Personal reflection for Semester 2 - The Elderly Challenge

What have you learnt?

I have learnt how to manage my time better as the ADMT project took quite a long time for me to finish, thus I had to reserved some time aside for the ADMT project. I have also learnt the different techniques of generating ideas so as to aid us in our project. This elderly challenge has also taught me how to design things and the considerations to take note of.

What difficulties have you encountered?

I have encountered many problems. One of them is the shortage of time. Most of the days I am very busy and I returned very home very late everyday because of CCA. After returning home, I still have other homework to do, thus time is very precious and its a necessity in doing this project. The other problem is the lack of experience in this area. I do not really know how to do this kind of project and the process is tedious, but it is quite interesting for the part where I can create my own product, which is a walking stick.

How do you overcome them?

As time past by, I gained more and more experience and thus I know what to do and I learnt how to manage my time better. The lessons I went through also helped and guided me in my project.

Reflection - Prototype.

1. What are the difficulties that you have encountered during the process?

The difficulties were that we were new to the topic. At first, we were lost in what to do and did not really have a clear idea of what to do.

2. How do you overcome the difficulties encountered?

After much discussion, we finally got and idea of what to do as each of us contributed to giving suggestions. We compiled our ideas and summarized it to make it short but answering to the point.

3. What are the 2 key takeaways for this lesson?

The two key takeaways are that in designing a prototype one needs to consider a lot on the design. One would also need to test the product either by quantitative or qualitative, whether it would actually work or not.

Ergonomics-(Product description and Idea Trigger)

i) Describe the product. (Appearance, Color, Function, etc)

The above picture is an ice-cream scooper and it is used to scoop ice-cream. It is turquoise in color and t is made up of plastic. It has a metal lever used for releasing the ice-cream from the scoop. The scoop is medium sized and quite light. The handle is rectangular with a half hollow sphere.

ii) What are the design considerations when designing this product?

This product must be able to release the ice-cream from the scoop easily. The product must have a hole deep enough to scoop the users desired amount of ice-cream. The product should be ergonomic so as to prevent injury and provide comfort to the user.

iii) Would an elderly faced difficulty using this product? If yes, what are the difficulties that the elderly would face?

The lever that releases the ice-cream scoop has a high tension so if the elderly was to use it, the elderly may not be able to press the lever without using a lot of strength. The handle is a bit too big and may not be ergonomic to most of the elderly. The shape of the scoop make scooping harder ice-cream difficult.

iv) What do you think can be done to improve on the design of the product to suit the elderly? (Sketch the improved design in your sketchbook and take a picture of it. Post the improved sketch at the end of your post.)

The handle can be sleeker and the lever used to release the ice-cream can have less tension while still performing its intended function, which is releasing the ice-cream. The ice-cream scoop can be sharper in order to dig out ice-cream easily.

Ergonomic 2

1. What is Ergonomics?

Ergonomic is commonly thought in term of product. It means to provide optimum comfort to the user’s to avoid stress or injury.

2. What are the 5 aspects of Ergonomics?

-Comfort

-Aesthetic

-Safety

-Ease of use

-Productivity/Performance

3. For each aspects of Ergonomics, explain with an example of a product that is designed for the elderly, how the product meet that particular aspect of Ergonomics.

Safety -

1. Safety - Medicine bottles: The print on them could be larger so that a sick person who may have impaired vision (due to sinuses, etc.) can more easily see the dosages and label. Ergonomics could design the print style, color and size for optimal viewing.
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3. Comfort - Alarm clock display: Some displays are harshly bright, drawing one’s eye to the light when surroundings are dark. Ergonomic principles could redesign this based on contrast principles.
4. 
   
5. Ease of use - Street Signs: In a strange area, many times it is difficult to spot street signs. This could be addressed with the principles of visual detection in ergonomics.
6. 
   
7. Productivity/performance - HD TV: The sound on HD TV is much lower than regular TV. So when you switch from HD to regular, the volume increases dramatically. Ergonomics recognizes that this difference in decibel level creates a difference in loudness and hurts human ears and this could be solved by evening out the decibel levels. Voicemail instructions: It takes too long to have to listen to all of the obvious instructions. Ergonomics could address this by providing more options to the user, enabling them to easily and quickly skip the instructions.
8. 
   
9. Aesthetics - Signs in the workplace: Signage should be made consistent throughout the workplace to not only be aesthetically pleasing, but also so that information is easily accessible for all signs.

Ergonomic 1-Question 3

3. What are the considerations that should be taken into account when designing a workplace that is suitable for the user?

Lighting, desk space, the design of the chair, the position of the computer, a room specially designed for its purpose.

Ergonomic:

-Comfort

-Aesthetics

-Safety

Ergonomics 1-Question 1

1. Compare the 2 different workplaces, state your observations.

In the first scene, the person seems to have difficulty in settling in the chair and looks very uncomfortable and rigid. The table is unorganized and messy. He had difficulty in typing into the keyboard as the space is confined and the chair cannot accommodate to his comfort. The computer on his desk is situated at a corner and the man have to put on a pair of glass to read the things in the computer screen. Even so, the person still have difficulty in seeing the things in the computer screen and have to use a magnifying glass for a better view . The lighting there is not very good. The height, length and the width of the chair is too small and the person was literally squeezing into the chair. As a result, he could not move his arms properly and knocked down his cup of beverage.


Vice verca, the other person in the other scene has a neat and tidy table. The things on the table are well organised and the person does not have not have any difficulty in settling in the chair. The chair allows the person to adjust to any height for maximum comfort and can support the person sitting in it ergonomically. The person does not have any difficulty in reaching out for the keyboard and typing onto his computer. The computer can be adjusted till he can see the things on the computer screen and the lighting at the desk is good, allowing the person to see clearly on what is on the computer screen.

Holiday work - Part 2: Deepening your learning experiences(Forth part)

When I go to shopping malls, I notice that there are very little elevators built in the shopping malls and some are quite difficult to locate. This makes physically disabled elderlies difficult to move around the malls and they would be ‘discouraged’ to come to shopping malls int the future. I suggest that the authorities build more elevators in the shopping malls and have signs to indicate where are the elevators located in the shopping malls.