Tableware "S" / UX Design / Design Thinking

PROBLEM

The emergency of thinking about of individual comfort and became aware of what this means in the future are troubling questions (that are important for me too!).

On the basis of this situation and whereas the characteristics and limitations of elderly people, in particular, we* thought that the daily mealtime would be the perfect situation to implement Design’s methodology.

Our choice about target audience was people between 65 and 74 years, because we* consider after 75 years arise weakness processes and dependent relations that includes technical and individual help during daily activities.

To develop and conclude the project “ ‘S’ dinner set adapted to elderly people”, there was some key factors to consider as lightweight, inclusion, comfort, security, storage capacity, price and psychological stimulation.

*This Project was developed into the internship report context.

CONTEXT

EMPATHY / RESEARCH

For a better, trully and fair understanding of elderly people, it was important to visit and interact with these people. To do that, I visited nursing homes and day centers to speak and interact with them and understand their difficulties and frustrations; I was present too in several seminars and speeches about this issue as well about similar problems like rheumatic diseases.

While probing mealtime of elderly ones or with disabilities, I could see clearly that there is deeply sadness and a sense of worthlessness because they need help to handle cutlery and dishes and to take the food to his mouth.

RESEARCH

In addition to this empathy moment, it was also important to make research about specialized studies and market products for these issues.

PROTOTYPES / SKETCHES

After all the investigation and research, I started exploring solutions; low fidelity prototypes, sketches and 3D modeling was focal points to get the final solution.

SOLUTION

The interaction with target audience, the indentification of the problem, the analysis of the market and existing products (for the same problem or similar), the study of several subjects such ergonomics, motricity, cognitive psychology and inclusivity as also as the development of several low fidelity prototypes and sketches, allows me to find the final solution: “”S” dinner set adapted to elderly people”.