Design the Long Life You Love: A Step-by-Step Guide to Love, Purpose, Well-Being, and Friendship

This animated sequel to designer Birsel’s Design the Life You Love gleans advice from people in their later years. Birsel recounts how watching her parents grow older encouraged her to design better products for those over 65 by consulting with older people during the design process, and she shares lessons she learned while working with them. Embrace optimism, she counsels, encouraging readers to see their lives as continuously “expanding and growing” as she relates the sentiment of an older person she worked with who said, “Be an optimist. Yes, I fell.... But I didn’t break anything.” She urges readers to practice self-love and notes that her older co-designers were more sure of themselves and clear-eyed about what they wanted out of relationships. She outlines her four-step approach to design and life: breaking down a problem, assessing its parts, reconfiguring the problem, and putting insights into action. Birsel demonstrates her design savvy with her quirky line drawings that underscore the advice; for example, a drawing of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly speaks to her recommendation for readers to view life as a constant metamorphosis. The fun illustrations complement the lighthearted advice, even if there’s not much new. Still, this breezy manual is worth a look. (Dec.)