Practical Approaches in the Design of Everyday Objects for the Elderly

Abstract

Ergonomic design for elderly people requires consideration of factors relating to both the dwindling reserves of resources as well as the specific needs of the elderly. This requires the use of special techniques both in terms of data collection, for which methods of ethnography design can be used, as well as transferring the identified needs into product characteristics for which, in addition to traditional decision-making tools such as QFD, virtual modeling can be used successfully. The article presents the sequence of actions recommended in ergonomic design for the elderly in which the most important element is the observation of elderly people and the determination of the causes of their specified behavior. The article identifies a list of the most important ergonomic criteria for the design of everyday objects for the elderly which include: anthropometric characteristics, abilities of effectors and receptors, capacity, ability to process information, resistance to physical and organizational environmental factors, as well as tastes and personality patterns. Expanding on these criteria a design method is developed, and finally a practical example is described in which the method is used to develop solutions aiding the ergonomic accessibility of objects for the elderly.