Tapping into a lucrative market

The Baby boomers

After doing a bit of hardcore research on e-search, checking out databases and statistics on consumer trends, I found these interesting figures.

"In the Uk the 50+ consumer market is 20million and growing strong, they hold 80% of the nations wealth" as quoted in an article ‘Booming business, trendwatching.com’. (Source:BBC)

"In the next few years 50% of the EU’s population will be 65+ and the over 55 population is predicted to soar by 17% by 2020." (Source: MIT Agelab)

It had me thinking........is this the market I should be tapping into? After all, these are the ones with the money

Technology- Killer of human interaction, provider of loneliness

Bluemen and other inspiration from Berlin

Whilst watching the show..."The Bluemen" in Berlin, some of the points they focused on got me thinking...... is the world an more lonely place even though we are technologically more connected than ever?

This thought came across me when they pointed out the fact that people will walk into an internet cafe and sit surrounded by people who they will not connect with but rather interact with a technological screen and talk to somebody who is actually not there.

The introduction of greater, stronger and faster technology has led to the fact that we have less products and can often do many tasks with just one, the i=pad a perfect example. We can connect to somebody from the otherside of the world but may not connect with the person sitting beside us. This also became apparent during our carshare back to Dusseldorf from Berlin.

The car was full of strangers, yet the 3 television screens playing DVD's allowed us to sit the 6 hour journey with no interaction in a comfortable manner. Has this technology, which allows us to reach many from afar prevented us from reaching out to those who are close?

Another, strangely thought provoking watch, came from the Disney film Wall-e. This looks at how the world had lacked in being self sufficient and the entire population had been sent into space to be completely looked after by robots. Again it shows how technology had taken over, the people couldn't interact with one another and didn't know what it was to feed, walk or get dressed themselves. To regain order within society, cavemen techniques were then taken on. However could this actually be a true story and not just something we see in a film if technology continues to develop?

Is this something we need to address when designing product for the future?

Public prints

Whilst on the overhead tube in Berlin I noticed how great the patterns and prints were on the upholstered seats, these prints were echoed in vinyl on the seats of the underground. This had me thinking........what else do we miss on public transport?