Designing for Our Future Selves: A Case Study in Age-Inclusive Design Education Through a Reflective Workshop

As the global population ages, the design field faces an urgent imperative to confront ageism and foster more inclusive practices. Yet age-inclusive design remains underrepresented in both education and professional settings—often treated as a niche concern rather than a universal human experience. This case study presents a two-part intervention that seeks to reframe aging as a creative, joyful, and necessary focus of design practice: the Design for Aging Resources website and a national workshop titled Designing for Our Future Selves. Together, these initiatives equip design practitioners and educators to address age-related bias, explore the intersection of accessibility and aesthetics, and engage in imaginative futures thinking. The online resource hub curates over 100 tools, frameworks, and case studies to support age-inclusive and values-driven design, while the interactive workshop guides participants through reflective and speculative exercises using tools such as the Radar Diagram and Futures Cone. This work demonstrates how participatory methods and evidence-informed frameworks can surface hidden assumptions, shift mindsets, and generate design responses grounded in empathy, dignity, and autonomy. In doing so, it offers a replicable model for integrating gerontological knowledge into design education and practice—inviting designers to envision aging not as someone else’s issue, but as a shared and vital dimension of our collective future.