[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/barbara-ideo_custom-8b14c66bdec3b3322f0d91ec726cac4cd4ff389b-s1300-c85.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Barbara Beskind has a dream job at age 90. She is on staff as a designer for trendy design consultancy IDEO, which designed the Apple mouse. She was a US Army major who after retirement, designed and holds six patents on inflatable devices that assist children with balance issues. Major Beskind is still working on balance problems, in this case now for people in the senior community where she lives. She’s also working on glasses which would help with face-name recognition, and is a resource for other IDEO designers who check with her on hidden drawbacks, like too-small batteries on automated bifocals that can’t be changed by those with mobility problems. If your company is designing products, health tech, apps and more which will be used by an older market, bring on staff an older, perhaps retired, designer to help your team think it through–and get your own secret weapon. NPR AllTechConsidered (photo from NPR) Hat tip to Founder Steve.

Update: Barbara Beskind is also a featured speaker at Aging 2.0’s Global Innovation Summit in San Francisco, 18-19 May. More information.