Designing for an Aging Population
With the ever-changing depth of technology on the market, I noted that most of these innovations were being spearheaded by niche customer bases that were willing to adapt for paradigm shifts. One such product, that I saw as an example of this phenomena was the gaming keyboard market. I wanted to take various mechanical and ergonomic cues from products in the E-sports genre, and integrate them into keyboards for the elderly (or people with dexterity issues), as I saw them as a group that were being neglected in spite of the commercialization and popularization of computing products and accessories.
With the ever-changing depth of technology on the market, I noted that most of these innovations were being spearheaded by niche customer bases that were willing to adapt for paradigm shifts. One such product, that I saw as an example of this phenomena was the gaming keyboard market. I wanted to take various mechanical and ergonomic cues from products in the E-sports genre, and integrate them into keyboards for the elderly (or people with dexterity issues), as I saw them as a group that were being neglected in spite of the commercialization and popularization of computing products and accessories.
This poster documented the various tests my group and I ran, in order to understand the experience of various movement and sensory impairments.
In order to paint an even more detailed picture of the scope of the problem, I spoke with someone who suffers from MS about various pre-existing products on the market.
Various things I learned about, and how I incorporated them into my design process.
An early prototype I took to an assisted care center to get comments from various users.
A final "looks-like" model that I used to illustrate my concept.
