Read Cathy Ginther’s  article in its entirety at the AARP

With the coming shift in age demographics heavily favoring the +65 citizen, these moves by the city are based on simple economics, as Linda I. Gibbs, New York’s deputy mayor for health and human services points out, “They come not only with their minds and their bodies; they come with their pocketbooks.” With the aging citizen commanding a substantial amount of spending power it is no surprise that other major cities have begun to undergo similar programs as they look to capture more of the aging population and with it their pocketbooks.

Read the article in its entirety at the NYTimes Online.

Check out the video to see highlights from our presence at the Northside 4th of July parade. The event was our first chance to get out into the public and get the word out about our upcoming website Cincinnati TransForum.

Commercial Fonts

DIN

DIN, an acronym for the German Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization), and the name of an increasingly large realist sans-serif typeface family. In 1936 the German Standard Committee selected DIN 1451 as the standard typeface for use in the areas of engineering, technology, traffic, administration and business. Among the other recommendations adopted by this committee was an early precursor to the typographic grid.The earliest version of a DIN typeface was released by the D Stempel AG foundry in 1923. Stempel’s design was applied mostly to schematics and blueprints. In 1929, the Berthold foundry released a version, and it, too, was used mostly for technical drawings. It remained in use for German number plates until 2000.Linotype markets a digital version of the original font while Albert-Jan Pool created a very versatile family of DIN typefaces (FF DIN) for Fontshop. FF DIN is more geared towards commercial applications.

Get FFDin at FontShop.com

More information about DIN can be found at:
DINfont.com
PrePressure

Frutiger

When Swiss type designer Adrian Frutiger was commissioned in 1968 to create a new directional system for the newly build Charles De Gaulle International Airport, his goal was to create a sans serif typeface with the rationality and cleanliness of Univers, but with the organic and proportional aspects of Gill Sans. The result of his inspiration was a highly legible typeface with letter properties  The letter properties were suited to the needs of Charles De Gaulle – modern appearance and legibility at various angles, sizes, and distances. Ascenders and descenders are very prominent, and apertures are wide to easily distinguish letters from each other. It has been used across the public transport network in Oslo, Norway since the 1980s and has also been used in the National Health Service in England, Telefónica O2, the British Royal Navy, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and road signs in Switzerland.

Get the Frutiger Font Family at LinoType.com

More information about Frutiger can be found at:
PrePressure
Wikipedia

Gill Sans

Occasionally referred to as the “Helvetica of England”, Gill Sans achieved national prominence almost immediately after it’s release in 1928 when it was to become the standard typeface for the LNER railway system, soon appearing on every facet of the company’s identity, from locomotive nameplates and station signage to restaurant car menus, printed timetables and advertising posters. When British Railways was created in 1948, Gill Sans was used in much of its printed output. Gill Sans continues to thrive to this day, often being held to bring an artistic or cultural sensibility to an organization’s corporate style. Prominent users include the BBC, which adopted the typeface as its corporate typeface in 1997. The British Government formally adopted Gill Sans as its standard typeface for use in all communications and logos in 2003.

Get the Gill Sans font family at Linotype.com

More information about Gill Sans can be found at:
PrePressure : Interesting Fonts – Gill Sans
Wikipedia

Helvetica Neue

Used by New York Citys Metropolital Transportation Authority, Chicago Transit Authority, British Aiports Authority, Danish railway company, Metro” (Underground) in Madrid, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Helvetica is among the most widely used sans-serif typefaces. It is a popular choice for commercial wordmarks, including those for 3M, American Airlines,  Helvetica is widely used by the U.S. government; such as the US federal income tax forms.

Get Helvetica Neue at MyFonts.com

More information about Helvetica can be found at:
Helvetica Film
Helvetica vs. Arial
Wikipedia

Interstate

Based on the signage alphabets of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, Interstate is a neo-grotesque sans-serif  typeface designed by Tobias Frere-Jones and licensed by Font Bureau. Even though it’s intended use was for signage, Interstate is also suitable for text setting in print and on-screen, and has gained popularity as such in the 90s. Due to its wide spacing it is best suited for display usage in print.

Get Interstate at the Font Bureau

More information about Interstate can be found at:
Wikipedia

Scala Sans

FF Scala Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed in by Dutch designer Martin Majoor in 1993 for the Vredenburg Music Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. It was designed as a companion to Majoor’s earlier serif old style typeface FF Scala, designed in 1990.

Get ScalaSans at Font Shop

More information about Scala Sans can be found at:
Wikipedia
Typedia

Whitney

When New York’s Whitney Museum asked Tobias Frere-Jones to develop an institutional typeface, they gave him two key deliverables that Tobias Frere-Jones had to deliver to the Whitney Museum: combined flexibility for editorial requirements whilst institutional integrity for the Whitney Museum’s public signage. The result was Whitney HTF, a font commonly used in signage- including LWC’s own Turner Building.

Get Whitney HTF at Typography.com

More information about Whitney HTF can be found at:
Wikipedia
Typedia

Free Fonts

Junction

“Inspired by my favorite humanist sans serif typefaces, such as Meta, Myriad, and Scala, Junction is where the best qualities of serif and sans serif typefaces come together. It has the hand drawn and human qualities of a serif, and still retains the clarity and efficiencies of a sans serif typeface. It combines the best of both worlds.”

-League of Movable Type

Download Junction at the League of Movable Type

Flaminia Type System

Not necessarily a font per se, but “Flaminia is a 2008 opensource project started as a Master Degree Thesis by Andrea Bergamini, an Italian graphic designer annoyed by the chaotic and poorly designed road signage system in his country…The leading idea was that tests taken in real-life conditions are the only way to validate the design of a font to be used for signage and that the final solution should always come from all of the modifications derived by those experiments.”

-League of Movable Type

Download Flaminia at the League of Movable Type

The samples shown are offered for typeface preview purposes only.

Apple iPad

Though heavily criticized by some for its watered down processing abilities when first announced, the success of the iPad since its launch has proved that there is a huge market for consumers looking for simpler ways to surf the web and consumer media. With its intuitive gestures and touch operation, the iPad lowers the learning curve for those newer to computing. With quick ways to browse the internet, send email, listen to music and watch video the iPad offers a simple alternative to traditional laptops and desktops, which are often burdened by clunky and slow operating systems. A recent AARP article, “Apple iPad Field Test: Does It Have Senior Appeal?”, tested out the iPad in a senior living community, while the responses where mixed, the users seemed to pick up the device rather intuitively and were impressed by the device’s capabilities.

… For Anderson, typing on the iPad’s virtual keyboard was easier. “The BlackBerry has one of these touchscreens, but you have to press down so hard and my fingers are too big or something. This little typing mechanism was much better. [1]

Be sure to check out AARP’s article and watch the video of the consumers’ interactions.

Amazon Kindle

It is the best-selling electronic device on Amazon, and with over 15,000 reviews and a rating of 4.5 stars, it is almost universally loved by its owners for its ease of use. The Kindle, now in its 3rd iteration has dominated the field of electronic readers since its launch. With contract-free, built in 3G wireless capabilities, users are able to download content on-the-go. Browsing through the Kindle’s reviews will reveal a large number of older consumers singing its praises, like this consumer:

… I’m 47 and middle age is starting to catch up with me! Being able to select larger print to avoid having to use my reading glasses (just started needing them this last year) and having a device that’s easier on my hands for holding to read is a boon. [2]

Speaking from personal experience I was pleasantly surprised to see that my own mother, a baby boomer and an avid reader, had purchased a Kindle and had been happily using it for several weeks. As the main “tech-guy” in the house I had grown accustomed to helping my parents decide on which technology to buy, setting it up for them, and serving as the service man when everything inevitably went wrong. With the simplicity of the Kindle’s physical operation and user interface, none of my services have been required.

Although many believe the iPad will surpass the Kindle as the preferred electronic reader, the difference in display technology may be the deciding factor. The iPad uses an LED backlit IPS display, a technology similar to most laptop displays. The Kindle uses an e-ink display which mimics conventional paper and lacks a backlight, which Amazon believes results in a reduced eye strain over extended reading periods.

Only time will tell which device will win out, but we can all hope that this growing trend of simplicity in technology will continue to grow.

[1] AARP article: “Apple iPad Field Test: Does It Have Senior Appeal?”

[2] Amazon.com Review

Jenny’s capstone project focused on creating design standards that address the needs of the aging eye.

Project Abstract:

Approximately forty percent of the U.S. population is over the age of forty-five years old—an age when people typically begin to experience vision difficulties. As eyes age, people experience a loss of light, focus, central field, and peripheral vision. Changes in vision require new considerations in design. A set of consistent standards for communications design will make the visual world easier to navigate for the aging population.

Visitors were able to wear glasses that simulated some common changes to aging eyes, like loss of central and peripheral vision.

As examples new design standards were applied across three product categories: packaging, web, and print.

To see more of Jenny’s work please visit her online portfolio here.

Cheerleading and the 70+

About growing old [Fumie Takino] explained, “You can’t avoid getting old. Aging means people deteriorate physically and mentally. But…” she added with a smile, “everyone gets old, so why not just have fun?”

+ Cheering on an aging Japan

The Process Work Behind Pixar.

At LWC, we’re pretty well aware of process work, so it was interesting to take a look at how Pixar conducts theirs.
+ Animating a Blockbuster: How Pixar Built Toy Story 3

Post-It Note Hating

Kara tipped us off to this article from Fast Company about Design Thinking and Post-It Notes.

Just for the record, I disagree with this article. The last comment put it best :”Good design thinking leverages visual thinking techniques, and building prototypes — ‘trying’ stuff out.”

+ Why Designers Should Declare Death to the Post-It

The College of Nursing hosted a Best-In-Show awards ceremony to recognize Industrial Design students from the College of DAAP for their “Bedside Buddy” design project on April 14, 2010. The students were recognized for their innovative design concepts contributing to enhanced health care environments with a special focus on bedside and tray tables. The Best-In-Show winners, placed design emphasis on manufacturing, implementation into the marketplace, and aesthetic as well as functional appeal.

Deans Lindell and Probst recognize award winners

The “Bedside Buddy Project” was a health care innovation collaboration led by Design and Nursing faculty members at the University of Cincinnati, sponsored by the Live Well Collaborative (LWC). In a typical LWC studio, multi-disciplinary teams of students seek information and insights about the 50+ population, with particular emphasis on Baby Boomer health and wellness. The students participating in a Live Well studio have diverse backgrounds. In the present case, the class consisted of Industrial Design and Nursing students along with faculty and experts from the College of Nursing.

In the Spring Quarter of 2009, the LWC collaborated with faculty and students from the College of Nursing and Hill-Rom to redesign hospital gowns. Currently the prototypes are being shown to select hospitals across the country to discuss potential adoption of the new gowns.

The current ‘Bedside Buddy’ project will conclude in December, when a cross-functional panel of design and healthcare professionals will assess the end results. This project is one of three in a series of projects underway between UC College of Nursing and the LWC.

From left to right : Professor Steve Doehler, Evelyn Fitzwater, Jennifer Fearing, Justine Benzinger, Charles Puchta, Brooke Brandewie, Lily Damota, and Associate Dean Dr. Cynthia Cook.

Students: Aaron Kurosu, Allison Dunphy, Samantha Gustafson, Anouk Moulliet, Matt Gill, Eddie Gandelman, Natalie Geralds, Jacklyn Woniger, Rachel Lang, Haihong Wang, Morgen Depenthal, Clara Mei Hsieh, Andrew Leemhvis, Aaron K. Watkins, Jonathan Panichella, Alex Broerman, Casey Schneider, Emmanuel Carrillo, Tony Cohen, James Sloss, Kevin Doyle, Steve Spenker, Jingxi Li, Merve Bayram, Fei Wang

Faculty & Advisors:
DAAP: Steve Doehler
College of Nursing: Dr. Cynthia Cook, Evelyn Fitzwater, Charles Puchta
LWC Researcher: Brooke Brandewie

The Live Well Collaborative, College of DAAP, and the College of Nursing at UC are working together on a series of projects to improve and innovate health care. The Bedside Buddy project is just one in a series completed between Design and Nursing.

Price: $10/yard

Key benefits:

• High impact protection levels
• Good Fit
• Good Freedom of Movement

Procter & Gamble Co. on Thursday honored the University of Cincinnati for its collaboration in establishing a nonprofit consortium charged with creating products and services for people 50 and older.

The recognition, for the UC’s Living Well Consortium, was part of an annual awards dinner during which P&G honored several partners that helped advance innovation through its Connect + Development program. Connect + Develop was established in 2000 to combine P&G’s talent with the expertise of outside sources, including suppliers, entrepreneurs and even competitors. More than half of P&G’s innovations these days can be traced to C+D relationships.