s) mum, it is actually rather helpful to highlight areas of concern and be able to address these in order to make life easier and safer.

What has become very evident: such safety awareness is low amongst the general population. You learn what’s available from the doctors, carers, hospitals and friends who have learned ‘on the job’ too. As a result, what’s purchased is ‘the best available at the time’ because the change is needed immediately.

In the visualization, I had a small inkling of hope as I clicked and saw one particular grab bar that looked okay for the modern bathroom, but these are not ‘wow’ incredible design pieces; they are better than the rest.

2. Conscious – already useful from younger to older. For example, kitchens with shelving that drops down (good generally for less tall people, essential for an older person who has lost strength and reach). Also hands-free smart lights.

People don’t know that their homes are not optimized until they’re at the age where adjustments are needed. It quickly becomes relevant for people with new babies, or who bring home their first pet – and then evolves more gradually as they become older.

People make suboptimal decisions from the start and there is no rating label or guidance.

Even in new buildings and renovations, safety factors may be engineered out on cost constraints instead of valuing total cost of ownership and not needing to make the change later on. Never mind the life quality factor of preventing unnecessary accidents.

3. Innovative – beautiful homes that have longevity in mind. Here, we could facilitate dialogue to design world class homes with top longevity ratings. This is the premium, high-end design that can often influence mass markets over time. Give it a name like Whole Life Design.

We have an opportunity to influence something that matters

Perhaps my friend’s input could be an inspiration to all of us. It is time to create awareness, new designs, guidance labels and awards.

Fill the gap so that we can proudly identify with and appreciate beautiful safety, comfort, connection and meaning in our homes, as we now often do with our mobiles.

Notes

1. Doug Mahoney, “Want to Age Well at Home? Take Our Room-by-Room Tour,” Wirecutter, New York Times, February 20, 2026, Accessibility and Aging section. Link.
   
2. Here, I cite one specific study that shows fall rates per 100,000 people over five years. It gives an indication of an important human element: the chance of falling increases over our lifetimes. This increase often takes place gradually through about age 75, then can accelerate as our bodies change – especially into our mid-80s. It’s a normal progression of losing strength and balance, sometimes compounded by other medical issues. See North Carolina (NC) Department of Health and Human Services, Older Adult Falls and Related Traumatic Brain Injury. Data from NC State Center for Health Statistics Death Certificate and Hospital Discharge Data, and NC DETECT ED Data, 2016–2020. Link.
   
3. This example: the Motorola 5000X released in 1988 – one photo shows a receiver sitting on its charging brick. A second photo shows the carrying bag. You can have some fun exploring the evolution of mobile phone models at the British non-profit website Mobile Phone Museum. Mobile phone history research supported by ChatGPT (GPT 5.5).
   
4. Porcini, Mauro. The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2022.