Co-design of the built environment for mobility in later life
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Centre for Housing Policy
Abstract
Mobility, wellbeing and the built environment: Wellbeing in later life is linked to the maintenance of independence, physical mobility itself and the sense of being able to get about. Mobility is vital for accessing services, resources and facilities, for social participation, and for avoiding loneliness. Thus mobility has been described more broadly as 'engagement with the world'.
The design of the built environment has a key role to play in enabling - or frustrating - mobility. Thus appropriate design or redesign of the built environment can expand horizons and support wellbeing. However, this project focuses on complements or alternatives to physical design or redesign of the built environment. Design and adaptation are time and resource intensive. Many well-understood mobility barriers remain in place because of budget constraints. Design of the built environment is just one the determinants of mobility and wellbeing. Any one environment cannot meet all needs at once, and needs can vary even for an individual, as people pass through key physical and social transitions which may alter mobility and wellbeing.
Based on participatory research, this project aims to create a suite of options and tools which may be able to meet contrasting needs, support mobility and wellbeing, and do so more quickly and affordably than adapting the built environment.
The research aims to: 1) Explore mobility and wellbeing for older people going through critical but common life transitions; 2) Investigate and address variation and contradictions in needs of different groups of older people (and even for single individuals over time), and between different built environment agendas; and 3) To co-create practical tools which can act as complements or alternatives to redesign of the built environment.
After a foundation stage the work will commence with interviews with national experts and stakeholders. We will select three contrasting local areas in which to base the rest of the research, and interview c15 local stakeholders in each area. We will then start a pioneering quarterly tracking study of mobility and wellbeing, working with c120 older people in the three sites who are experiencing critical but common life transitions such as losing a driving license, losing a partner, or becoming a carer. These transitions are often seen as key points for deterioration in mobility and wellbeing, and as key points for support and intervention.
We will then work with a series of small groups of older people in workshops and co-design sessions, to explore the potential for interventions as alternatives and complements to promoting mobility and wellbeing via redesign. Each will involve a series of day-long meetings between researchers and older people, over about a year. One set of workshops will explore how well 'crowdsourcing' and Participatory Geographical Information Systems can add to and collate information about mobility wants and needs and barriers. Another will involve older people with varying interests in relation to the built environment, to explore conflicts and the potential for consensus on some issues. There will be co-design workshops with older people to explore mobile technologies based on SmartPhones, to help people avoid key blockages to mobility in particular areas. Other workshops will work with mobility scooter users, and manufacturers and those whose mobility may be threatened by scooters, to explore the feasibility of adapting scooters to reduce problems. The impact of participation itself will be tracked.
Project outputs will include: a project website, accessible annual interim and summative reports to project stakeholders and others, a summative report, articles for academic journals across team member disciplines, trade press articles for relevant professionals, potentially video or new media, a local stakeholder and older person conference and national 'Roadshow', as well as other dissemination events.
The design of the built environment has a key role to play in enabling - or frustrating - mobility. Thus appropriate design or redesign of the built environment can expand horizons and support wellbeing. However, this project focuses on complements or alternatives to physical design or redesign of the built environment. Design and adaptation are time and resource intensive. Many well-understood mobility barriers remain in place because of budget constraints. Design of the built environment is just one the determinants of mobility and wellbeing. Any one environment cannot meet all needs at once, and needs can vary even for an individual, as people pass through key physical and social transitions which may alter mobility and wellbeing.
Based on participatory research, this project aims to create a suite of options and tools which may be able to meet contrasting needs, support mobility and wellbeing, and do so more quickly and affordably than adapting the built environment.
The research aims to: 1) Explore mobility and wellbeing for older people going through critical but common life transitions; 2) Investigate and address variation and contradictions in needs of different groups of older people (and even for single individuals over time), and between different built environment agendas; and 3) To co-create practical tools which can act as complements or alternatives to redesign of the built environment.
After a foundation stage the work will commence with interviews with national experts and stakeholders. We will select three contrasting local areas in which to base the rest of the research, and interview c15 local stakeholders in each area. We will then start a pioneering quarterly tracking study of mobility and wellbeing, working with c120 older people in the three sites who are experiencing critical but common life transitions such as losing a driving license, losing a partner, or becoming a carer. These transitions are often seen as key points for deterioration in mobility and wellbeing, and as key points for support and intervention.
We will then work with a series of small groups of older people in workshops and co-design sessions, to explore the potential for interventions as alternatives and complements to promoting mobility and wellbeing via redesign. Each will involve a series of day-long meetings between researchers and older people, over about a year. One set of workshops will explore how well 'crowdsourcing' and Participatory Geographical Information Systems can add to and collate information about mobility wants and needs and barriers. Another will involve older people with varying interests in relation to the built environment, to explore conflicts and the potential for consensus on some issues. There will be co-design workshops with older people to explore mobile technologies based on SmartPhones, to help people avoid key blockages to mobility in particular areas. Other workshops will work with mobility scooter users, and manufacturers and those whose mobility may be threatened by scooters, to explore the feasibility of adapting scooters to reduce problems. The impact of participation itself will be tracked.
Project outputs will include: a project website, accessible annual interim and summative reports to project stakeholders and others, a summative report, articles for academic journals across team member disciplines, trade press articles for relevant professionals, potentially video or new media, a local stakeholder and older person conference and national 'Roadshow', as well as other dissemination events.
Planned Impact
Plans for impact and pathways to impact are built into the design of the Co-Motion research, which has strong participatory and product development elements. C180 older people and c65 local and national stakeholders with be directly involved in Co-Motion. Key local and national stakeholders are already willing to participate actively, and will be willing and able to assist in dissemination and impact (see Letters of Support).
The project will progress over three years from open-ended interviews and discussions to fully tested prototypes, with substantial plans for dissemination and impact beyond.
The first main part of fieldwork (Workpackage 5 as described in the Case for Support) aims to have particular impact on academic beneficiaries. It provides new knowledge on the impact of key transitions on mobility and wellbeing and how they co-relate, adaptation over time, and variation between individuals.
The next major element of fieldwork with participatory workshops and co-design (Workpackages 6-9) aims to have direct impact on participants, and to produce useful and directly implementable tools, which can assist stakeholders and advance older people's mobility and well-being.
The participatory nature of the research, with workshops and co-design processes, will act as a potential mobility and wellbeing intervention in its own right. Social participation is known to have positive effects on wellbeing in itself. Any impact of involvement on participant mobility and wellbeing will be tracked through brief reviews at the start and end of the process.
In addition, the workshops and co-design processes aim to produce useful and directly implementable tools which can advance older people's mobility and wellbeing. For example, Workpackage 6 'Co-information' will result in low-fi and costed models of 'participatory Geographical Information Systems' (P-GIS), with guidance on the circumstances in which they can be set up and work well. Given the interest already expressed through pre-research contact, Co-Motion hopes and expects that one of the local authorities or NGOs amongst stakeholders, or others reached by dissemination activities, could take these models up in 2015 or 2016. This would allow them to collate information about barriers to older people's mobility in the built environment, and to inform their own guidance and practice, which might lead to better prioritisation of adaptation resources and/or management services. Identifying and altering just one barrier for change can make a great difference to individuals. As the Design Council argues, "a journey can be seen as a chain of individual products and services whose accessibility is only as strong as its weakest link" (Coleman ud p24). Other workshop and co-design outcomes include methods for 'crowdsourcing', deliberative methods for exploring and dealing with conflicts between interests and between different forms of guidance, phone apps, and mobility scooter adaptations.
This project has deliberately not focused not on physical design or potential redesign of the built environment itself but on alternatives and complements to physical change. Building on existing work, for example, by I'DGO, these are intended to provide additional options for stakeholders and make it easier for them to act, particularly given tight resources. Several of them are tools that can be operated at individual level or by users. Thus it is possible that they may contribute more directly to a sense of agency, wellbeing and confidence in mobility than an adaptation to public space made by a public agency.
An additional element of the work creates a typology of places according to built environment and mobility characteristics, to assist the matching potentially useful and implementable interventions to particular places. A final piece of work focuses on dissemination of ideas and outcomes to other audiences during and at the end of the project.
The project will progress over three years from open-ended interviews and discussions to fully tested prototypes, with substantial plans for dissemination and impact beyond.
The first main part of fieldwork (Workpackage 5 as described in the Case for Support) aims to have particular impact on academic beneficiaries. It provides new knowledge on the impact of key transitions on mobility and wellbeing and how they co-relate, adaptation over time, and variation between individuals.
The next major element of fieldwork with participatory workshops and co-design (Workpackages 6-9) aims to have direct impact on participants, and to produce useful and directly implementable tools, which can assist stakeholders and advance older people's mobility and well-being.
The participatory nature of the research, with workshops and co-design processes, will act as a potential mobility and wellbeing intervention in its own right. Social participation is known to have positive effects on wellbeing in itself. Any impact of involvement on participant mobility and wellbeing will be tracked through brief reviews at the start and end of the process.
In addition, the workshops and co-design processes aim to produce useful and directly implementable tools which can advance older people's mobility and wellbeing. For example, Workpackage 6 'Co-information' will result in low-fi and costed models of 'participatory Geographical Information Systems' (P-GIS), with guidance on the circumstances in which they can be set up and work well. Given the interest already expressed through pre-research contact, Co-Motion hopes and expects that one of the local authorities or NGOs amongst stakeholders, or others reached by dissemination activities, could take these models up in 2015 or 2016. This would allow them to collate information about barriers to older people's mobility in the built environment, and to inform their own guidance and practice, which might lead to better prioritisation of adaptation resources and/or management services. Identifying and altering just one barrier for change can make a great difference to individuals. As the Design Council argues, "a journey can be seen as a chain of individual products and services whose accessibility is only as strong as its weakest link" (Coleman ud p24). Other workshop and co-design outcomes include methods for 'crowdsourcing', deliberative methods for exploring and dealing with conflicts between interests and between different forms of guidance, phone apps, and mobility scooter adaptations.
This project has deliberately not focused not on physical design or potential redesign of the built environment itself but on alternatives and complements to physical change. Building on existing work, for example, by I'DGO, these are intended to provide additional options for stakeholders and make it easier for them to act, particularly given tight resources. Several of them are tools that can be operated at individual level or by users. Thus it is possible that they may contribute more directly to a sense of agency, wellbeing and confidence in mobility than an adaptation to public space made by a public agency.
An additional element of the work creates a typology of places according to built environment and mobility characteristics, to assist the matching potentially useful and implementable interventions to particular places. A final piece of work focuses on dissemination of ideas and outcomes to other audiences during and at the end of the project.
Organisations
- University of York (Lead Research Organisation)
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (Co-funder)
- Economic and Social Research Council (Co-funder)
- First Group (Collaboration)
- CITY OF YORK COUNCIL (Project Partner)
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (Project Partner)
- Thomas Pocklington Trust (Project Partner)
- Living Streets (Project Partner)
- Leeds City Council (Project Partner)
- Royal Town Planning Institute (Project Partner)
- MRC-McLean Hazel Ltd (Project Partner)
- North of England Civic Trust (Project Partner)
- Design Council (Project Partner)
- Driving Mobility (Project Partner)
- York Blind & Partially Sighted Society (Project Partner)
Publications
Attuyer K
(2018)
Establishing long-term research relationships with older people: exploring care practices in longitudinal studies
in Ageing and Society
Bevan, M.
(2016)
Co-Motion: Mobility and Wellbeing in Later Life
Cinderby S
(2018)
Co-designing Urban Living Solutions to Improve Older People's Mobility and Well-Being.
in Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
Cinderby, S
(2018)
Co-designing Urban Living Solutions to Improve Older People's Mobility and Well-Being
in Journal of Urban Health
Title | Creative writing in later life |
Description | Our Poet in Residence worked with the York Blind and Partially Sighted Society (YBPSS) to deliver a creative writing workshop with people aged 50 or over who live with sight loss. The session was part of an overall programme by YBPSS to help reduce isolation and build confidence amongst this group of people, in an environment which is safe and familiar for the participants. |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Impact | The creative writing workshop was part of a programme to build confidence and reduce isolation amongst people aged 50 and over who live with sight loss. The workshop was reported very positively, and further funding is being explored to run a session in the future. |
Title | Poetry Society Winter competition on the theme of 'Getting Out'. |
Description | As part of the 'Poetry in Motion' project, our Poet in Residence judged the winter competition of the Poetry Society. The theme was on the subject of 'Getting Out', and the winners' poems have featured on the Poetry Society's website; the Winter edition of Poetry News and also on a leaflet. The competition was an opportunity to widen the dissemination of the research that underpins the 'Poetry in Motion' project to a wider audience. |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | The materials associated with the outputs have only recently been uploaded or are currently being distributed. We will explore with our partners any subsequent impacts arising from these activities. |
URL | http://poetrysociety.org.uk/membership/members-poems-2/ |
Title | Poetry in Motion - a set of poems highlighting the travel needs of older people |
Description | The poet Anna Woodford wrote a set of six poems to highlight the travel needs of older people. |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | First York Buses (with Exterian Media) provided advertising space in their buses on many of the routes in York during January and February 2017. The poems are intended to raise awareness amongst the travelling public of the travel needs of older people and people of any age who live with impairments. |
URL | https://www.firstgroup.com/york/news-and-service-updates/press-media/travel-challenges-older-people-... |
Title | Poetry in Motion in the North East |
Description | Go North East buses displayed the Poetry in Motion poems in 2018 |
Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Impact | The engagement with Go North East buses has enabled an extension of the campaign to raise awareness of the travel needs of older people beyond the original campign with First York buses. |
URL | https://getnorth2018.com/inspired-by/poetry-in-motion/ |
Title | Public exhibitions of the Poetry in Motion poems |
Description | Two exhibitions of the 'Poetry in Motion' poems at York Explore and Newcastle upon Tyne City libraries. |
Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | An estimated two thousand people experienced the Poetry in Motion exhibition across Newcastle and York Explore libraries, with feedback from members of the public responding to the exhibitions. |
Title | creative writing and volunteering with older people in York |
Description | We have worked in collaboration with our Poet in Residence; the City of York Council and York Cares to enable volunteers to work with older people using creative writing. York Cares is a partnership of the city's leading employers committed to making York a better place through employee-volunteering. Our Poet in Residence worked with a group of volunteers from York Cares in sheltered accommodation in York, to enhance the capacity of the volunteers to use creative writing as a way of engaging with older people. Our Poet in Residence has also engaged directly with older people in a Care Home in York. The principle underpinning this engagement is using the arts and creative writing as a means of engaging with people in later life who live with very limited physical mobility, but who can discuss and express a much broader sense of mobility. This latter form of engagement links with some of the discussions with our research participants in the study, who sometimes described not only their current mobility, but also journeys made in the past, and remembered journeys using photographs. |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | The collaboration has enhanced the capacity of volunteers to engage with older people using creative writing, with the aim of engaging with people who live in sheltered accommodation or care homes across York. This engagement also has a direct impact on the participating individuals who live in sheltered accommodation or care homes. |
Description | 1) We worked with older people over a period of two years to provide new insights into the impact of key changes in people's lives on mobility, and how outdoor environments constrained or enabled their capacity to be mobile. The research highlighted the process of key transitions on mobility, such as giving up driving, but also emphasised the impact of attitudes and behaviours of service providers and the wider public on mobility. The findings also posed questions for further research on 'care on the move'; that is, having someone to 'travel with', as well as the extent to which journeys were being made in order to give care and support to others. 2) The use of Participatory Geographical Information Systems (PGIS) to map journeys taken by older people in the study areas identified both positive and negative aspects of the environment that influence mobility, and engaged with wider groups to identify opinions and views on key potential changes to the design or regulation of the built environment. This information was combined with findings from a photo-diary and the issues raised in the longitudinal interviews to identify the most significant problems and also the most popular solutions in the three case study a areas. This approach offers potential alternative mechanisms for taking forwards public engagement in the identification of local priority setting in local areas with regard to resource allocation. 3) The practical outputs from the project were underpinned by new or improved methods and techniques for designing solutions to specific aspects of mobility in later life: • To make sure that such technologies such as smartphones and tablets are usable and acceptable by older people, it is crucial that older people are involved in all stages of their design. The project used a four stage co-design process with older people to develop a prototype app that would promote mobility and wellbeing. The co-design process led to design and evaluation of a "Walking for Wellbeing" application for smartphone, which allows older adults to plan walking routes in their local area. The routes calculated by the application were tailored to suit the needs, preferences, and interests of the individual user. The application is currently in a prototype stage and the researchers are investigating follow-up funding for a spin out in order to be able to get this app to market. • Secondly, a mobility scooter pilot study developed new sensors and low cost mobile devices to provide an improved basis for understanding the issues faced by mobility scooter users. The pilot study also identified a number of key areas of future research into improvements to urban planning as well as mobility scooter design that could provide solutions for improved wellbeing and mobility for scooter users. Categorised under three broad headings of technology, safety and accessibility, the researchers are exploring new collaborations to take forwards the research questions opened up by the pilot study. |
Exploitation Route | Our findings provide priorities for action by practitioners and policymakers in local areas that have emerged from working with research participants and the wider public. The findings also identify broader lessons for wider policy, practice and further research both in terms of tools and methods for engaging with the public over design solutions in the built environment, as well as wider priorities for action. A challenge for policy is to facilitate a wider understanding and awareness of the mobility needs of diverse groups in later life, as well as disabled people of all ages, and how public spaces are shared and used. This latter finding sits within a wider context of practical solutions to raising awareness of the needs of groups in later life, including the development of dementia friendly communities, as well as the needs of specific groups such as people who live with sensory impairments. |
Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Environment Transport |
URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/chp/expertise/co-motion/ |
Description | Our findings on the way that attitudes and behaviours by service providers and the wider public can influence how older people and disabled people get out and about have led to a local approach to awareness raising of this issue. We worked with the poet Anna Woodford, who has written a sequence of poems on mobility in later life as a way of highlighting the travel needs of older people, as well as disabled people of all ages. The poems and associated publicity was a way of enhancing the role of public sector transport providers in raising awareness of the travel needs of people in later life, and a collaboration with First York buses and Exterian Media led to these poems featuring inside First York buses around the city during the first part of 2017. The poems have also featured in two exhibitions at public libraries in York and Newcastle as part of the awareness raising activities. Further, Go North East, a public transport operator covering Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and into Tees Valley, also featured the Poetry in Motion poems on 100 of their buses in 2018. In addition, some of the research participants noted how their views and attitudes have been shaped by taking part in the project, as well as the positive impact on members of the public who have taken part in creative writing workshops. |
First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Transport |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal Policy & public services |
Description | Written submission to Disability and Built Environment Enquiry, Women and Equalities Committee, House of Commons. |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
Description | British Academy Cities & Infrastructure Awards 2017 |
Amount | £299,708 (GBP) |
Organisation | The British Academy |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2017 |
End | 12/2018 |
Description | Department of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (APL Engagement Committee), Newcastle University |
Amount | £700 (GBP) |
Organisation | Newcastle University |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2017 |
End | 09/2017 |
Description | ESRC IAA |
Amount | £2,577 (GBP) |
Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2017 |
End | 11/2017 |
Description | ESRC Impact Acceleration Account |
Amount | £12,242 (GBP) |
Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2016 |
End | 02/2017 |
Description | Equitable Mobility for City Health and Wellbeing |
Amount | £299,619 (GBP) |
Funding ID | UWB19003 |
Organisation | The British Academy |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2019 |
End | 05/2022 |
Title | Co-design of the built environment for mobility in later life: Postal questionnaire |
Description | Anonymised data from two postal surveys of older people taking part in the CoMotion study. The questionnaire includes Ann Bowling's Quality of Life Questions (OPQOL), and additional questions about mobility and neighbourhood. The first survey was sent out in 2013 and a slightly shorter version of the first postal questionnaire was repeated in 2015. The data was deposited in UK Data Archive and is available for other researchers (10.5255/UKDA-SN-852233). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The findings from this group of participants led to the raising awareness project: Poetry in Motion, to highlight the travel needs if people in later life. |
Title | Co-design of the built environment for mobility in later life: Screening data Dataset |
Description | Anonymised quantitative screening data of older people taking part in the CoMotion study. The data has been deposited in the UK Data Archive and is accessible to other researchers (10.5255/UKDA-SN-852229). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The findings from this group of participants led to the raising awareness project: Poetry in Motion, to highlight the travel needs if people in later life. |
Title | Co-design of the built environment for mobility in later life: Telephone interviews |
Description | The anonymised data collected spans four telephone telephone interview phases - the interviews were conducted at 3 monthly intervals to track changes in opinion over time. Please see www.york.ac.uk/co-motion for further information and data management plan. This data can be linked with Phase 1: Screening and Phase 2: Postal Questionnaire and data can be linked using the unique ID number, "UK Data Code" found in the datasets. The data was deposited with the UK Data Archive, and is available to other researchers (10.5255/UKDA-SN-852603). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The findings from this group of participants led to the raising awareness project: Poetry in Motion, to highlight the travel needs if people in later life. |
Title | Qualitative interviews |
Description | Transcripts of longitudinal qualitative data from Co-Motion participants: First and final face to face interviews, plus qualitative data from four intervening telephone interviews. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Older People and other stakeholders who took part in the Co Motion project identified a range of barriers and challenges for mobility in later life. In addition to specific physical challenges in relation to design and maintenance of the built environment, a further finding from our research was the extent to which a key challenge for mobility can be the behaviour and attitudes of other people. We worked with a poet to develop an awareness raising campaign of the travel needs of diverse groups in later life, and people of any age who live with impairments. The poet wrote six poems as part of this campaign, as well as hosting creative writing workshops with older people across the City. First York buses and Exterian Media kindly made advertising space available for the poems on about 100 of their buses in York, which were on display between January and April 2017. |
Description | Poetry in Motion project |
Organisation | First Group |
Department | First York Buses |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | A key finding from our research was the role of attitudes and behaviours by service providers and the wider public on the mobility of people in later life, especially people who live with conditions or impairments. We linked with a poet and First York Buses to develop an awareness raising campaign based on our research that could be undertaken across the city of York. |
Collaborator Contribution | The poet Anna Woodford develoepd a stream of writing that formed the basis for our awareness raising campaign. First York Buses provided in kind support by making advertising space available inside their buses during January and February 2017. |
Impact | A set of six 'Poetry in Motion' poems that have featured inside First York buses in January and February 2017. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Title | "Walkng for wellbeing" app |
Description | This is the walking for wellbeing prototype application that permits the customization of walking routes for its users. The customization options allow users specify barriers to avoid on their walks, such as uneven pavements or steep stairs, and things that would increase their aspiration to get out and walking, such as rest stops, nature or heritage sites. The prototype includes designs for complete user journeys for customization, specifying the features of a walk as well as the navigating the route. The prototype is designed in the Ionic framework (https://ionicframework.com/), allowing the designers to deploy the app prototype to different platforms, and to allow more realistic use in evaluations. |
Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Impact | The methodology used for designing the app used an innovative photo diary study that collected over 600 photographs. When combined with interviews, this provided a powerful method for understanding the mobility issues encountered by older adults in their day-to-day lives. The prototype has been evaluated with groups of older adult users in the three target communities of Hexham, Leeds and York. These evaluations have produced interesting improvements to the interface, as well as a validation of the types of customizations on routes users would prefer. The prototype provides an initial interface design and implementation that can be extended in the future. Additional funding is being sought through Innovate UK and RCUK impact acceleration grants. This work is of particular interest to clinicians working with patients with mild cognitive decline, where increased exercise can lead to prolonged periods of well-being. The research team is collaborating with Schulich Centre for Family Medicine at Western University in Canada who are interested in extending this work into full clinical trials. |
URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/chp/expertise/co-motion/outputs/ |
Title | Mobility Scooter Tracker |
Description | The device you see in front of you contains Arduino board with sensors connected monitor pollution, accelerometer, GPS and microphone. All the collected data is saved to an SD card located inside the box. The device is powered via USB power pack. |
Type Of Technology | Detection Devices |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Impact | The tracker allow us to see where scooter users are travelling but also what were the noise levels in the area, how polluted was the place and how rough the surface of the terrain was. All of the above will help us investigate what mobility issues there are and where are the obstacles in the area. This would allow analysis and advice on how can we improve the infrastructure. |
URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/yesi/projects/design-for-wellbeing/ |
Description | 'Poetry in Motion' case study for Culture Forum North |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Culture Forum North is a partnership between Universities and Arts organisation in the North of England that provides a platform for sharing knowledge and developing meaningful impact. The 'Poetry in Motion' project features in the case study section of the Culture Forum North website (http://www.cultureforumnorth.co.uk/case-studies/poetry-in-motion-depicting-the-travel-challenges-of-older-and-disabled-people/). The case study has only recently been added and we will aim to follow up to identify subsequent outcomes or impacts. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.cultureforumnorth.co.uk/case-studies/poetry-in-motion-depicting-the-travel-challenges-of-... |
Description | Blog by the Knowledge Exchange about the Poetry in Motion project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The Knowledge Exchange (http://theknowledgeexchange.co.uk/) published a blog about the Poetry in Motion project, aimed at policymakers and practitioners in the public sector across the UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://theknowledgeexchangeblog.com/2017/06/12/moving-stories-how-poetry-is-carrying-the-message-ab... |
Description | City of York Council Housing Week 2015 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation describing the aims and emerging findings of the Co-Motion project to practitioners in York City Council, local housing organisations and third sector agencies. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | Co Motion Local participant and stakeholder event Hexham |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Feedback of key findings to study participants and third sector organisations |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Co Motion Local participant and stakeholder event Leeds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Feedback of key findings to study participants and local practitioners |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Co Motion Local participant and stakeholder event York |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Event to feedback key findings to the study participants, local practitioners and third sector organisations |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Co-Designed Mobility Solutions Survey |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We have worked with older York residents to co-design mobility solutions for the city that would improve their ability to remain active. We have generated the top 10 options and now want to find out from other residents: - Would these solutions also work for you? - Or would they cause you particular problems? - Do you have any alternative solutions? We have set up a survey website with a 10 minute survey visit co-motion.net The results we will be used to make recommendations on solutions relevant for not just older people - but a range of people - to make York a place that promotes remaining mobile throughout residents lives. These will be given to the council - but we can also feedback to the newspaper and other local media. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://co-motion.net/ |
Description | Co-Motion dissemination event to national stakeholders |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | event to feedback key findings to national representative organisations (for example covering motorists); as well as one to one meetings |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Co-Motion presentation to 'Making Leeds the Best City to Grow Old in' Project Board |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation of key findings of the Co-Motion project in relation to barriers and challenges to the mobility of older people in Leeds |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Co-Motion: safe mobility and the `new older driver`- just a private matter? |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Workshop presentation |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Co-design Activities in York, Leeds & Hexham |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Co-Motion is a 3 year research project, led by the University of York, exploring mobility and well-being for older people who are going through changes in their lives, such as stopping work, becoming a grandparent, starting to use a mobility scooter, or becoming a carer. We have worked with older residents in York, Hexham and Leeds to create maps of their journeys. We used touch tables with GIS functions to make maps identifying routes they used for regular or important trips. We then talked about the places they enjoyed along the routes and the benefits they got from being active. We then also identified barriers and problems. Finally we co-designed solutions to these problems from the older persons perspective. We have worked with older people from more deprived neighborhoods of York and Leeds to ensure inclusion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016 |
URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/yesi/projects/design-for-wellbeing/ |
Description | Co-design Activities with Mobility Scooter Users in York & Leeds |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Older mobility scooters were engaged in co-design activities using novel sensor packs and apps to identify routes and journeys the undertook, the issues (physical and social) along the route that provided benefits or caused problems. The app also allows collection of information on the users wellbeing along these routes. Approximately 10 people have been engaged in these activities including residents of more deprived communities. The activity has sparked interest in the research project amongst the participants family and friends. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/yesi/projects/design-for-wellbeing/ |
Description | Co-operation workshops |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Two workshops in Leeds and York to engage members of the public and study participants in taking forwards potential policy and practice solutions around behaviour change in public places. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Design for Wellbeing: Innovative research methods for understanding older people's everyday mobility |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | In April 2015 cycle BOOM hosted a British Society for Gerontology sponsored seminar Design for Wellbeing: Innovative research methods for understanding older people's everyday mobility at Oxford Brookes which was attended by around 50 people. The seminar brought together the seven projects funded under the UK Research Councils' Lifelong Health and Wellbeing (LLHW) ageing research programme. The aim was to report and discuss the novel methodologies that are being used by the projects in order to generate 'ambitious and transformative research' that seeks to improve design for mobility and the wellbeing of the ageing population. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.cycleboom.org/seminar-report-design-for-wellbeing-innovative-research-methods-for-underst... |
Description | Interview with BBC Radio York on 'Poetry in Motion' project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Opportunity to describe the key findings behind the Poetry in Motion project, alongside our collaborating partners (who also tweeted about the interview and project). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Moving between Generations Presentation at the RGS-IBG 2014: Intergenerational mobilities: experiencing age in mobile urban spaces Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation delivered to other academics at the Conference. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | NAIDEX 2016 Exhibition |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
Results and Impact | NAIDEX is the UK's largest disability, rehabilitation and homecare event with over 200 exhibitors showcasing their products to more than 9,000 visitors. The AART-BC Project will have a stand at the exhibition to begin the dissemination of information about the project to potential users and policy makers, including people with mobility disabilities, their carers, professionals who work with them, and those who procure systems for healthcare. We will also use this opportunity to collect data from people with mobility disabilities about their use of assistive technologies, their problems with these technologies and their wishes for improvements and new functionality. We will also recruit participants to work with us in the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.naidex.co.uk |
Description | One Planet Living York - Keynote Presentation at City of York Council Launch Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Presented keynote address at the City of York Council. The presentation highlighted key research outputs for the city linked to improving sustainability and pro-environmental behaviour amongst York businesses and residents. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://www.york.gov.uk/info/20242/sustainability/1527/creating_a_sustainable_city |
Description | Paper for the Annual Conference of the British Society of Gerontology |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Paper for the Annual Conference of the British Society of Gerontology: "Mobility experiences of older People with Sight-Loss: Is there a blind spot in our understanding and responses?" by Rose Gilroy and Bryan Matthews. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Podcast and radio interviews on 'walking for wellbeing' app |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interview with 'The Naked Scientist', which is a science show based at Cambridge University's Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) that aims to help the general public to understand and engage with the worlds of science, technology and medicine. As well as the podcast, the interview was broadcast on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, and nationally on ABC Australia. The Naked Scientist team also tweeted about the interview. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/walking-well-being |
Description | Poster: 'Assessing issues faced by mobility scooter users' as part of ARCC 'Feeling Good in Public Spaces' dialogue series, at Central Saint Martins, Oxford |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Poster presentation at the 'Multi-sensory design - creating healthier public spaces' event on 8th December, as part of the EPSRC funded ARCC network. Final event in the ARCC 'Feeling Good in Public Spaces' dialogue series, at Central Saint Martins |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Poster: 'Getting out and about - The role of attitudes and behaviours' as part of ARCC 'Feeling Good in Public Spaces' dialogue series, at Central Saint Martins, Oxford |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Poster presentation at the 'Multi-sensory design - creating healthier public spaces' event on 8th December, as part of the EPSRC funded ARCC network. Final event in the ARCC 'Feeling Good in Public Spaces' dialogue series, at Central Saint Martins |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Poster: 'Getting out and about - The role of attitudes and behaviours' as part of Universal Design 2016 Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Poster describing one of our key findings in relation to the impact of attitudes and behaviours by service providers and the wider public on the mobility of people in later life. The aim of the poser was to disseminate our findings to an international audience of practitioners as well as academics. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Presentation to British Health Care Trades Association |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Presentation to the British Health Care Trades Association on mobility scooters. Prompted a discussion afterwards with interested providers afterwards about their potential support for research on this topic in the future |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Presentation to Early Career Researchers event hosted by the Adaptation and Resilience in the Context of Change (ARCC) Network |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Presentation to Early Career Researchers event hosted by the Adaptation and Resilience in the Context of Change (ARCC) Network to showcase research that promotes impact (Funded by EPSRC). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Safe Mobility and the new older driver workshops |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Three workshops in Leeds and York to engage policy makers, professional practitioners, members of the public and study participants in taking forwards potential policy and practice solutions for making driving changes in later life. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Street Mobility Toolkit End user Workshop - UCL |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Discussion on the useability of the Street Mobility Toolkit developed by UCL as part of their Design for Well-being Project. Opportunity to feed in relevant findings from the Co-Motion project where this might impact on the UCL toolkit |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Symposium at British Society of Gerontology Annual Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentations of key findings of Co-Motion project at a workshop symposium to diverse audience |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | The Future of Ageing, an ILC-UK Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Networking at the The Future of Ageing, an ILC-UK Conference in November 2015. Contributed to ILC Blog http://blog.ilcuk.org.uk/2015/11/30/guest-blog-katia-attuyer-mark-bevan-and-karen-croucher-centre-for-housing-policy-the-future-of-housing-taking-forward-age-friendly-environments-in-a-changing-policy-landscape/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://blog.ilcuk.org.uk/page/2/ |
Description | Workshop presentation at Universal Design conference (UD 2016) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Workshop presentation at the Universal Design Conference (UD 2016) on the impact of attitudes and behaviours of service providers and the wider public on the mobility of people in later life |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://ud2016.uk/ |
Description | York 50+ Fair |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Dissemination of findings via a stand at the York 50+ Fair, organised by the York Older People's Forum. As well as dissemination of our work with the wider public, the event also enabled discussions with practitioners and third sector organisations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | York 50+ Festival Information Fair 2015 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Our stand at the York 50+ Festival Information Fair was an opportunity to describe the project and emerging research findings with members of the public on a one to one basis. The event was also an opportunity to engage members of the public in possible future participation in the research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Yornight (York's contribution to European Researchers' night) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Having worked with older York residents to co-design mobility solutions for the city that would improve their ability to remain active. We have generated the top 10 options and now want to find out from other residents: - Would these solutions also work for you? - Or would they cause you particular problems? - Do you have any alternative solutions? We have set up a survey website with a 10 minute survey visit co-motion.net The results we will be used to make recommendations on solutions relevant for not just older people - but a range of people - to make York a place that promotes remaining mobile throughout residents lives. These will be given to the council - but we can also feedback to the newspaper and other local media. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | interview with The Yorker ( independent media outlet at University of York) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Interview in The Yorker about the 'Poetry in Motion' project running on First York buses. The Yorker is a student-run limited company based at the University of York that provides both local and campus news, features and reviews. This media outlet has several hundred thousand hits per year. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.theyorker.co.uk/arts-and-culture/poets-nook-interview-anna-woodford/ |
Description | news items on websites linked with press release |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Outputs from the research (especially the prototype walking for wellbeing app and also the 'Poetry in Motion' project) featured as news items on Research Council websites linked with the press release for this project in January 2017. EPSRC: https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/new-walking-app-could-make-later-life-healthier-and-happier/ ESRC: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/news/news-items/travel-challenges-of-older-people-depicted-in-poetry-on-buses/ AHRC: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/a-happier-and-healthier-walking-experience-for-the-elderly/, The research also featured as a news item on the University of York website (see URL below). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2017/research/travel-challenges-poetry-on-buses/ |
Description | radio broadcast |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Opportunity to disseminate the Poetry in Motion project, with one of the Poetry in Motion poems featured on the 3 Feb episode of Radio 3's 'Words and Music' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |