Patricia A Moore, President MooreDesign Associates
Patricia Moore is an internationally renowned gerontologist, designer, and a leading authority on consumer lifespan behaviors and requirements.
During 1979-1982, a twenty-something Patricia dressed up as an elderly woman wearing her grandmother’s clothes, uncomfortable and homemade shoes, plugs for her ears to distort her hearing and thick glasses that significantly distorted her vision. During this three year period she traveled to 116 cities in America and Canada impersonating an 80 year old woman.
With her body altered to simulate the normal sensory changes associated with aging, she was able to respond to people, products, and environments as an elderly person. Patricia was dismayed at some of the treatment she received and the experience helped her to intimately understand how difficult the world can be for elderly citizens. Since 1990, Moore has designed more than 300 Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Environments for acute and sub-acute healthcare facilities throughout North America, Europe and Japan.
Moore is a frequent international lecturer, media guest, author of numerous articles; the books DISGUISED: A True Story, The Business of Aging [2016], and OUCH! Why Bad Design Hurts [in works]. She is co-author of the American National Standards Committee on Anthropometry, served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Physical Therapy Association, the Harrington Arthritis Research Center, the Herberger Center for Design Excellence at Arizona State University, the Advisory Board of CARF [Certifying Association of Rehabilitation Facilities], and The American Occupational Therapy Association Foundation.
Moore holds undergraduate degrees in Industrial & Environmental and Communication Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology (Awarded "Alumna of the Year" 1984), completion of Advanced Studies in Biomechanics at New York University’s Medical School & Rusk Institute; graduate degrees in Psychology & Counseling in Human Development (Social Gerontology) from Columbia University.
She was selected for the 1996 Community Service Award of the American Rehabilitation Association, for advancing independence and quality of life with environmental design, the American Hospital Association’s 1996 NOVA Award for the "Family Road" Care Centers, holistic health environments for the promotion of appropriate childcare and parenting, the American Occupational Therapists Association’s 2005 Leadership Award, The 2006 American Society of Interior Designers Humanitarian Award and has been internationally honored for her work with OXO Good Grips™. Moore is a Fellow of the Industrial Designers Society of America.
Moore was presented with the Professional Recognition Award by the Arizona Design Institute [1997] for fostering Excellence in Design and support to Design Education. Moore was the 1996 & 1997 Carnegie Mellon University Visiting Design Chair, is an Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at Arizona State University, and has lectured at universities throughout North America, Australia, China, Europe, Korea, Japan, New Zealand; Russia.
Moore was named by ID Magazine as one of The 40 Most Socially Conscious Designers in the world and was selected in 2000, by a consortium of news editors and organizations, as one of The 100 Most Important Women in America. Syracuse University selected Moore for a 2012 Honorary Doctorate for serving as a “guiding force for a more humane and livable world, blazing a path for inclusiveness, as a true leader in the movement of Universal Design.” The Rochester Institute of Technology inducted Moore as a 2012 member of the “INNOVATORS Hall of Fame”. ABC World News featured Moore as one of 50 Americans Defining the New Millennium. In 2016 Moore was named one of The Most Notable American Industrial Designers in the history of the field.
Quotes:
“Design has morphed into the cornerstone of equity, culture, and socialization. It’s about bringing resources to people who don’t have them …..The power of design is to look at each individual, their home, their community, and the infinitely small things that make for success or failure of interaction in those realms….”
“So design is a combination of technology and know-how and sensitivity and know-why. It’s like pornography—you can’t really define it, but you know it when you see it.” [Source: ZDNet].
Keynote:
The Universal Challenge: Creating Inclusivity, By DESIGN!