HOME By TESLA
ITESM + University of Cincinnati
January: May 2015
ITESM M.D.E. José Emilio Morales Herrera U. of Cincinnati M.D.I. Juan Antonio Islas Muñoz Eduardo Villa Mondragón Estefanía Morás Jiménez Estefanía Farías González
INDEX 5
DESIGN CHALLENGE
7
INVESTIGATION + DATA ANALYSIS
21
INSIGHT
23
I’M HERE, I’M OK
29
SKETCHING HOME
37
HOME: MODES
53
COLLECTOR
55
MOBILE APP
59
BENEFITS
Design Challenge
Develop concepts with a system’s thinking approach, that will allow the mexican 65+ population to remain living independently in their homes as long as possible.
Nowadays seniors are a growing sector that year after year increases to live in a world that isn’t prepared to give them a good quality life at the same time they remain independent. Currently there is an estimate of 8.5 millions people of 60+ years in Mexico and it is projected that by 2030 the number will be increased to 20.7 millions and 33.8 millions by 2050. Are we prepared for the change in the age of our population?
5
Investigation + Data Analysis
Our society makes judgements of a person just because of their age which is the case for kids, teenagers and seniors, to mention a few. When you are not a member of these sectors you usually make preconceptions of what they can or can’t do based on their apparent capabilities. This is called Ageism, according to the World Health Organization it’s a concept applied to the discrimination of individuals or groups because of their age. That’s why we and even seniors think they will fall, get depressed or memory loss just because they are aging. But these “characteristics” of being a senior doesn’t apply to everyone and they don’t have to, just because they are common in their age doesn’t make them normal consequences of being elder.
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Advanced Activities Working Hobbies Sports Social Bonding
Relationships Travelling Personal Care Social Interactions
Advanced Activities Medication Public Transport Preparing Meals
Usage of Money House Cleaning Usage of Phone
Basic Activities Eating Getting Dressed Taking a Bath
Unfortunately for seniors there are bigger consequences due to stereotyping because in the real world this means that they have to settle with basic activities even if they can do more. Leaving activities of entertainment and socialization as less important are the first steps to having the usual aging process or even down a degenerative path, the second one ending in having to quit to basic activities; and taking away the basics means to become dependent of someone else. Losing their independence has severe consequences for any person that will lead to depression, worries, health problems and social segregation; this are factors that form a cycle that will start repeating itself in worse conditions every time.
Less social interaction
Social segregation
Worries
Depression and loneliness
Health Problems
Every person tends to feel lonely when there is a lack of attention from their families, because of the senior’s limitations he will be excluded from certain activities and when a senior goes through this segregation, it can trigger many consequences. It has been found that mortality rates are higher among seniors who suffer from depression or loneliness, they consider it their second biggest problem only behind economic issues. Social segregation usually comes after health and mobility problems (among many others) but it has been proven that being positive and staying physically strong brings people a more pleasant aging process.
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Having low probability of suffering disease or disability
Naturally as you age your body changes and you can’t make activities that you used to do or you do them slower, in a successful aging scenario this would mean that seniors could find new methods to accomplish daily tasks according to their capabilities. And to accomplish a successful aging process there are some requirements that every person has to achieve to stay in the right path to aging ideally.
Keeping a socially active life
High cognitive and physical functional capabilities
Productive activities
Life of independent seniors may be very different from dependent but among the few aging factors they have in common there is a very important one, which is that social interaction strongly influences a senior welfare. Older adults may not have the same number of opportunities to socialize as younger people may have by going to work or at school. Even keeping in touch with friends or family may get more complicated as years go by. Social interaction is very important in order to stay sharp, healthy and maybe off dementia. It gives seniors a sense of belonging and keeps them connected to the world around them.
Interpersonal relationships
How can we improve social interactions between the senior and the people around him?
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There are some seniors that achieve a successful aging process without any complications like Edwin, a professional diver that lives independently and travels across the globe to visits his friends and family at the age of 85. In the far-right we can find Leonor, a senior that depends on her family to fulfill her basic activities because of the disease she suffers from. We have a few people starting their aging process in the lower side of the graph and we already can see a trend for a usual aging path in most of them, this is the key point to help them and prevent a usual process for them so they can achieve a successful aging and remain independent as long as they can.
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Aged 85
“I still can dive 10mt in the ocean”
“who will look after me today”
LEONOR
EDWIN
MANOLO
LUZ ESTÉR
MONINA EMMA
OFELIA ALICIA
MIGUEL LUPITA
ANTONIA CRISTINA TERESA
Basic activities
TOTY ELENA
ROSA MANUEL 65
Men
Women
Advanced activities
Home visits Hospitals Appointments Medicines
Despite of having less social interaction than the younger generations, seniors have frequent interactions with different groups that involve various type of activities.
Going out Telephone House phone Eating together Vacations
Each one of this activities creates complications and benefits to a senior’s life due to the actions and movements they are required to do in this spaces. The most important social circle for them is their family, they give them an emotionally rewarded relationship.
Drinking coffee Restaurants E-mail Home visits Social reunions
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Though public spaces generate difficulties for seniors their houses aren’t the most comfortable places. There are three common areas for social interaction, the kitchen in every family meal is a important part of our culture as mexican families, the bedroom when seniors spend most of the day in bed due to sickness and family visits happen in their private rooms and living and dining room area where they gather to talk, play games and watch movies and TV.
Bedroom
Kitchen
The difficulties they have in spaces with limitations like the kitchen are that some objects have no adaptations to their “new” needs such as in appliances, the preparation of the meals becomes harder with time if they don’t have physical skills in shape and moving the objects involved gets more laborious. On the comfortable spaces for social interaction they have open spaces to be moving with a reduced probability of falling, they can interact with other people while sitting and most importantly, there is usually more people involved in the interactions that happen in this spaces.
Living and
dining room
Any damage to the relationship between a senior and his family can be triggered by many different factors but, if they led to ageism then a cycle will start damaging the health of the senior more and more each time a social interaction happens. Because when you as his family worry about him, you will prefer having him at home with you or in a care facility and in the end he will loose his independence.
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Accidents Social bonding Abandonment
SENIORS
interaction between
FAMILY
Social segregation
Worries
lead to
Social Interaction
Ageism
Depression Psychological Predisposition Health problems
Lack of social interaction
affects
The relationship senior+family isn’t as simple as it sounds, there can be multiple families connected to different seniors in different houses.
How can this social interaction can be improved? Through communication
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SENIOR
FAMILY
SENIOR
FAMILY
FAMILY
Insight
A system that will improve the communication between senior and family which will inform of the other relative’s status of activity without a generational gap.
21
I’m here I’m OK
A product for interaction in different moments during the day that will be a reflection of the senior’s and his family physical activity and frequency of his social interactions.
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PAIN Job
No time to communicate Need for continuous monitoring
Sense of security for the family
gain Constant monitoring without invading personal space
24
Through this product family and senior can interact with each other and keep track of each other’s activity from a distance. The gathering of information will be through a seamless process for both the senior and his family for a bidirectional communication. The senior and family will receive feedback of their own activity and the other relatives through nonliteral data with the option for concrete information.
PILLOW TALK Allows long distance relationships to feel the presence of their beloved one through light emissions and heartbeats A concrete fact: I’m in bed. Me too, but communicated in a non-literal way.
Seamless process Bidirectional communication Non-literal data
A product that allows them... Bonding with relatives Quality in relationships Times defined by them Meaningful relations Personal growth
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Sketching
Communication of information through light in main object
System of products for the user to include in his daily routine that will communicate among them
Loading of information as a response of user’s activity
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Connection between users to record levels of social interaction
Portable object to carry with them as an extended product
Take out your family with you Reinforce the family bond by having them as part of the system
Create a system of communication based in a main object and a collector to gather the user’s activity information about their daily lives. A system that won’t intrude into their lives nor completely modify their daily routine.
31
We were looking for a shape that would allude to a small altar to their beloved one. A soft form that would integrate to a mexican home without disrupting it.
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There is no usage of touchscreens due to the mental models of our senior users and therefore we opt for physical buttons on top to scroll through the different interfaces of the screen and with one last button to interact with as a second piece on one of the sides.
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And it’s called...
HOME
COLLECTOR
A 3-part system, HOME as a base for displaying information in the senior’s house and the family’s, Collector as a wearable that gathers the senior’s information and a mobile App meant to be used only by the family Keeping track of a senior’s physical activity and social interaction is of vital importance for his family, this way they can know how much he is moving around his house or exteriors and they can see a reflection of his interactions with others.
HOME
To give them a sense of caring from their families without making them feel invaded in their private space, we developed the emergency mode, this way the family can be directly notified of the situation. Most importantly, we needed to generate communication between them without invading each other’s routine, for this is ”I want to interact” , a mode where they can let their beloved one that they want to talk, see or visit them. This will be through light in the product and when they’re out of their houses or during the night, the product will go into passive mode to avoid disturbing the user’s environment.
MOBILE APP 39
OBTAIN
It will collect the user’s information through the detection of movement and will receive feedback from the Collector and the mobile App. It’s meant to be placed in the living room area to keep as a frequent product to be used in the user’s life.
41
When HOME is activated, the user will see both types of information, physical activity in the lower level and social interaction on top.
ACTIVE MODE
The owner’s information will be on the side and the beloved one will be in the bigger frontal area. To solve the multi-user functionality, the user can slide through the different registered profiles of different families or seniors by using the buttons on top.
43
The user can send an interaction alert through the interaction button from one HOME to another every time they want to communicate to each other, they only have to push the button on the side. When the mode “I want to interact� is activated, a glowing light on the side button will start blinking to notify the user of the notification. In the multi-user functionality, the respective arrow will also glow to let the user know that they have to slide through the profiles to see who is sending the notification.
45
EMERGENCY MODE
When the emergency mode is activated through the wearable, HOME turns red to alert the family that is at their house and will send a notification to their phones. This will be the only moment when accurate information is revealed, the mobile notification will include the location of the senior to send help as soon as possible.
47
PASSIVE MODE
When the user is out of the house or at night, HOME will enter into a passive mode where the main display turns to black with a dimmed light to reduce the glow in the environment. The personal area of information will remain active even in this mode.
49
51
COLLECTOR
The Collector is meant to be used by the senior as a wearable, it will gather the information for physical activity through an accelerometer and social interaction by voice detection of the main user.
HOME
For the emergency mode, the senior will have to push to activate by using his fingers; if there is an unfortunate case where the senior has an accident that left him unconscious or a drastic fall there will be a detector of sudden movements. This mode gets in contact with HOME and the mobile App to send notifications of the alteration.
MOBILE APP 53
To download the information and reload the battery, the user will have to place the Collector on top of HOME and it will automatically reflect the information in the main display. The wearable can be used in different presentations depending on the preferences of the user and how it adapts better to his personality and daily routine. It can be used as a bracelet, necklace or pin on their clothes.
55
COLLECTOR
HOME
The App will show a summary of the family’s activity throughout the days and will display the senior’s information just as in HOME. It will notify in case of emergency due to an activation of the wearable or in case of an irregular change in the senior’s activity.
MOBILE APP 57
A system that will benefit the social interaction between seniors and their families by breaking the generational gap between them by avoiding touch screens to replace them by mechanical interaction.
HOME
Seniors will have their families looking after them without invading the personal space of their houses. Families can have a continuous monitoring of activities without compromising the senior’s privacy. This system won’t keep track of your vital signs and doesn’t record your conversations while registering social interaction.
HOME
is where we belong.
Eduardo Villa Mondragón Estefanía Morás Jiménez Estefanía Farías González