Designing for the Life Span Segment 2
Designing for the Life Span Segment 2 
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All national populations have become more diverse; heterogeneous rather than homogeneous...
Stereotyping, such as is the practice of mass marketing, tends to homogenize and create a glossy image of people in order to agglomerate numbers reduced to a set of similar characteristics. When aging, disability, income, location and other criteria are part of the mix, markets defy a homogeneous characterization. The better method is to incorporate that sense of diversity, independence and preference among individuals and groups to formulate design solutions and other problem solving approaches that have the broadest possible application and appeal.
Responses in the design communities have given rise to "Universal" and "Transgenerational" design as philosophic approaches to addressing these issues...
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Marketing approaches used to define market segments are prone to characterizing populations in terms of similarities. This approach has undergone significant modification nearing the end of the 20th century owing to the expansion of diversity in American culture. Older Americans add to that diversity along with the expanding number of people from various ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds. Responses among design professions have produced philosophic concepts that fall short of capturing diversity. Universal design is an attempt to include disability as a central criterion for the design of products and environments. Transgenerational design attempts to include the older population in relationship to normal age changes - exclusive of disability. These are useful constructs - but their full adoption - even comprehension - by designers and others is fragmentary.
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