Scholarly record

ERGONOMICS FOR THE ELDERLY AS THE TOPICAL CRITERION FOR INDUSTRIAL DESIGN CREATION

D. Rubinova

Abstract

The study looks at the aspect of ergonomic demands of seniors relevant to the industrial design. This category of people was in the past ignored. However the percentage of older people is increasing, therefore it can be expected that in the future specialized products for older people will be developed. We will introduce ergonomic demands of elderly people applicable to the area of industrial design. It is a set of specific criteria of this age group for the anthropometric, psychophysiological, psychological, hygienic, and safety areas and their link to the basic procedures, applicable to the industrial design. We determined 4 fields of industrial design (instruments and tools and consumer goods, furniture, PCs and mobile devices and electronics, small architecture and architectural elements in the interior) that are relevant to senior citizens. Individual categories we assigned with a set of aspects that a crucial and problematic from the perspective of senior citizens and whose achievement should not be forgotten. In the field of industrial design the easiest way to be solved is the anthropometric area- complying with dimensions, movement and action radius of older people and psychophysiological area, which may be obtained by direct measurements on representative samples of population. More complicated is accepting mental functions that are demonstrably changed in senior age, their identification is problematic and complying with them can be only general in the design phase of industrial product. Should a specific product be optimally designed to suit seniors, not only must such a product be aesthetically pleasing, but it also must satisfy the above-mentioned specific criteria, and offer this group of people a higher comfort both in the work and non-work activities.

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