I would like to ask for a little information
Hello,
I came by this forum while looking for research material on the elderly, and I realize that this sort of request must be a fairly regular occurrence from students like myself, and I hope I am not being a nuisance or intruding in any way.
I am a university student majoring in design, and my current graduation project's theme is "Design for Aging Society." Since the field I aspire to is in product design, I am looking for clues that will let me find real problems that might be solved by a physical product.
Beyond my academic interest, I do hope to gain some understanding of what it is like to be twice my current age - I would ask my own grandparents, but my grandfathers had both passed away before I was old enough to really understand what death means, and neither of my grandmothers have really been all that open to conversation beyond how I'm doing in school and such.
Some context: I am Korean, and since my society has undergone some very drastic changes in the last half century, those who are elderly here today are probably very unlike those who will be attaining senior status within the next few decades. My paternal grandmother was very young when WWII ended and the Japanese occupation withdrew, and Korea was a very poor country until the last two decades or so. Korea's rapid climb out of poverty has drawn a very drastic cultural divide between those who have worked and raised families in a time where food and resources were scarce, and those who are doing so in a modern technocratic society. Combined with the cultural structure of respect for elders and a disinclination to associate freely with those of a different age group, I have found it fairly difficult to communicate frankly with seniors in my area - I realize this is a failure of my own ability to gather information as a designer, but I do think that the future senior demographic will more closely resemble the frequenters of this forum (those who are living in countries that were fairly advanced from their youth). I hope I will be able to garner some insight through this forum, if you would be inclined to share some of your own thoughts and observations about what being past a certain age is like with a young and somewhat socially awkward student.
So far I have gathered some basic principles in approaching design for the elderly, and I would very much appreciate it if you would point out the flaws in my conclusions or perhaps suggest factors I may have overlooked.
1. Health is important. The product design I create must support physical independence or at the least not impede it.
2. Do not equate "elderly" with "less able." Overtly specialized design may be more embarrassing than helpful to use, or worse impinge on #1.
That's actually it so far as far as basic principles go. Further observations I have made are these:
- The senior demographic is very social and hobby oriented.
- Many seem to keep pets
- Do not wish to appear infirm
That's about as far as I've got, for the most part. They're pretty general observations, but I might have got something wrong here.
Further questions I have are:
- Do many often function as caretakers for spouses?
- What is your relationship with your grandchildren like?
- What is the most important thing when you're past a certain age? Your children, your legacy, enjoying life, autonomy?
- What are your thoughts about monitoring systems in your home? I'm mostly talking about things like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6cyse7hKg
Basically wiring up your home so that your movements are monitored by a computer program, and if you fall and don't get up or some such an alert is sent out to nearby hospitals. I've seen several examples of such home systems for the very elderly who live alone, and I was wondering how you would feel about the prospect of having this in your home in a couple more decades.
I would also like to know in general about how life is different from when you're say, 30 years of age. Little things, like the way you choose the clothes you buy, spend your free time, do housework etc. Or how your views on the world change, if they do.
Thank you for reading all of this, and again, my apologies if I have offended in any way. This project will quite probably be the only time I get to pick and choose what I want to create if I go into a professional design career, and I would really like to make something meaningful.
Thank you again,
Sunny