MyFutures

MyFutures is a two-year project lab that consists of a combination of design research, education and case studies. Its aim is to design tools to support thinking about personal futures, for use by individuals and organisations in thinking about, discussing, planning, and acting towards organizing personal situations.

The MyFutures Project Lab aims to support individuals and institutions in facilitating them to deal with personal futures regarding old age. The results are local improvements and general guidelines for social and societal innovations to create a support system that better matches the needs of people.

The Lab works through co-researching and co-designing with citizens and professionals working in support care institutions or policy making. MyFutures follows a methodology of ‘Research through Design’. Within ID-StudioLab, a design research community within the TU Delft, they connect to ongoing projects with related questions.

In one Lab project, a team of designers and care consultants developed a tool to help in the year-planning of care services. In the current situation, this often happens when families and friends cannot cope with the situation of caregiving anymore, and invoke the social system. Under stress, they easily get lost in planning the available budget, and run out of funds later in the year.

The tool helps to structure the conversation. First it evokes a discussion of the current situation, who is involved, and what is needed; then it brings in the care options, and situations around possible events that can occur. The tool, in the form of paper templates and game-pieces to represent people, services, and events, helps the care professional, client, and often family members who are involved, to get an overview of the situation, to take all factors into account, and to come to a planning that looks ahead for a full year instead of an emergency patch for next week.

More information on the Lab and its projects can be found on http://myfutures.nl