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5200 Design Research documentation

Yue Wang w

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CONTENT

Background

Demographic

Fact & Analysis

Interview

Observation

Analysis

Current Market

Research Summary

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BACKGROUND

An increase in life expectancy causes the aging of populations. As aging starts, problem starts to reveal. Most of seniors have certain diseases caused by invertible aging process and those diseases not only cause the pain on seniors but also, more significantly, result in inconvenience in their daily life.

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DEMOGRAPHIC

12% 32%

1950 2050

Increasing Aging Population

Health issues

Physical issues

Psychological issues

38%

35%

27%

All issues could result in life inconvenience Health issues Physical issues

Psychological issues

Incontinence

Mobility issue Memory issue

Vision weakness Hearing weakness

Off-balance

Top common inconvenience:

World population aged over 60:

Major issues caused by aging:

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Universality of inconvenience

55%

Mobility issue Off-balance

35%

Incontinence

27%

Memory issue

15%

Research shows a variety of inconvenience caused by aging. But most of people will ignore that, the weakness of aging body can cause inconvenience, reversely, inconvenience can also result in health problem. Because it is a sequential loop. Among the most common inconvenience in senior’s life, mobility issue shows the widest universality, which a large population of senior is suffering the inconvenience caused by mobility issue. Hence, to focus on and solve senior’s mobility issue in priority is very necessary.

32%

Hearing weakness

40%

Vision weakness

Mobility typically declines as people enter our 80s. Motor skills directly impact our ability for getting around, and when regular exercise is not practiced, balance can be affected, leading to falls and fractures.

In addition to limited mobility, many seniors also have arthritis, osteoporosis or both. Arthritis ranks second only to heart disease in the number of disability claims filed each year. According to a recent Center for Disease Control and Prevention study, one in three adults have arthritis or chronic joint pain, making it the nation's most crippling disease.

Osteoporosis, a form of arthritis, is a devastating disease that is very common in seniors. It robs the body of bone density and is the single most important risk factor for fractures. This is an especially critical issue, because 94 percent of hip fractures occur in people over age 50 and more than 30 percent of hip fractures result in death.

Senior mobility issue

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FACT & ANALYSIS

Statistics - Safety issue

Senior mobility issue involves every aspect of senior life. It can bring up inconvenience from basic movement such as walking, sitting, standing to hand-assisted movement like go upstairs and picking up staff. More importantly, most of mobility issue can result in severe safety issues.

Age

65

85

33%

45%Accident

10%

50%Injury/death

25,500Deaths/year

Senior off-balance and falls take a major part of mobility safety issue. The most profound effect of falling is the loss of functioning associated with independent living. Twenty to thirty percent of people who fall suffer moderate to severe injuries such as lacerations, hip fractures, and head traumas. These injuries can make it hard to get around or live independently, and increase the risk of early death. Many people who fall, even if they are not injured, develop a fear of falling. This fear may cause them to limit their activities, which leads to reduced mobility and loss of physical fitness, and in turn increases their actual risk of falling.

Current solution - Usage rate

According to the usage rate, it is apprent that rollator and walker are the top choices for senior mobility solutions. However, most of them are merely designed to solve the mobility issue, ignoring the usability and user experience, which causes the weakness in the relationship between user and product. Since those product designers are not in the same age group as product user’s, there still exists the concerns beyond the designers’ intent, which could result in senior’s life inconvenience by using the products.

Is it convenient for seniors to use those products?

Do those products fit/work with the environment?

32%40%

18% 7%

20%22%

12%15%

Are those product designs well thought for users?

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INTERVIEW

Eddie K. - Home68

Cathy C. - Home80

• Eddie uses rollator as her balance support all the time, especially when standing up from sofa or chair.

• She often forgets to lock the rollator when she trying to lean on it for a rest, which makes her almost fall.

• She likes to use rollator to carry stuffs.

• Sometimes Eddie needs to hold different furnitures for support until she gets the rollator.

• Eddie seldom goes out and has no complaints about transportation.

• Cathy lives alone in a full assisted equipment senior apartment.

• She use walker and rollator everyday as the weight support.

• Cathy feels hard to move rollator among different furnitures since the space is limited.

• She can not get out of sofa even with the help of rollator.

• The current brake handle on rollator is too hard for her to lock it.

• She thinks it is necessary to make more storage room on her rollator or walker.

Need support to stand up from sofa

Rollator size too big

Brake handle too hard to operate

Hard to stand up from sofa

Limited storagespace

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Willice A. - Rehabilitation72

Judy G. - Nursing home77

• Willice lives in rehabilitation center for recovery from his leg surgery, which he has to rely on the wheelchair.

• Willice feels dependent since he needs nursing workers to assist him operating every related to mobility.

• It's painful for him to be transferred every time from wheelchair.

• Willice hopes to have an equipment that can help him do recover exercise at the same time help him move as normal people.

• Judy keeps doing exercise every morning with her rollator.

• She mentioned it will be better if she could sit down on rollator directly from walking instead of turning rollator around and locking it before sitting.

• She feels insecure when transferring from rollator to a chair so she needs to grab the chair arm first then slowly move her another hand and body towards the chair seat. Same feeling when she transfers herself to rollator.

Joint problem caused by overusing

Need to turn around to sit down

Feel insecure/ has to catch chair arm before sitting

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Yona M. - Nursing home73

Stark J. - Rehabilitation77

• Yona just starts to use walker for her falling incident.

• She gets annoyed when the walker goes too fast and can not take control. She is afraid of falling again when using the walker.

• She likes her grabber which can help pick up or reach things when using walker but she is also upset about placing the grabber on the walker so it won't influence her using the walker.

• Yona cleans her walker regularly but she complains about the wheels getting dirty so quickly.

• Stark has problem in standing up and sitting down from a chair. He always using walker as a support and sometimes he needs someone to put a belt on his body to give him extra strength and balance to complete basic movement.

• He complains that he really wants to be independent but he has to be followed by a worker to carry the oxygen pump which he can do it by himself or place on the walker.

• Stark wants a easy way to solve his moving support problem while providing sitting solution.

No proper place to hold grabber

Walker moving too fast

Painful to stand up from chair

Always followed by worker/no independence

INTERVIEW

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Derrick BoyerTherapist

Joe HilearyTherapist

• Therapists have to change the equipments based on user’s situation so they can adapt themselves into equipments (walker, rollator).

• The current product are built universal, not personalized. Most of walker and rollator are bulky and heavy, for heavy weighted people. So people with normal weight might have difficulty operating the equipments.

• Equipments that we using now are mostly height adjustable but not width and weight adjustable. It will be appeal to customers and medical institution if the equipments could be full customizable to each users.

• To ensure security, we usually put a safety belt around patients' body to grab or give them extra support when they are moving. Although it might make patients more dependent, that is important to their safety.

Some patients can not move without safety belt providing extra weight support

Only 2 sizes available and can not adjust their weight and width

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OBSERVATION

From chair to rollator

Sitting down and resting on rollator

Standing up very slowly with the support of chair arms

Using rollator handle for support

Reaching for rollator Walking and leaning towards

Uncomfortable gesture to operate brake handle

Turning around to sit Reaching handles for security and support

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From rollator to sofa

Standing up from rollator

Moving the hip forward feet backward to adjust body center of mass

Leaning body forward/ arms backward

Turning around again Reaching sofa for support • Sitting down very slowly• Sitting down is harder

than standing up

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ANALYSIS

User journey map

Standing up

Sitting down

Hard to stand up even with rollator as weight support

User tends to lean forward when walking

Has to turn around to sit on rollator

Has to turn around everytime when sitting

Sitting down is actually harder for user than standing up

Needs sense of security

Needs sense of security

Walking

Resting

50% of users forget to lock rollators when using them as support

Storage space is useful but limited for most of users

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From interview and observation...

Senior ergonomics

Harder surfacesThe fingers start to lose sensitivity with age. So product should provide fingers with more sensation. A harder surface or interface can give seniors stronger feedback so they know whether they operate products correctly.

Lighter structureSeniors have relatively weak muscle strength compared to adults, so they can not carry as much weight as they used to be. A lighter but durable material should be used to manufacture the products to ensure the usability and durability.

More handlesHandles are great mobility aids. A relatively large, comfy handle should be considered when there needs a hand hold.

• Unthoughtful product designs could result in inconvenience and safety issues.• Current products are designed for solving one problem at a time, ignoring the related issues that remaining to be solved.• A lack of relationship between product and user, which refers to the sense of security and safety needed by users.• A need for more attention on human ergonomics.

ReachabilityReachability decreases with age. The normal intersect of reachability range for adults is 990mm. As age goes, there is an average of 70mm range of reachability difference between people aged 40 and 80.

Muscle SarcopeniaPeople who are physically inactive can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass per decade after age 30. An average of 8-12% less of strength requirement should be considered into the product for senior.

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CURRENT MARKET

Power Seat

Scooter

Canes & Crutches

Walker

Rollator

Price

$$

$$$$

$

$$

$$

Pros Cons

• Standing up and sitting down much easier, no need to rely on support

• Adjust to any seat position (angle)

• No need to walk• Carrying stuff more easier• Move faster

• Less limitation of application environment (can use anywhere)

• Light weight• Easy to handle• Easy to store

• Electricity required• Electronic system might be unstable/doesn’t work• Leading to long time sitting, lack of exercise• Indoor use only• Can not help senior walk

• Outdoor use only• Require charging, might need other’s help• Not water proof• Hard to stand up/sit down/get in/out• Less flexibility, rotation/certain angle/corner• High cost

• Hard to stand up/sit down even with its help• Users can not sit at anytime• Require upper body strength to operate it

• Hard to stand up/sit down even with its help• No seat• Unstable• Require upper body strength to operate it• No brake, easy to slip• Moving too fast

• Hard to stand up/sit down even with its help• Has to turn around every time when sit• Brake handles are too tight to operate

• Light• Folding structure, easy to store• Easy to handle• Height adjustable

• Seat• Folding structure, easy to store• Wheels brake ensures safety• Height adjustable

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Interview on store

Rollator is the best seller.Most of customers have off-balance and fall issues, they usually purchase rollator and canes.50% of customers are not only buying one product at a time, they buy a set of product. (walker+handrail+cane).

Wheels are too smooth so walker move too fast to control by customers.

All the handles are made from hard and textured plastic or rubber, which uses uncomfortable. Some customers will wrap handles with soft rubber tape or band to give them extra soft feelings.

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Based on primary and secondary research, senior who has one of walking, standing or sitting issue can not perform the other two movement normally neither, while current products can only provide one side of solution. Besides, current products are mainly focusing on solving the problem but ignore the aspects of ergonomics and user experience. A new solution is absolutely needed to solve senior's walking, standing and sitting issues together.

RESEARCH SUMMARY

Problem statement Design opportunitySenior mobility issue involves every aspect of senior life. It brings up inconvenience from basic movement such as walking, sitting, standing to hand-assisted movement like go upstairs and picking up staff. More importantly, most of mobility issue can result in severe safety issues.

Current products are focusing on solving one mobility issue at a time, such as walker. Although it can help seniors walk, but it still remains problems when it comes to sitting and standing back and forth. Walking, standing and sitting are very consistent movement that cannot be solved individually once any one of them becomes an issue, which is ignored by most of people.

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