The $22 Trillion Blind Spot
Why Your Product and Design Strategy Needs a Longevity Reset
Welcome to age/proof design, the newsletter for forward-thinking product and design professionals who are reconsidering everything they thought they knew about older users.
Your latest product launch was flawless. The UI tested beautifully. Your key persona loved every feature. But here's what keeps me up at night…
You might have just excluded a user base worth $22 trillion¹.
And your biggest competitor? They're probably figuring this out right now.
I've spent the last several years working with teams on digital products where we thought we had inclusive design figured out.
We were wrong. And it cost us more than we realized.
This is the first installment of The Fundamental Guide to Rethinking Digital Experiences for the Longevity Economy — a five-part series where we challenge what we think we know about designing for older users.
The Invisible User Segment Right Under Your Nose
Let me share something that stopped one senior leader cold during our last conversation:
Adults over age 50 control 83% of household wealth in America and they drive more than half of consumer spending¹. By 2030, they'll represent one of the most economically powerful consumer groups globally².
That's not a niche user segment. That's a significant user base.
Yet when I audit digital experiences, I find the same pattern everywhere:
Beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) interfaces that quietly exclude the people with the most money to spend.
Why does this keep happening?
Three Lies Costing Us Users
After reviewing numerous product strategies, I've identified three false narratives that consistently limit user reach. You've probably believed at least one of them.
I know I have.
Lie #1: Older Users Aren't Digital Natives
Here's the reality: Older adults spent $140 billion on technology in 2018³ — more than the entire GDP of Ukraine.
They're not just buying tech — they’re becoming your most loyal customers. Once adopted, older users often show higher long-term engagement and retention compared to younger users.
Yet they're not avoiding your digital experiences because they can't use them.
They're avoiding them because you're not designing for how they actually think and behave.
Which leads us to the second costly lie…
Lie #2: Just Make It Senior-Friendly
This is where most teams crash and burn.
Your users don't want a "senior-friendly" version of your digital experience. They want the full thing — designed with intelligence and respect.
The companies winning with this user base are building products so intuitive that everyone — regardless of age — can use them effortlessly.
Lie #3: It's All About Retirement
This one drives me crazy because it's deeply rooted in an outdated idea about age.
A significant share of new entrepreneurs today are over 50. Online learning platforms report surging engagement from older users. Many are entering their peak earning years, not winding down.
When you design for solely "retirees," you miss the ever increasing number of entrepreneurs, career-changers, and "long life" learners who represent massive growth in your user base.
The Paradigm Shift That Changes Everything
Here's what I've learned from the teams getting this right:
Age-based targeting is dead.
The future belongs to psychographic design.
Life Stage Trumps Birth Year
Your 55-year-old user might be launching a startup. Your 65-year-old might be balancing caregiving and a career reboot. Your 70-year-old might be redefining what retirement looks like for them.
Teams that shift from age-based segmentation to life-stage design often report significantly higher engagement and retention. But most of us are still relying on demographic targeting.
What people are doing matters far more than when they were born⁴.
Values Drive Decisions
Older adults prioritize authenticity, purpose, and meaningful connection². When your product aligns with those values, you don't just gain customers — you create advocates.
This isn't touchy-feely marketing speak. It's behavioral psychology that directly affects your conversion rates and retention metrics.
The Longevity Dividend
With longer healthspans and extended careers, your older users maintain purchasing power far longer than previous generations².
Their lifetime value frequently exceeds that of younger users — thanks to greater brand loyalty and a longer purchasing runway.
This isn't just user research theory.
It's competitive intelligence reshaping entire industries.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
I'm watching some companies lose users because they’ve ignored this shift.
Meanwhile, others — the ones taking longevity seriously — are capturing disproportionate growth in categories like fintech, healthcare, travel, and lifestyle.
Here's what's happening: While you're optimizing for younger users, your competition is building for retention and lifetime value.
And in the longevity economy, that's where the real money is.
This isn't about adding accessibility features as an afterthought. It's about fundamentally rethinking who you're designing for — and why — before someone else does it first.
What Happens Next Will Separate Leaders from Followers
I'll be sharing something that will change how you evaluate your digital experiences forever.
In Part 2: Are Your Digital Experiences Age-Inclusive?, you'll learn about my Respectful Design Framework. It's a step-by-step methodology to audit your current products for age bias and redesign experiences that work for all life stages without dumbing anything down.
What makes this framework different? It doesn't just find problems — it reveals the specific opportunities your competitors are missing.
You'll discover:
How to spot patronizing language patterns that drive away high-value users (and the empowering alternatives that increase engagement)
Why your content assumptions about older adults are probably wrong — and costing you users who control 70% of disposable income
The readability and engagement design choices that boost usability for everyone, not just older users
How to craft calls-to-action that acknowledge digital fluency instead of assuming limitations
I've seen the principles of this framework help teams shift their thinking. More importantly, I've seen it help them move faster than competitors who are still figuring out the basics.
The question isn't whether the longevity economy will reshape your industry.
It's how you'll respond to it.
Until next time,
References
¹ Joseph Coughlin, The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World's Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market (PublicAffairs, 2017).
² Mauro F. Guillén, 2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything (St. Martin's Press, 2020).
³ Stanford Center on Longevity, The New Map of Life: The Longevity Economy Outlook (Stanford University, 2021).
⁴ Susan Wilner Golden, Stage (Not Age): How to Understand and Serve People Over 60 (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022).
Join the Movement
The longevity economy isn't coming — it's here.
And the window for first-mover advantage is closing.
The question is whether you'll lead this transformation — or watch competitors capture the opportunity while you catch up.
Join other product and design professionals who are already rethinking their approach. Subscribe to get each part of this essential series delivered directly to your inbox.
This isn't about designing for "older users."
It's about designing smarter, for everyone.
Because the future belongs to companies that understand this simple truth:
When you design for longevity, everyone wins.
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