3D Models of Prototype

Here are some 3D models of our initial prototype, to make it easier to design and to show other people our design.

The phone features the 3 main buttons on it, with the wheel button on the side for volume.





There is a screen on the front of the phone as well.





The main base unit, features a slot for docking the phone for charging, and updating. It has buttons and an extra large display to allow users to enter new numbers to the phone book on the phone and delete numbers.



Note regarding origin of work:
These models were downloaded from http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ a 3D-model sharing service, and then adapted to our needs, therefore they are not the complete work of ourselves.

Summary of Results for Questionnaire on Phone Usage

Here is the summary of the results obtained from the questionnaire we gave out to elderly people on their mobile phone usage (including on our persona's).

• They use their mobile phones infrequently:
• Ranging from once a every couple of days to never.

• 75% generally don't take the mobile phone out with them
• 100% tried to use it and the battery was flat
• 100% have difficulties using their mobile phone.
• 100% have difficulty remembering how to do things on the phone
• 100% have difficulty remembering what button does what
• 75% have difficulty seeing writing on the screen or buttons
• 100% had the phone bought for them
• 100% consider a mobile phone useful to them in different situations, including an emergency
• When struggling with new technology:
• 50% ask a friend/relative for help
• 25% give up
• 25% consult the manual

These results will be useful in designing our phone to try and tackle the areas where elderly people have problems using mobile phones currently.

Final Meeting To Discuss Prototype

These are the pictures that have been taken during our final meeting to discuss our prototype. As you will see, this is the final idea that we have come up with.

It is a combination of a house and mobile phone that is specifically designed for elderly people. The specification of the handset will be disccussed in a future post.

Some Ideas for Specification on the Prototype

Ideas for Phone

Guys, just thought I would list down some ideas for our phone project and things that we will have to consider on the specification side of things. I think that is important to consider these as we will need to come up with a model that is as realistic as possible. These are only scratching the surface and ideas, so its something to talk about when we next meet.

SPECIFICATION:

• If we are going to look at something for current generation of old people and perhaps not straight away the next generation of old people, need to look at a time scale of a product being able to last in the region of above ten years.
• Old people will not replace phones as rapidly as a younger generation.
• Make new technology “invisible” to old people, but useful to others.
• Expansion in market is rapid so need to have a good footing within market to begin with.

Typical things to look at:
• Network access:
o Current standard of GSM acceptable currently for just calls, but for OTT (over the air transmission) upgrades not an option as data transmission is too slow.
o 3G/HSDPA/EDGE all technologies that provide a much faster data transmission rate that is ideal of OTT, but in early stages of roll out for expansive coverage within the UK. But need to look at alternatives to GSM because of the possibility of the network being phased out.
o WiFi/WiMax not to be ruled out in case networks switch to using IP structure instead of a cell structure. Also useful for OTT.
o Making it QUAD Band to run on all GSM network frequencies would be easier for a mass roll out to all countries.
• Connectivity
o Don’t know if we will require anything like Bluetooth in there, but might be an option to but in due to the new law coming in about 3 points on driving licences if caught using a phone. Some old people will drive new cars, for example having access to mobility allowance, and newer cars are now coming with integrated handsfree sets that connect via this option. Just a thought about this.
o Backup to wireless connectivity to upgrade the phone? Such as mini-USB, pop port is another example although we couldn’t use it in this case because registered to Nokia.
• Optimisation of battery life
o If we are not having a screen, then battery life will go through the roof! Need to look at ways to extend this to a maximal level, i.e. turning off transmission modes when not in suitable areas, wireless will take a lot of power.

Also, we have mentioned tracking in the last meeting and the idea came to me a few days that this will be quite simple. This year you will find that the latest thing to have in a mobile telephone will be GPS equipped phones, with Nokia launching there N95 in April to kick things off. If we can incorporate GPS in the phone, then we can always find that persons phone from anywhere.


Few things to be thinking about guys.

Scott

Meeting To Discuss Prototype

At our first meeting to discuss our prototype model we came up with many good ideas, although our finally specification on it has not yet come into place. Below are the photos from our meeting sessions:

There are pictures from two meetings, with the second being held to draw up some of the ideas that we had from the first meeting.

More Questionnaire Results

Got a few more results for the questionnaire from my grandparents below:

Grand Parents result

This is my granddads questionairre:

This is my grandmas questionairre:

Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire results from my grandparent.

Deirdre Questionnaire Results

Here are the results of the questionnaire for Deirdre's persona.

Hopefully the photos are legible.

Ian

More on what Old people use currently

Just thought i'd post a couple of pics up as to what my grandparents currently use regarding communications equipment, firstly the house phone:



As you can see, really basic, everything easy to use, very straightforward.


The Mobile Phone:



The phone was given to them as it was someone elses, and they do struggle on how to use it. buttons quite small, only advantage is that it has a larger button to answer calls. Other than that, it is quite tricker for the older user.

Existing phones on the market

Done a quick search for existing mobile phones that are aimed at elderly people, to give us some idea of what has been done, and a bit of inspiration for the design of ours.



This is the Silverphone.

A very neat and simple design, but lacks basic functionality, like any simple method to change the preset numbers stored. Also holding the green button for 5 seconds calls 999, and there appears to be no keypad lock feature. More info here.

Believe it or not this is a mobile phone from a Czech company that has received orders of over 100,000 of them. It's basically looks and functions like a house phone with mobile capabilities inside it. More info here, here.

This is a Japanese mobile aimed at the elderly, with no screen, and no pre-entered numbers, you just press the green button then dial your number, just like you would on a house phone. More info here.

Also worth a read is here, where a phone for blind people has been made that uses a speech synthesiser to read everything that would normally appear on the screen. Obviously great for the blind, but might be a bit tiresome for elderly who can still see.

I think the Japanese one is the best, it combines the best of both worlds, simplicity and familiarity of a house phone, with portability and convenience of a mobile phone. The other two fail to do this. The first is portable but has lost functionality, the second has plenty of functionality but is hardly portable.

This is all I could find really, so there is clearly a need for a decent mobile phone for the elderly.

1st Draft of Questionnaire

It was agreed during the meeting I would produce a 1st draft for the questionnaire, so here it is.
Comments positive/negative welcome!

____________________________________________________________________

1 .Do you own a mobile phone?
Yes
No

If you answered No to the previous question go to question 10.

2. In general how often do you use your mobile phone?
More than once a day
Once a day
Once every couple of days
Once a week
Once a fortnight
Once a month
Less than once a month
Never

3. How long do you use your mobile phone for each time?
Less than a minute
Between 1-3 minutes
Between 3-10 minutes
More than 10 minutes

4. Do you generally take your mobile phone out with you?
Most the time I take it
Most the time I don't take it
Evenly take it and leave it

5. Is your mobile phone switched on when you are out?
Most the time it is on
Most the time it is off
Equally On and Off

6. Have you ever tried to use your mobile phone and the battery is flat?
Yes
No

7. Do you have any difficulties using your mobile phone?
Yes
No

If you answered No to the previous question, go to question 9.

8. Tick the areas you have difficulty with:
Difficulty seeing writing on the screen or buttons
Difficulty hearing people on a call
Difficulty remembering how to do things on the phone
Difficulty remembering what button does what

9. Did you buy your mobile phone, or was it bought for you?
I bought it
It was bought for me

10. Can you think of situations when you are out when having a mobile phone would be useful to you?
Yes
No

11. Do you a mobile phone would be useful to you in an emergency?
Yes
No
____________________________________________________________________

The questions are trying to cover a range of issues, such as:

• Do elderly people consider a mobile phone having any benefit to them
• What the problems with their current phone are
• What the problems with the usage of the phone are such as, leaving it off, not charging it, not taking it with them.
• How frequently they use their phone

Lots of the questions are geared towards their attitudes towards mobile phones (technology in general), as well as the difficulties they have using them. As I feel that their attitude towards technology is just as important as any health issues that prevent them using a mobile phone as successfully as the younger generation.

Collected ideas from Research

From the persona's and the pictures taken from the houses that mine and Scott's grandparents live in, I have categorised some main points that will aid in the design of a prototype and also enable us to come up with a questionnaire to get feed back from the users what sort of phone would suit their needs. The points are as follows:

1. The phone will have to be carried around with the user in the house and when traveling to other destinations. Some sort of carrying mechanism must be introduced to facilitate this.
2. Arthritis and dexterity are a hindrance to this sector of society so there must be a control placed on the size of buttons used on the device.
3. Sight is also another factor which will mean if text is to be displayed digitally or on labels they must be of a god size.
4. With the addition of the following two points they must not make the phone to cumbersome for the user as it would become a nuisance and the phone would not be used.
5. The hearing of an individual may vary so testing must be done on to what range of volume output would suit the market we are looking at. This is when a blue tooth hearing aid may be used with the strength of the currently prescribed aid the user has.
6. The phone must be recharged somewhere and so setting up 'a cradle' must come with a good location and easy installation etc.
7. Will Aesthetics be important?

Specific Points to persona's:

Deidre: The phone would be useful when communicating with her husband when he takes the dog for a walk. She often goes shopping the phone would be useful if she had a fall and needed to contact someone (old people generally don't call the emergency services. They make do or maybe call their partner), or when if there was a complication when she needed to be picked up from the hairdressers .

Catherine: still to do after amendments

Ronald: still to do after amendments

All of these points give an idea of the specification the phone must have. the main features the phone would need to address are:

• Communication
• Easy of use
• Reliable (signal, different locations)
• Maintainable (Battery life, updating software, updating phone numbers)
• Cheap

Thinking into market research of phones already available, they must have some of these features to be valuable for our phones design of prototype.

Market Research

Browsing the web I came across a Retirement Exhibition with information on the exhibition and an overview of the ideas behind it. I believe these points are vital and allow us to think laterally our design geared to this sector of the society. The following points are taken from the pdf:

• Twenty million people in the UK - or one-third of the
population - are over 50.
• The over-50s control 80% of the UK’s wealth, have little or no
debt and huge spending power.
• The retired/semi-retired/aspire-to-retire don’t work, take
more holidays than younger people and indulge in a wide
variety of leisure pursuits.
• The over 50s are going to be the driving force in the UK
economy over the next 30 years as baby boomers move into
the next phase of their lives.
• By 2031, the number of people aged 80 and over will rise from
2.2 million to 4.9 million.
• More than 70% of current 50-somethings have no mortgage
to pay, leaving them with a 30% higher disposable income than
younger generations.
• The pot of assets and cash held by people over 50 is valued at
over UK£175 billion.

As we can see the vast wealth in this sector and the possible revenue pitching an idea at this group will provide. We have thought primarily about health and mobility related issues where as these other topics taken from the pdf will allow us to think of some more ideas that may have relevant to our designs:

GARDENING - A hobby, love and a tradition
HEALTH - A lot of ideas can come from this area, we have already come up with a few
FINANCE - Capital and investments to be maintained and used effectively
ANTIQUES - Getting some extra money for holidays and outings or just collecting for personal pleasure
SIMPLY DANCING - A hobby celebrated from the war era and taken up again in later life
PROPERTY - Current property and invested property assets with also a view to leaving it to their families in their will.
TRAVEL - possibly the biggest expenditure for this sector on such companies like SAGA

All of these areas have possible attruibutes linked to them weather it be hardware to aid the users in the activities or software to pursue and facilitate their ideas. I feel in the next team meeting we should take and brain storm some of these ideas for that purpose. Also if we extend Darrens persona's and then we may be able to make a final pitch for the design we wish to do.

Looking at the questionnaire I feel that if we try to develop task analysis' for the persona's and pitch questions aimed at the main points that we extrapolate from them. This should also be brought up in the meeting to get a good variety of opinions and allows us to screen the questions before their distribution.

Comments on Personas and the Next Phase

Guys,

Think we have some good ideas on the personas, but have some suggestions on how we can make these better.

Think that the two that Darren have put up need a bit more detail on the characteristic side of things. Think that the day-to-day side of them are fine, just need to come up with a few more details to make these people as real as possible. We need to build an accurate description that is helpful, does everyone agree with this?

As well, me and Matt discussed doing a questionaire to give to our grandparents to complete, thinking that this would be helpful. Do we have any more ideas for market research?

Deidre Higgingbottom Persona

Background



Deirdre Higgingbottom is a 70 year old lady who lives with her husband in Northumberland. She suffers from arthritis, and her condition has worsoned over the last 5 years, and her mobility has been seriously affected as a result. Deirdre also suffered a nasty fall in 2005 which put her in hospital for 3 months as she needed knee surgery. The operation has restricted Deirdre from leading her every day life, and routine walks to the shops have been replaced by car journeys. The village she lives in is very small with a friendly population, however her house is located on the side of a steep hilltop, with the main village being at the bottom of the hill. Deidre has recently invested in a buggy to help her get around, but her independent attitude makes her not want to use it.Although Deirdre does rely on her husband to drive her to the shops, she still likes to go to the hairdressers and meet with friends without having to drag him around. She has 5 grandchildren and 3 children, and they frequently come to visit them, but they live at opposite ends of the country so Deirdre feels that it's her responsibility to provide hosptiality for them when they visit. Christmas is usually the busiest time for her as she cooks christmas dinner for the family, but her recent fall has made this increasingly more difficult as standing for long periods is no longer possible.

Interests

Prior to her fall, Deirdre enjoyed walking the dog through the woods behind her house, visiting national trust attractions, gardening, entertaining friends and family, bird watching, and baking amongst other interests. Now with the reduced mobility, she struggles to take part in these kind of activities. She spends a lot of time reading the newspapers as she gets three per day, and enters the telegraph crossword competitions every day. Cooking and baking is something that she manages to do every now and again, but not a frequently as previous years, leaving some of the resposibility to her husband. As the couple live in a quiet location, bird watching is still possible for Deirdre but she usually has to do this from the house rather then visiting other areas. She still manages to get out to national trust sites but has be pushed round in a wheelchair by her husband as most of the attractions involve nature trails, or just generally activities that involve a lot of walking or standing.

Daily life

A typical day for Deirdre usually follows a frequent routine. She will get up at about 8am and make some breakfast for herself and her husband. Her husband will then take the dog out for a walk which usually lasts for about half an hour, and when he comes back he will pick the papers up from the postbox at the bottom of the drive. While she is waiting she will usually clear up the breakfast plates and put the dishwasher on. She can then read the papers which will take her up to about lunchtime where the couple enjoy a cold lunch of rolls and cold meats. After lunch the couple drive down to the village to go to the co-op and just generally look around the shops. They usually run into friends and talk to them about the weather and their holidays. Deirdre may then go and get her hair cut and coloured at the local hairdresser which will take about an hour or so. Her husband returns then to pick her up at an agreed time and then the couple go back up the house.They can then settle down and do the crosswords/read the papers before they need to cook dinner. This is usually something quite simple like pork chops or chicken, but most of the cooking is done by her husband. She does lend a hand though as she doesn't like being waited on. They will then eat tea, clear up the dishes and then settle down infront of the fire with a glass of whiskey & water or brandy. They usually put on BBC news 24 and maybe read some magazines. Both of them usually fall asleep in their arm chairs around 8.30 and wake up every now and again to do some more reading. Deirdre will have a bath about ten o clock and then head off to bed.

Other Activities

Deirdre and her husband enjoy going on caravan holidays to france and italy. They have their own caravan and usually go about twice a year, with a third non-caravan holday to somewhere further afield. These holidays are usually for a few weeks and Deirdre's husband does all of the driving as she hasn't had a licence for about 20 years. These holidays are all funded from their pensions, as the pair both had very important jobs as doctor and midwife before they retired. This enables them to live quite comfortably and enjoy their retirements.

More on The Elderly Environment

Hi Guys,

Got some more pictures of the elderly environment for us to look at. They show just one view of a home of the age range that we are looking at:

The Bedroom
Shows a soft side in this persons life, caring, organized side that should and will not be forgotten.



The Hallway
Narrow but not too long in distance, sometimes a bit awkward to get through.



Another view of the hallway
Can just see the phone on the table there, simple setup leading to a spacious bedroom/utility room.



The Kitchen
Quite small but more than suitable for two people. Everything is to hand such as boiler, fridge and washing machine to name a few. All have simple controls to operate and occupants get on fine with them.



Stairway
Can see the two guide rails that are either side to help with accessibity to the outside. Strong secuirty to make occupants feel safe but concrete stairs can prove nasty for a fall.

Assistance for Elderly

Commenting on the last post, glad that we now have clarification on the direction in which we are taking.

Focusing on the market that we are aiming for and trying to develop our personas a bit further, I have taken some more photos of an example environment in which the elderly live in.

I know someone who has currently just been awarded some free accessibility equipment to help mobility around the household.

The first picture that I wish to share with you is a chair that assists with ironing:



The Chair in the bottom-right corner is so that the user does not have to stand as much/ not at all. It address' the fact that a user does not have the stamina to keep stood up throughout the entire process.


Second Item is a chair that is in such a position that it enables a user to get up easily:




The reason for production of such an item is that low down, soft furnitures are not exactly designed with old people in mind. The posture of this chair is such that getting up is made easier due to its tall build and is of a firmness so that you dont sink into it, although its not exactly the most comfortable either!

The next item is a basically a litter picker:



It is used to pick up objects off the ground without having the need to bend down. This makes it much more easy to move items without causing too much stress to backs, legs and other muscles that no longer have the energy to move around as freely. We need to remember that movement is greatly restricted within the age group we are concerned with, so need to make things simple and straightforward.

The final item I am going to share with everyone is something to help put your tights on. Its basically two slips in which each legging fits over and the flexible cord that is attached is pulled up until the tights are in the required position. Because the slips are not of full cyclinderical proportion and more of a half moon shape, the device then slips of quite easily.




Thats all I have for here, but I think that the more inside information that we have towards our audience the better. Any thoughts get back to me.

Technology to Design -> Phone for over 60's

It has been agreed in a meeting that the useful technology we will design is a mobile phone for over 60's.

This won't necessarily include any of the latest technology, as the focus of the design will be centered around "ease of use". We will carefully consider current mobile phone interfaces and interactions and the problems elderly people have with them.

The aim of the mobile phone will be to provide a means of communication for elderly people as simply as possible.

We will need to consider the problems elderly people have with current mobile phones in our design, generally these are:

• The reluctancy of elderly people to use new technology
• Poor memory (illustrated perfectly in a previous post by Matt) meaning they can forget which button does what
• Poor memory to remember to actually charge, or take the phone with them.
  

Ronald Burgendy Personna

Description


Ron is a well loved 75 old man that enjoys life to its full, he lives with his wife Shelia in the first garden city of Letchworth , they live in a detached house with a very long garden in a quiet street. They have a well decorated house which is often done up by Family members over the holiday periods. Ron is very family orientated man, along with his wife Shelia they have always kept in contact with their family. It is very important to them. Easter might not be very religious holiday any more, but to him it very important. The whole family comes to visit on Easter and he loves looking after them. They own a family computer that Shelia and Ron, however when things go wrong it is often their son in law that they look to for help, the computer is important to him as lets them keep in contact with the ever expanding family. Despite enjoying life Ron has a bad back which he picked up in the war and some days he cant do his usual chores, and as Shelia has not drove in a long time it is he that does the driving for the both them. Ron loves to sing and has been in the Choir for over 40 years now. This where he socialises most with his best friend Bob. Ron has known Bob for over 50 years and to him, there isn't a closer friend. He loves to walk but he will be the first to admit that he cant keep up with the younger generation like he used to. Ron is also a very keen gardener and he loves growing his own strawberries, unlucky for him so do the squirrels.


Interests:

Ron is a very keen gardener and with the help of his wife they have a top class garden full with a working water feature in their pond, he believes that is it better than the Chelsea flower show! Ron loves watching sport shown on the TV is very patriotic and he wants the English to do well, despite following all sports its his tennis interests that are most important and it saddens him that a Englishman has not won the Wimbledon trophy for such along time. Ron is a huge fan of toast and to him its the most underrated food ever next to porridge that is; and toast is made better when using home made jam! Ron uses the plums and blackcurrants from the garden to make a fine selection of jam, to which his family is most pleased. According to Ron one of the most beautiful places in this country is the Lake District, and every May he likes to take his wife and family for a walking holiday in the lake district of course they don't all follow his idea of hikes and walks, his crazy family like going up waterfalls and rock faces, he though is happier with just hiking. Ron is a regular subscriber to the Daily Mail newspaper and often spends his time arguing with the contents of said paper through letters to the editor and His loving wife. Though the one great thing that is in the paper for him is the crosswords, he sees it as his daily challenge to complete one.

Day in the life of Ron

Ron gets up at 7am, and has his shower then makes his and Shelia's couple of tea, he cant start the day without one. Then he gets on with his other ritual; Porridge. When ever the grandchildren come over they will all be given some the finest Scot's Oats porridge for breakfast. Its tradition, he will always make it in the pan, the microwave is cheating as far as he is concerned. Once he has done is daily chores, he likes to spend time in the garden, Ron is no usual gardener. In his garden are potatoes, sweetcorn, beetroot, rhubarb, carrots, plums, apples, blackcurrants, mint, tomatoes. His loving care of these plants has saved him £000s over the years. In the afternoon he and his wife Shelia go out for a walk round the countryside, before back in time for afternoon tea. Whilst drinking his tea, he likes to read the Daily Mail. Doing the crossword, and then help Shelia make the dinner before sitting down in front of the TV to chill until late. Then its off to bed

Goals/Fears and Aspirations

Ronald's main aim in life is to enjoy it whilst it lasts and be with his dearest Shelia as much as possible. Tea consumption must be at a high level each day, and is greatest fear is the losing of his beloved strawberries to those pesky squirrels or losing his potatoes to frost. Another major fear of this is the loss of a tight family unit, he fully believes that the family should support each other in times of crisis and he keeps touch with them all.

Computer Skills, Technological Knowledge and abilities

Ronald has his own computer that was given to him by his son in law, Andy, and is maintained by his grandson and Andy whenever they pop over. He uses the computer to do his accounts and to track of all the photos of the family on holiday, it is also very important to him for email reasons he helps him keep in touch with some of the family in Australia and Canada as well as the closer family members. It loves to log on it each day to see if he has received any news via email. Ron however finds that the computer can be very frustrating at times, he doesn't like the slow speed when he asks to do simple things like surf the web, he also hates the constant junk mail that is sent to him. Ron does have a mobile phone however he finds it very difficult to use, it takes him along time to send a text message and he often just stabs at the phone to press the buttons. This he finds most frustrating, but he knows he must have it on him as his daughters get very angry. He dos have a habit of turning the phone off when he doesn't want to use it, this does not go down well with his siblings.

Personnel Quotes

"More Tea dear?"

"Look at the little blighter, you wait to I get my hands on you!" (when seeing a squirrel)

"Bloody useless thing!"

"Keep in touch"

"You shouldn't work too hard dear, you are not doing your body any favours!"

"Its good to see you, we don't get see you enough these days"

Persona's incl. Catherine Turner Persona

What is A Persona?

To aid us with our user centred HCI project design we have used the Microsoft web page to help us understand personas meaning and its beneficial usage within the project.

Persona – A fictional character that can be used as a tool in the design process by cresting task analysis and characteristics to allow the development of ideas in solution creation and also aid in evaluating design features by applying the user centred design techniques on them.

The Microsoft website defines four main problem areas that are encountered when using personas they are:

1. The characters were not believable; either they were obviously designed by committee (not based on data) or the relationship to data was not clear.

2. The characters were not communicated well. Often the main communication method was a resume-like document blown up to poster size and posted around the hallways.

3. There was no real understanding about how to use the characters. In particular, there was typically nothing that spoke to all disciplines or all stages of the development cycle.

4. The projects were often grass-roots efforts with little or no high- level support (such as people resources for creating and promoting Personas, budget for posters or other materials to make the Personas visible, or encouragement from team leaders: .thou shalt use these characters.).

taken from: http://research.microsoft.com/research/coet/Grudin/Personas/Pruitt-Grudin.pdf

To overcome these problems they must be considered when designing our personas. These are the ways in which each of the above problems where tackled in the creation of our personas.

1. They are based on grandparents of the team and our experiences with them and their everyday lives including the design probes used in two houses highlighting areas of importance with that age group.

2. Extensive detail produced into each persona including likes activities ambitions and a day in the life of. Also photos make the personas appear more life like and believable.

3. The product is based on the usability issues and requirements arisen from the age group that the personas are members of.

4. By using a diverse range of ages and lifestyles, we managed to address the fact that the personas don’t limit the observed users to a specific niche market.

These points allow us to understand the theoretical implications when creating personas and therefore develop the best personas for our project.


Catherine Turner Persona

Description

Catherine is a active 70 year old that enjoys the countryside and being with her friends. She lives the countryside town of Bedford. Her husband died in his sleep twenty years ago and she lives on her own. She lives in a semi-detached house with a large garden. As she has been in the house for a long time she hasnt decorated it in years and she prefers it this way. She has all the modern appliances with the exception of a computer. She can drive and has been known to have cheap cars that last her 2 years at the most. She finds good fun in helping out at her local church for all of the typical services and to help raise money to keep the church from running. With her help the church built a museum in tribute to John Bunyan, a Christian preacher that was put in prison for his preaching. She loves dogs and watching the tennis at Wimbledon, she also spends large amounts of time looking after her much older friend Elsie. She still has very good help for her age and is very independent, she wont let anyone touch the washing up when they are over and loves to spoil her grandchildren when ever possible by taking them to the sweet shop!

Interests

Cath enjoys playing Badminton with her grandchildren when she looks after them in the summer and plays for fun at the local sports hall despite not having great movement she still gets to most shots and smash is not something to be messed with. She is proud of her garden and spends large amounts of time in her garden making presentable to all the local squirrels and birds that feed on the nuts and bread that leaves out for them. She loves flower decorations and makes them often for her church for events like Easter and Christmas. She is often seen walking one of the many family dogs around the local river where she is often seen picking flowers for her displays. Being a woman shopping is favorite past time with her best friend Pat this is often great for catching up. Whilst watching her Soap opreas she is often does some sewing to help past the time. And when she is in the mood for a challenge she finishes her current jigsaw project.

Daily Life, an average day

Mrs Turner gets up at 6am everyday, has a her morning shower before she makes her usual breakfast of weetabix and hot milk with a cup of tea. She then takes her pills and does the daily chores. Around 10am she will leave the house for town, despite being able to drive and owning a car she prefers to walk to the local shop and then onto her church. She has buy her newspaper here as the shopkeeper has run out of paper boys. Whilst at church she helps to make the tea and coffees for the visitors whilst catching up with her friends.
Cath then walks to Marks and Spencers, where she had worked for years and now has ex staff discount to pick up a much needed jumper. Cath likes to take the scenic route home via the local river Ouse, when she has some spare bread she likes to feed the ducks. Once at home she makes herself a good sandwhich and listens to the 'Wireless', After the Archers has finished she spends her time doing a jigsaw puzzle, if the weather is good she does this in her garden. Around late-afternoon one of her grand daughters, 'Nicky' pops over to say hello and brings the family dog Sam. Sam knows exactly where the biscuits are kept and waits patiently at the cupboard.
After the teas have been finished Nicky heads home with a begrudged Sam, who enjoys the extra attention Cath likes to give. She then makes Dinner for herself and watches her favorite soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street whilst completing her sewing project. Around 9ish she often gets a phone call from her sister in London Winnie whos tells all about the goes on in the busy capital. Around 10.30pm its time for bed.


Other Activities

Cath looks after her grandchildren every Friday and picks them up from school to take them to the sweet shop, she will then look after them until her son comes home from work. She loves to play games like I spy with them and they give her energy to keep going. She has also been known to love holidays in Malta, despite having been there so many times she still feels that she hasn't explored it all yet.

Goals, Fears and Aspirations

Cath's daily goal is too get everything done before early afternoon so that she can spend time chilling out, doing one of her favourite activities. Her greatest fear is that something bad will happen to one her of immediate family, she cares greatly for them.

Computer Skills/Technology Knowledge and Abilities/Attitude

Cath has never owned a computer and her house phone is 40 years old. However she constantly points out that is still works and has never failed her. She does own a DVD player and flat screen TV though, it was brought for her by her family as her last tv's were hand me downs and lost colour. She does struggle to use these as the tv instructions change for each tv and it annoys her as all she wants to do is record her favourite soaps. Cath does own a mobile phone and she finds it a bit confusing, she cant text, but she can call people and find names in a phone book. She doesn't like the fact she does not know what all the symbols on the screen.

Caths Quotes

"Would you like a sweet, i have plenty."

"now rap up warm and make sure you ring me when you get home"

"God Bless"

"Look at those lovely flowers!"

Slide show of Grand Parents Visit Additional Photos

Grand Parent Visit

At my grand parents I decided to take some pictures of the layout and areas of interest where they spend a lot of time.

1. Firstly is Grandmas Seat with her sweets, books, phone and all the little things that keep her comfortable. The organisation here is not very good and quite unsafe next to the fire on the left of picture.

2. Next is the zimmer-frame, this is the downstairs one that allows movement from lounge to kitchen and hall way through doors to.

3. This picture shows the upstairs zimmer-frame next to the stairs. On the stairs you can notice a sign that says 'bad leg' reminding my gran to put her bad leg first on the stairs due to new hip.

4. This shows the bottom of the stairs with 'Good leg' same reason as above.

5. Here is a picture of coming down the stairs where the council placed an additional inside rail so no prop is needed to assend the stairs.

If this creates any more ideas for the design then add a comment and let me know. To following post will be a slide show of some additional pictures taken from the house. Please return with annotations if you find someting interesting.

Discussion Continued...

I agree with Scott that the ideas put forward are all valid but I also feel that the mobile is the most appealing idea. I can relate to it most as my grandparents often struggle for some sort of simple communication technology that keeps them intouch with each other, keeps them safe and allows us to contact them. This device will be both practical for their use and beneficial for "Keeping tabs" from my families point of view.

I have a fiew more ideas that I have though of related to the over sixities pitch as spending time with my grandparents I have noticed some things that they do and the following ideas can tackle these problems.

• A tempurature monitor - This allows the core tempurature of the individual to be read and then compared with the surrounding tempurature. Then the device warns them if a drop in tempurature might affect their persons health. Neumonia is the biggest killer to old age pensioners with poor insulation in old houses and their neglect for their own health as they feel they can handle the harsher weathers in the winter. This is unlikely the case as their bodies metabolisms do not produce enough heat for their bodies to remain in a safe core tempurature for their organs to function properly. Loosing this will probably result in neumnoia and then a coma. It is very benificial product and implementing it will be fairly striaght forward in terms of hard ware and software. It will also be cheap to manufacture and therefore cost effective. A definate life saver that would be encourage by schemes such as the NHS and other council support groups.
• In ear DAB - Digital radio has recently been taken on in the home by my family and their relatives who are in the age range 50-90. It allows them to listen to good quality radio of their choice with ease and no interfearence from other radio frequencies e.g. power cables, and the ability to transmit other data forms (RDS Radio data service allows the transmit text, pictures etc.). The idea of having a personal digital radio recieveer built into the hearing aid will allow them to take their radio with them anywhere. RDS can also inform, them with the aid of a simple channel changer, when they have moved from one station to another.

A couple more ideas

Hi guys,

Just a couple more ideas which I think we should take into consideration.

• The first is a device which will aid the visually impaired when carrying out day-to-day tasks, such as going to the shops. Microchips can be installed at obstacles which may cause problems for the users, and these chips will transmit a spoken warning to an earpiece, to be worn by the user. This is something that can be realistically acheived and will help vast amounts of people.
  
• The second is a more novel idea in creating weather adjusting clothing. The material will be able to adjust to the current climate, ensuring that the owner is kept at the desired temperature all of the time. The material can be controlled by a chip which can make the material let in more/less air depending on the weather and user preference. I know that this one sounds a little crazy but i'm just trying to think 'outside of the box'!
  

P.S Check these slides out, thought it would be a shame to deprive everyone of my neat handwriting.

Futher Discussion of Ideas

Just to further discuss the ideas that Alex posted in the last blog, I think that all the points that have been discussed are both valid and reasonable. However, in my opinion I think that the mobile phone idea would be a very good one to pursue further.

There are several reasons for this, the first being that I can relate to this topic more than the other suggested ones. Having elderly relatives who I know struggle using up to date technology due to their complex instructions and difficult interactions facilities. I think that trying to simplify what are already available on the market would be something interesting and helpful.

We already have a good base to start with as there are a lot of models out there that can be studied and analysed. I think that perhaps even there are a few models on the market that are specifically orientated towards the older generation, so looking at these would be a great help.

These a just a few ideas that I have on the matter, what does everyone else think?

Initial Topic Ideas

For over 60's:

• Simple computer - simple hardware, and simple Operating System, to give them basic functionality, e.g. e-mail, web access, word processing. Similar to the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) scheme, but focus the computer/laptop at elderly people. In particular focus the design of the hardware interface and software interface on simplicity.
• Simple mobile phone - A basic mobile phone, that just includes the features required by elderly people, mainly just making/receiving calls. Perhaps some innovative technology used to make the interaction with the phone extremely easy for the elderly.
• House security system - Many elderly live alone, and security can be a worry for them. Using various technologies, incorporate a security system throughout their home, with features such as detecting windows/doors that are open, displaying who is at the front door on a screen, a silent alarm to police/family in an emergency.

For under 11's:

• Interactive learning - using cutting edge technologies to provide a life-like learning environment for children, on their computer at home.
• Safety Browser - a specific web browser for children, to provide ultimate safety for them while browsing on the web (may have been covered too much with various security software to provide safety for children on the internet).