Title: AgeWell – Service Design for Wellness and Healthy Ageing

Funding: Erasmus +

Action Type: KA220-HED – Cooperation partnerships in higher education

DigiMedia team: Rita Oliveira

Coordinator: University of Tartu (Estonia)

Other institutions involved: Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Finland); Ghent University (Belgium); Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands)

Global funding: 374.689 Euros

UA funding: 68.220 Euros

Abstract:

The main aim of the project is to promote and support trans-disciplinary approach and innovative pedagogies in higher education level by developing a study module, which integrates classical service design methodology with wellness and healthy ageing theories. The main challenge is to influence the mindset of students towards age-friendly design thinking and explain its necessity in the context of ageing, wellness and service economy trends. It is not less important to mention that Covid-19 has left its considerable impact on wellbeing of people, especially for elderly and there is a need for more wellness services in order to keep one`s own health. The idea is to give for traditional service design teaching a more inclusive aspect. Inclusive design is a design process in which a service is optimized for a specific user with specific needs. Usually, this user is an extreme user, meaning that this user has specific needs that are sometimes overseen with other design processes. Students and teachers are considered the main beneficiaries in the project who can experience an innovative learning and teaching approach.

Results:

A study module entitled “Service Design for Wellness and Healthy Ageing” consisting of four courses. The language of the course is English. Each course gives 5 ECTS. Courses of the module: Course 1 “Design Management and Wellness”; Course 2 “Service design (in ageing society)”; Course 3 “Design Anthropology”; Course 4 “Business models in service sector”.