We recently held a fun packed workshop co-design workshop with Age UK to find new ways to better listen to older people. At the workshop we brought together Age UK staff, regional representatives, service users and volunteers.
We designed the day around getting the group inspired by the power of capturing older people’s experiences. We transformed the thinkpublic studio into an Immersion Room, where guests were able to explore new ways of capturing experiences in a free and creative space.
We specially created a range of unusual and exciting engagement tools for the day. ‘The mug of knowledge’, where people were encouraged to share some knowledge with the group by writing on their mug of tea, was a particular hit. Also popular was, ‘I wish someone had once told me’, which people recorded their responses to in a papier-mâché phone box.
Later on, people worked in small groups to generate and develop innovative ideas for helping older people share their experiences. Creative tools such as the ‘hat of ideas’ helped people generate great ideas, from pop-up shops, arcade games, ghost tours, podcasts and much, much more.
We were really impressed by how members of Age UK approached the workshop and the creative energy and boldness of all the ideas they generated. It was really inspiring. We are now working with Age UK to develop and test one of these ideas with older people across the UK.