Patricia Moore was working for the Raymond Roewy, the company that designed the Coca-Cola bottle. In one of the company's new product idea meetings, she recalled the case of her grandmother and proposed a refrigerator handle that would make it easier for older people to open and close, but her colleagues dismissed the idea as unproductive. She then decided to try her hand at designing for the elderly herself. She started by doing what most designers did: researching seniors through surveys and interviews. But she soon realized her limitations and tried new methods.↵
In her 20s, she spent three long years with braces on her legs, a graying wig and wrinkled makeup, cotton-plugged ears, blurry glasses, and a cane to better understand and empathize with the elderly. The insights she gained as an elderly person led to the design of ambidextrous!) scissors, low-floor buses, and Oxo's Good Grip Kitchen Tools. These products are not centered around aesthetics, but their ease of use has been well received by many people, and have been selling steadily ever since.