My idea on designing mobility aid

My design's criteria-
cheap/ low budget
light
handy
not so high technology
correct a minor error in their life to improve lifestyle

idea of the design came from observing elderly going up and down staircase by using hand to lift their knee up on the staircase while the walking cane is useless.

This tool is meant to lift elderly's leg up easier.

Mind map of DESIGNING

I think aeronautic, magletive and GPS are some of the challenging innovation to the future mobility aid we are going to think about, We will never worry about the obstacles on different road types if the device is meant to have no friction with floors.

Besides that,GPS is another good idea in avoiding road with obstacles, alternatively helping user with Alzheimer.

Seat wherever You Want !

Walk-A-Seat is a walking stick with fold out seat!

• seat height: 550mm
• Load capacity: 115kg
• Maximum weight: >1kg

http://www.mobilitycare.net.au/mobility_products/walk-a-seat.html

This tool is amazing! It is too useful if the user is in a queue , mrt or wherever without looking for a seat or waiting other finds them a seat.

 

The product is very stable too! Here I found a feature on youtube about the review of this tool.

I think this is a good example of design which I can learn from. The aim / intention of design is simple but challenging. The product perfectly achieve the requirement and it somehow looks easy and simple.

What is Survey Monkey?

It is a kind of survey which could be done on line which the creator can sent out the survey form constructed by themselves or the template provide to the potential participants through email, web and social media.

It is free and could be updated through in-apps purchase. Yes, it is and app on IOS AND ANDROID.
Receive survey responses at finger tips.

Thank you very much to the founder and the team of Survey Monkey- Ryan Finley so we got to receive opinions from public easily.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/home/

Primary Research Method

Our aim now is to invent a budget, handy and revolutionary walking device which help elderly to travel easily within Bugis area.

We discussed on the project and decided to carry out 3 primary researches in order to understand deeper about the issue we have.

1. Yenyyee will be doing interview with one resident in Bugis who matches the characteristics of our persona.

Possible questions to asked included the feeling of moving among the crowd, the obstacles faced in moving , his wish in improving the quality of elderly's movement and etc.

The aim of carrying this interview is to understand better the feeling of elderly with difficulties in moving in Bugis area. We would like to know the fact from the words provided by the interviewee and adopt their opinion in our invention because one of our expected achievement is to make the tool widely accepted by the majority of elderly.

2. Joven is responsible to carry out 2 survey: one on line and one in hard copy. The hard copy will be distributed to 20 elders in Bugis area while the on line survey will be done through surveymonkey and we are aiming the young generations' response.

The questions included would be general feeling on elderly with moving difficulties , preferred walking device if applicable, budget which they willing to spend on themselves/ elderly in the family for walking device.

We think survey is one of the best way for us to receive opinions from a population or more than one.

3. I should contribute in making observation. The fixed variable here is elderly who is crossing this road within the limited time on traffic light

the expected manipulated elements including: the walking device used and the health condition.

The result should be recorded in photos and a chart whether the respective elderly successfully cross this road.

The outcome of this observation is important for us to decide whether shall we design a manual or motorised walking device.

Anyway, the research methods chosen could be varied according to the result of our consultation with our lecturers today.

Yenyee was writing the outcome of our discussion on the mahjong paper 

Keep the spirit! It just began!~