Young Designers 2011

		Young Designers 2011
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Pranav Gupta | id.pranavgupta@gmail.com

Assistive Communication Device for the Elderly

New Media Design | PGDPD
Guide: Rupesh Vyas
Sponsor: Huawei Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru

Keywords
Elderly
Mobile
Communication
User interface

The project was aimed at designing a phone which realises the needs of senior citizens. With smaller families and more and more youth migrating to cities for better opportunities, ageing parents and grandparents often have to stay alone in their homes or perhaps even move to old-age homes. Isolated from their near-and- dear ones, they long for communication. Though many of them have mobile phones, no phone has proven to be particularly useful to this demographic. This is primarily due to lack of research and development in this area.

I researched both Indian phones as well as those available abroad in order to design a phone, especially for individuals above the age of 60 years. I conducted studies for a deeper understanding of their need for and usage of a mobile communication device. The factors I considered included age, medical history and environmental conditions. After analyzing the data and evaluating the various scenarios, I came up with a design solution.

The design for the device is not limited to the user experience of the software, features and applications. It extends to interventions in hardware design by suggesting the possible forms and extra features that make it more usable and intuitive for this particular age group.

My greatest learning in this project has been that user observation is the most important and reliable source for designing any interface, product or a service. There has to be a thorough understanding of the users’ needs, so that one can reflect the same in the design.