Design.Different 2023 Season: Design.Inclusive with Patricia Moore

Patricia Moore is an internationally renowned designer and gerontologist, who is widely regarded as a leading authority on consumer lifespan behaviours and requirements. Since 1990, Moore has designed more than 300 Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Environments for healthcare facilities throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She has authored numerous articles and the books DISGUISED: A True Story, Ageing, Ingenuity & Design [2015], and OUCH! Why Bad Design Hurts [in works].

For a period of four years (1979-1982), in an exceptional and daring experiment, Moore travelled throughout the United States and Canada disguised as women more than eighty years of age. With her body altered to simulate the normal sensory changes associated with ageing, she was able to respond to people, products, and environments as an elderly person, giving her an unprecedented insight into how design can begin to address the needs of an ageing population.

Moore was selected as one of ID Magazine’s 40 Most Socially Conscious Designers in the world. ABC World News featured Moore as one of 50 Americans Defining the New Millennium, and in 2000, a consortium of news editors named her as one of The 100 Most Important Women in America.

Moore has been honoured with the Cooper Hewitt’s prestigious National Design Award as 2019’s Design Mind, and The Center for Health Design honoured Moore with the 2020 Changemaker Award. In 2022, the National Association of Schools for Art and Design honoured Moore with their Citation Award. The World Design Organisation has selected Moore for the World Design Medal, which will be presented at the 2023 World Design Congress in Tokyo.

In this conversation with Rama Gheerawo, Director of The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Patricia Moore will be looking back at her incredible career, and sharing what she has learnt about inclusivity and design throughout the last forty years.