Daily Living Centre Trip

The trip to the Daily Living Centre which was rescheduled from last week took place today. It was a great opportunity to witness and physically interact with some of the products that have been designed by people in the younger generation to be used for people of the older generation.

The centre itself was split into several areas and aspects of a household. Each area had products that were specifically designed to be used in that particular area. These areas included:

  • The bathroom
  • The bedroom
  • The kitchen
  • Outdoors
  • Staircases

There were so many different products which varied in shape and size, height and weight, some that were iterations of others, and some more useful and practical than others.

We were led around the centre by a member of staff who took us to each area of the centre and giving us a detailed description of several products, coupled with the opportunity to get hands on and physically touch some of these products.

I believe it was important as product design students to get a chance to interact with these products because it gave us a degree of understanding about some of the thought processes of designers. For example, why a designer may choose a specific colour for their product or why a product has areas to grip a product in certain places. It was also important for us to interact with these products because of our project: Designing Our Futures. We are each designing a product for people over the age of sixty-five.

Each student may have a different area of which they want to investigate, for example, I am looking at falls in elderly people. Choosing to go on the trip gave me an insight to different types of walking sticks that some people may use and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

We were urged to take lots of pictures and videos and ask questions about the products. Unfortunately my memory card filled up very quickly, luckily enough a lot of people took photos and videos. Thankfully my course mate, Chloe has allowed me to use some of her pictures and videos which will be a big help in terms of constructing a prototype in our product development module later on.

I am glad I went on this trip because it has provided a better understanding of some of the problems that elderly people face and different ways that products have been designed to help facilitate a persons problem.