Week 12 Final design

On week 12, We are going to design a ideas and concept of the Urilift to become our final design.
Although our final design is in the progress, but we have make an improvement on the handrail, the pop-up button, emergency button and the floor. The Urilift is in the underground, so that can save a lot of spaces. The handrail has design into a rough texture to prevent slippery and also made with rubber, and the length is from the entrance of the Urilift until the place of the toilet bowl accordingly from stand up to sit down. There is a pop-up button, which is use for step in and the Urilift will rise up. So that, elderly no need to use their hand to touch on it, because this will become a problems for a elderly who cannot bend their back. For the emergency button is use for elderly who has difficulties when they are in the toilet, and also to call for help through this button. When the Urilift has rise up on the ground, the level of the floor is in the same height as the ground, To make it more convenience for the disable elderly, also has added the turning plate on the floor to let the disabled elderly move in easily and the plate will turn in a suitable place. It is all works in automatically. After consult the lecturer, the Urilift is too small to let the disabled elderly to move in. The turning plate also too small to fix in the size of the wheel chair.

Week 11 Survey questions

The following questions are according to the first mind map problems.

Question 1:  What are the common spaces usually elderly will goes?
Selections

• Community center/ Elderly Corner
  Park
• Market/Grocery shops
• Public toilets
• Void decks

Question 2:  How does elderly spend their time wisely when they are free?

Selections

• Reading newspaper
• Playing chess/ mahjong with friends
• Learn some talent like dancing, qi gong, singing and etc...
• Shop for grocery
• Watching TV Channel
• Take care for their grandchild

 Question 3:  Are you still in work or retiree?

Selections

• Still in work
• Retiree

Question 4:  What are the most problems elderly have faced when they are at these common spaces?

Selections

• Is not easy to interact with others elderly especially goes to the community center or elderly corner
• Some of the exercise equirment does not provided handles.
• There are no roof to shade the path through markets or grocery shops.
• The floor is slippery especially in the public toilets.
• In the public toilets does not has enough special toilets for elderly and only for disable toilet has handle to hold
• Lack of CCTV in some void deck areas.
• Lack of shield in the void deck to prevent cold when raining.
• Some void decks only has an entertainment equirment, like Television, Radio and etc...
• Cannot remember where is the remote control placed after using it.

Question 5: Does the public toilets has any problems?

Selections

• Some of the public toilets don't has the handrail to hold.
• Slippery floor.
• In some locations, the distance of the public toilet is too far to reach.
• In some area, public toilets are too small to move in.

Week 9 & 10 Another ideas of product

This week, I am doing some sketches to sketch out the ideas of the Urilift, which is an idea come from one of the member. But I am only doing a part of the Urilift design, is more focus on the ventilation part.

Fig 1 The concept of Urilift ventilation.

In this figure 1, The concept of the Urilift is under the ground when not using it, just press a button and will pop-up, it can saves a lot of spaces, and also placed in somewhere there is less public toilets. There is a button located on the roof of this Urilift. On the bottom of the roof, the cube shape holes is for the hot air flows upwards so that inside will not feel so stuffy. The part of the ventilation is on the top of the handrail. There is a handrail in this Urilift for those elderly to hold and support their leg. The floor tiles has change into non slippery tiles. I have search something about the non slippery floor tiles or anti-slip chemical from internet. The final result is there is a anti-slip chemical can solve the slippery floor problems in just apply it on the existing floor area. After that, there is a microscopic thread patterns created but is within the floor tiles. And also be able to feel the grip when step on.

Bibliography:

Electronic source

Non slippery floor solutions,

Vincent Interior Blog. Anti-slip floor solution by G-MES: Protect old folks, children and yourself. Created 10th April 2013. Accessed 15th April 2016.

Week 7 & 8 Chapter 3 individual sketch

This week, I am doing some sketches to sketch out the ideas of the remote and table that prevent losing the remote control.

                                                     Fig 1 ideas 1 controller on the table (top view)

                                                 

                                                    Fig 2 ideas 1 controller on the table (top view)

                                                    Fig 3 ideas 2 a hole inside the table (side view)

                                             Fig  4  ideas 2  a hole in the table(top view)

In figure 1, the concept of this idea is that controller stick on the table to prevent elderly forget where it placed after using it. This is a actual size of the controller. Fig 2 shows enlarge size of the controller. It has a screen which can be touch. Elderly can slide the screen and find their favourite channel. The controller also has language selection, so that they can choose their own language to understanding how the controller works. On the right-hand side has a speaker which can say that number of the channel and it will automatically switch into the channel. In that screen, not only can choose your channel and also will appear what is now showing and next showing, and even can enlarge the screen of controller to watch the movies. There is a on/off button on top of the left hand side. The height of this controller can also be adjust from high to low, but it also has a certain level to reach. It is just like a small TV in a controller. The second idea of the product is a table with a hole inside it which shows in figure 3. Each table will has a hole to put the remote control, it is a space to place your remote. There is a light beside the hole. Green light means remote is there, red light means remote is not placed inside, and also will flash like a flashlight to let you know. The depth of the hole has a certain height to put in the remote and it could only fix in the half length of this remote.

Week 4 Case Study

The case study that I have done is about elderly having loss memory problems.

There is an issue regarding some of the elderly’s having bad memory. One example of this problem they face is that they often forget where is the remote controls are placed after using it. To tackle this issue, we have found a method in an article to tackle this issue. It was found that the aged themselves are required to understand the importance of undergoing fitness programs which will stimulate, not their bodies, but their brain to improve their memory. Hence, programs were devised to conduct lessons for the elderly, letting them learn more about their own health issues and teaching them on how to improve it themselves through small activities which they can do on their own every day. One such example is to try to remember some tiny details such as names, dates or location of household objects. All these actions may not seem to be very effective, but it still help to stimulate the brain and keep it active. As people get older, it takes more time for them to remember all these little information they see. Hence, without any effort to stimulate their brain, their memory would worsen as they get even older.

What: A lesson to teach the elderly on the importance of keeping their brain active and ‘exercising’ it, and how to do it.

Why: The elderly themselves do not know the negative effects of not stimulating their brains frequently, which leads to bad memory loss, affecting their normal lives.

When: The problems become worse

Who: The elderly

Where: In Maryland Los Angeles, 115 seniors who are living in two full service continuing-care retirement  communities.

How: They provide a training course which are different from other cognitive courses, education is one of the factor to impact memory ability and not just only offered memory training techniques. Participants may received education on a antioxidants in diet rich,  daily physical exercise and relaxing are also very important in the part of curriculum.

Bibliography:
Electronic source

Rick Nauert PhD. Brain fitness training improves memory in seniors. Created 30 Aug 201. Accessed 20 March 2016<http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/08/30/brain-fitness-training-improves-memory-in-seniors/29026.html&gt;>

Week 3 Mind map of the Research Methodology

                                          Fig 1 Mind map of research methodology in the common spaces for the elderly around the neighbor hood.


In week 3, we had done a research methodology about the common spaces and also to find out more information through the different primary and secondary resources. The primary sources are experiment, one of our member did a field experiment about how does elderly walk up the stairs and also found out  the problems when they walk up to the stairs. Some of the elderly has leg problems which means their leg will pain when they are doing some activities included a daily exercise, walking. We had chosen a place to observe the elderly, what they are doing in the chinatown, mostly the elderly like to talk with friends sit somewhere to rest and also like to shop. After they shop, they will carry those carrier and some elderly they need to carry these heavy stuff back to their home. Survey is also one of the primary sources,  a survey is to know about more about the thought of the elderly and problems. There are two interviews that we had done with two different aged elderly live in different area. Secondary sources are from books, internet, magazines, newspaper and journal. Mostly, the sources that we were found are from books, internet and newspaper.

Week 2 Mind map of the common spaces around the neighbourhood

                                                            Fig 1 mind map of the common spaces for the elderly around the neighbor hood


My group member and I had discussed about the common spaces for the elderly around the neighbor hood in week 2. Firstly, we had written down the places that the elderly might go and the places are community center, elderly corner,  park , coffee shop or kopitiam, wet market and bus stop, etc...Secondly, we analysis the problems that they had faced, which are overcrowding especially share with everyone. When it is raining there is lack of shelter for the elderly. Some of the elderly also has deteriorating eye sight and cannot see signal clearly. They also have memory problems, sometimes cannot find the direction to their way home. Due to the places like market, is a noisy environment also they cannot hear clearly. Lastly, after listed out these problems, we had made a conclusion to solve the problem. We started to write out the research methodology on week 3.

Week 2 Chapter 2 Interviews

           The two interviewee are from Marsiling Drive and the other one is from Yishun. Below are their persona and transcript. The first interviewee is interview with my group member together. The second interviewee is interview by myself.

                

              Interviewee 1

                                           

                                                                         Persona 

                                                     

                                                                  Figure 1 Lee Han Wen

                                      http://www.flickriver.com/photos/gabrielbermejo/tags/asia/

Name: Lee Han Wen

Age: 65 years old

Gender: Male

Occupation: Retired (present)

Family condition: Average social class

Family members: Wife, two sons

Address: #06-1023, Blk 240, Marsiling Drive, 730240 Singapore

Transcript

Group members: We will have an interview with you, regarding your lifestyle in common space.

LEE HAN WEN: Ok, what should I do next?

Group members: Just answer our questions. Firstly please introduce yourself? Give us more details.

LEE HAN WEN: Ok, my name is Lee han wen. I am 65 years old, I live in Marsiling Drive with my wife. I had two sons, Lee xiao gang and Lee xiao heng but they are busy with their business overseas, so we spend less time with them. My two sons still haven’t marry, they are both 30 years old, so I hope them can marry soon and then my wife and I can take care our grandchildren. We have a lot of time to spend.

Group members: Since you and your wife have a lot of time to spend, where are you usually go?

LEE HAN WEN: In the morning, we always go to the park nearby to exercise and we will take our dog along us. Oh I forgot to introduce my dog, it’s a female dog, named rou rou. She is very clever and kind, we treat her like our daughter, it’s our family member too, she really gives us fun and kill the time when we had nothing to do. In the afternoon if our friends are not visiting us, we will go downstairs. There is an elderly lounge that we can play chess, mahjong and so on. We will go to park again in the evening to have line-dancing party with our friends. These are my daily activities.

Group members: So what do you think can be improved to make common space more satisfying for you?

LEE HAN WEN: Let me think about it…you know our HDB is quite old, so there has a lot of elderly here and also many funeral arrangement. Downstairs have an open area, I think is for some performance I don’t know, however many funeral take place there. This would affect the feeling for the elderly when they saw these.

Group members: Yes, I agree with this. Just now you mention that you would go to elderly lounge, is that any hidden danger there.

LEE HAN WEN: Actually is quite safe, because there usually have elderly or their grandchildren only. And the place is very quiet.There also have clinic and healthcare organization nearby.

Group members: Ok, thank you for your time.

Interviewee 2 

                                                         

                                                                         Persona

                                                                     

                                                              Figure 2 Mr. Albert Loh

                                         http://www.healthcareasia.org/2012/old-people-are-vulnerable-to-fraud-study/

Name: Mr. Albert Loh

Age: 70 years old

Gender: Male

Occupation: Retired (present)

Family condition: Average social class

Family members: wife, one daughter

Address: #08-1005, Blk 400, Yishun Avenue 6, 760400, Singapore

Transcript

Questions

Me: Are you staying alone?

Albert : I stay with my wife and I have a daughter but she is not staying with us because she need to work overseas.

Me: What are the common spaces that you usually go?
Albert : I usually go to community center and elderly corner to spend my time playing chess with my friends. Sometimes I also go shopping for grocery.

Me:What are the problems that you may face when you are in these common spaces?
Albert : There are places like the public toilets, the floor is slippery, does not have handrail to hold and the air ventilation is bad, making the toilet smell bad and stuffy.

Me:So what do you think can be improved to make the public toilets become better?
Albert : Although some of the public toilets are quite old but if these public toilets can make an improvement like non slip flooring, install assistance handrail and install a ventilator machine to let the air move around to keep the toilets fresh and decrease the odor.

                             

Week 2 Chapter 1.2 Usage of the Common Spaces

 Due to the ageing population, their physical mental are limited and health status are gradually become worst, so that they could only go to nearby common space and build up their social interaction with friends, therefore a common space has play an important role for elderly. For an analogy, for those elder people living in urban or suburbs will need a green common space to relax themselves, like a park or garden. The usage of common space for elderly are void decks, market, elderly corner, community centre, and etc…..They usually go to these places during their free time.. Elderly can have different kind of activities to spend their time. For examples, elder people may having a meeting with their friends, playing chess, buying something, learning talent, reading newspaper, and etc….. There are several ways to find out the usage of common space for elderly, through internet searching and survey.

Examples:                                  

                                          

                                                   

                                                               Figure 1  Yishun neighbourhood market

                                                               Figure 2 Yishun Avenue 6 old version of the void decks

                                                                                     Figure 3 Yishun Avenue 6 new version of the void decks

                                                               Figure 4 Yishun Nee Soon Park

                                                                                              Figure 5 Yishun Nee Soon Park walkpath