Concept
This was my senior design project, conducted through MAE 4341 Innovative Product Design via Digital Manufacturing. I collaborated with Theresa Bracht, Zachary Capel, Dylan Hoang, Yaseen Islam, Michael Xiao, and Crystal Zhao on this project. As of April 2020, four of the original seven members and I are continuing to work the project. We are producing a third prototype, filing a provisional patent, and conducting more in-depth user-testing.
Prompt
Redesign the senior experience to be so game changing that it sets a new standard for the elder care industry.
Empathy Fieldwork
Impaired vision
Impaired vision with caretaker
Impaired hearing
Arthritis simulation
Walker observation
Interviews with caretakers and elderly
Interviewing my grandma
Exercise at assisted living home
Dining observation
Birthday observation!
Unpacking engagements
From conducting empathy fieldwork via disability simulations, discussions with parents and grandparents, and user interviews at elderly homes in Ithaca, we developed a set of emotional datapoints.
Emotional Data
The most common themes we extracted from our interviews were: 1) connections with others, 2) health, and 3) independence. We found that seniors truly crave social connection, especially when their physical health and mobility deteriorates, and try to maintain their own physical wellbeing as much as possible without relying on others for assistance. From our user interviews and emotional data points, we developed three personas to exemplify the users we were designing for and focus our ideation process (see above).
Ideation
After ideating almost 50 ideas, we narrowed our choices by evaluating the desirability and feasibility/viability of each idea. The top two ideas, an easy-to-remove trashcan and a waterfall pitcher to solve dehydration issues, were given a final round vote using a pros and cons chart. We ultimately chose the waterfall pitcher due to its direct relevance to senior health.
Refining: Concept Testing
Our team researched dehydration in seniors further by reading through research papers and studies, as well as through impromptu interviews with people in Ithaca commons. We came armed with a "Wizard of Oz" style prototype that had light and sound capabilities.
To gather feedback from a larger network, we also distributed an online survey with an animated gif and brief description of the product.
User Testing Emotional Data
This emotional data collected from concept testing was used to create Customer Requirements. We also researched competitor products. The Customer Requirements and Competitor Research were combined to create a 'House of Quality' for our product, which allowed us to determine tunability and weight as the most important functional requirements for our prototype.
Based on our weighted Functional Requirements, we developed our first prototype!
Prototype 1
Prototype 2
The key change from prototype 1 to prototype 2 is the assisted pour feature. We found that seniors with limited upper body strength struggled to lift the pitcher, and wanted to incorporate a way for these users to extract water without straining themselves or caretaker help. We are currently working to patent this "handle-spout" innovation.
Product Demo Video