Sheng-Hung Lee, MIT AgeLab and MechE Ph.D.’s “Longevity Planning Blocks” Ask the Big Questions About Aging

At the MIT AgeLab, Sheng-Hung Lee’s research explores how tangible tools, cross-disciplinary thinking, and provocative questions can reshape how we plan for life's final chapters.

How will you get an ice cream cone? Who will you have lunch with? Who will change your lightbulbs?

While these questions may seem quotidian, for Sheng-Hung Lee, they are at the heart of an effort to redesign the way we think about aging.

Lee is a postdoctoral associate at the MIT AgeLab and will soon join the University of Michigan’s Urban Technology Program as an assistant professor. His work focuses on the intersection between human-centered design and technology. His dissertation, defended in spring 2025 as a doctoral candidate at MIT, used design principles to develop an innovative tool to support people’s preparations for later life.

“We start from financial planning,” Lee explained, “but also want to cover, for example, mental health and social well-being.” The project builds on AgeLab Director Joe Coughlin’s notion that retirement is composed of four phases, each with unique challenges and transitions. Together, Lee and Coughlin created an instrument based on this model to help people contemplate these transitions and prepare for aging: the Longevity Planning Blocks.

The blocks—of handheld size with a bit of heft—feature the aforementioned simple questions about lunch, ice cream, and light bulbs. Lee explained that the questions are more “provocative” and “life-relevant” compared to those typically asked in retirement planning conversations, and hopes that they can open doors to deeper discussions on sensitive topics such as health changes or long-term care needs. “We want to make this less transactional, more conversational. It’s a great entry point.”

Lee explained that the blocks fall into a category of tools called “boundary objects”—a concept in design theory used to describe physical artifacts that people may use and interpret differently, but which still allows them to build a shared understanding about a common topic. Maps are a commonly cited example of a boundary object, Lee explained: “I’m looking for a museum. You’re looking for a library. Other people are looking for the restroom. We have different destinations, but we can share the experiences we have in this location.”

To evaluate how people use the blocks, Lee fabricated a controlled environment in which participants could be observed interacting with them.  “We dim the light and then we close the door, we cover all the windows. It’s this very private space, only myself with the participants and also the cubes. People feel safe.”

Lee listened to the stories of 81 participants, all while tracking the number of times each participant touched the blocks, how many questions they asked, and how many stories they shared during the experiment. Using cluster analysis, he grouped participants into three personas that reflected not just demographic factors like age or income, but behavior reflecting three distinct life stages.

One insight from these personas is that while the blocks provoke thinking about older age, they may be most powerful when used earlier in life. “My personal opinion is that this product is really targeted to younger generations. People, for example, who graduated from school three to five years ago. Here’s a starting point they can use to help plan their future.”

During his research process, Lee also conceived of a new professional role: the “longevity coach,” which expands on the role currently occupied by financial planners or advisors to include preparation in other areas of one’s life such as relocating or leaving a meaningful legacy. He imagines that the blocks can help open financial advisors’ minds to filling such a role.  “For me, the most important thing is changing people’s mindset. Financial advisors say, ‘I’m the expert. Why should I learn this?’ But for the longevity coach, the idea is that we open up the conversation. It becomes open-ended questions.”

On the future of the Longevity Planning Blocks, Lee said he aims to manufacture and distribute them on a large scale, but it won’t be easy. Scaling the blocks for real-world use will require support from industry and a sizeable population of professionals to adopt them.

In the next phase of his career, Lee will join the Urban Technology Program at the University of Michigan as an assistant professor, where he hopes to expand on his work on product and service system design. He is especially interested in developing the concept of a “longevity tech city,” an urban landscape where the built environment and societal infrastructures align to support a population that isn’t just aging, but thriving.

He will also continue to promote the blocks and hopes that longevity planning will start to receive the attention it deserves. “I feel this is an important topic, and it’s cross-disciplinary. Everyone should care about this.”