Followup Research

Our hypothesis was that the elderly once retired would consider the retirement as a vacation after years of tedious work.

We interviewed 6 Indian middle class senior citizens, who have worked or are working in white collar jobs. Out of the 6, 3 have retired recently, wherein the other 3 will be retiring within 5 years. Out of the 6, 3 were males and the remaining 3 were females.

 

Insights:

1. All 6 of the participants stated that they would get/got bored if they were not engaged in any day to day activity
2. 4 out of 6 participants mentioned that they would want to utilize the skills that they have acquired over the years in a meaningful manner even after retirement. The other 2 participants stated that would like to pursue activities that were interested in but never had the time to explore earlier.

 

Conclusion:

Based on the insights from the limited sample size, our hypothesis has been proven wrong. Contrary to our hypothesis, the elderly would like to be engaged in activities even after retirement.

Mini Challenge 2 -The Problem Space

As older people retire from their working lives, there is an abrupt change to their daily routine which leads to long hours of inactivity resulting in boredom. The unmet need here, therefore, is the inability to find the means to be engaged in activities which fulfill them. These activities could include ways to contribute the wealth of knowledge that they have acquired over the years through various life experiences as well as to explore a new interest altogether. Currently, this problem is not well addressed for the subset of elderly who have limited or no access to physical inter-generational centers, community centers and large peer-groups. This subset of people includes those less social, those in developing countries which have limited and welfare infrastructure, and those with mobility issues. The existing stereotypes of the elderly being frail, useless, burdensome, lethargic and dependent are challenged by this need as a solution might provide them ample opportunity to contribute to society while being fulfilled.

 

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Primary Research

https://uxmachina.wordpress.com/2016/08/20/followup-research/

 

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References

1. Examining the Long Term Effects of Leisure Education on a Sense of Independence and Psychological Well-Being Among the Elderly
   Searle, Mark S; Mahon, Michael J; Iso-Ahola, Seppo E; Sdrolias, Heather Adam; Dyck, Joanne van. Journal of Leisure Research
2. Boredom-proneness, loneliness, social engagement and depression and their association with cognitive function in older people: A population study
   Ronán M. Conroy , Jeannette Golden , et al.
   http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13548506.2010.487103
3. Social Engagement Of Older People
   Virpi Timonen, Yumiko Kamiya and Siobhan Maty

   http://tilda.tcd.ie/assets/pdf/glossy/Chapter4.pdf

4. Engagement in meaningful activity and ‘active support’ of people with intellectual disabilities in residential care
   Jim  Mansell,  Teresa  Elliott,  Julie  Beadle-Brown,  et al, University of Kent at Canterbury, United Kingdom

Secondary Research

disclaimer – work in progress

 

Literature Review

Research on Health and Well-Being Aims to Improve Quality of Life in Later Years – Paola Scommegna, Population Reference Bureau

This report looks into subjective well-being, which goes beyond traditional measures of physical and cognitive health to understand the emotional dimension of older adults’ lives.

• The aspects of subjective well-being include life-satisfaction or evaluative well-being which refers to an individual’s judgments about how satisfying his or her life is over an extended period of time.
• Experienced well-being is another aspect of subjective well-being that refers to an individual’s moment-by-moment assessment of the emotional quality of daily life—the frequency and intensity of feelings of happiness, sadness, anger, stress, or pain that make days pleasant or unpleasant.
• Yet another aspect of subjective well-being includes “eudaimonic well-being,” which measures an individual’s sense that his or her life has meaning and purpose.This could coincide with the first two aspects of subjective well-being yet it is based on the fact that some people are motivated by factors more than their personal happiness or satisfaction.
• Older adults report the highest levels of experienced well-being and are happiest while socializing, working or volunteering, and exercising.

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Ageing Well – Department of Health, Government of the United Kingdom

This report details on the physical and mental well-being of the ageing population in the UK. Insights from the report include:

• Although advancing age is associated with physical and cognitive decline, well-being is consistently found to be higher in later life than among young or middle aged adults in the United Kingdom.
• However,  this relationship appears to be unique to the UK as other European countries tend to report a decline in wellbeing (particularly happiness) with age.

• Engaging in physical activity is paramount to ageing well. Being physically active is inextricably linked to independent living and other factors such as social support, both of which are crucial aspects for well-being in older adults.
• Loneliness typically involves feeling anxious about a lack of connectedness with others and a discrepancy between desired relationships and actual relationships. However, loneliness is not the same as being alone, and can be felt, even when surrounded by other people.

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World Population Ageing – 2015 Report, United Nations

The report focuses in detail on the significant changes taking place in the age structure around the world. Insights from the report include:

• Older persons are increasingly concentrated in urban areas. The percentage of the population of people aged 60 years or over residing in urban areas has increased to 58%  in 2015 from 51% in 2000.
• Today’s developing countries must adapt much more quickly to ageing populations and often at much lower levels of national income compared to the experience of countries that developed much earlier.
• Advancements in public health and medical technologies, along with improvements in living conditions, mean that people are living longer and, in many cases, healthier lives than ever before, particularly at advanced ages.

Primary Research

Primary research began in the wee hours of the morning.

 

Personal Interviews

We met 63 year old Mr. Nakulappa as he went out for his morning walk. He had worked as a manager at the signalling department for 40 years. He is retired now, however, he continues to work 9 hours a day at a private firm in order to keep himself occupied.

Even as he uses a smartphone, he still requires the help of his son to use services like Uber. While he uses technology like Skype to connect to his friends and family, he thinks a lot of the younger generation end up wasting a lot of time on Facebook and Whatsapp.

He was concerned about how a lot of the elderly remain idle most of the time and how this should be taken care of.

We met Mr. Kunal aged 70 years old who had come out for a walk as well. He wanted his life to now be peaceful, stress-free and happy. He considered people to remain as they were despite ageing, in the sense that those active will remain as such while others would become idle. He was quite well-informed emerging technology such as driver-less cars, but wasn’t sure about their future implications.

 

Questionnaire

As we explored the theme, we prepared a short questionnaire so as to exact more insights from the elderly. The following questions were included in the questionnaire:

1. How has the transition from a younger, working life to your current life  affected you?
2. How do you maintain social connections?
3. How do you keep updated with technology and news?
4. What kind of physical activities do you usually engage in?
5. What are the differences you find between today’s younger generation and when you were young?
6. What are your goals and aspirations for the future?

Mini Challenge 1 – Contextual Mapping

 

Contextual Map of “Healthy Ageing”

 

Brainstorming

Reference:

World Health Organization. (2015). World report on Ageing And Health. Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/186463/1/9789240694811_eng.pdf?ua=1/

Up and Running!

Hello and Namaste from UX Machina!

 

Pursuing our Masters in Interaction Design at National Institute of Design, we are four swashbucklers ready to unleash our design-ridden minds on some of the world’s most unsolvable problems!

And we are:

Abhishek Umrao – An ardent gamer who is married to football. Wanderlust, technology and business are his bottomless cups of teas that he vehemently consumes.

Ankit Kant – Some say his beard is the source of his masterful sorcery when it comes to connecting dots across various domains. Some say his love for cars, films and sports transcends all other emotions. Others say his superior ninja skills yield impactful solutions when most others would not even see the possibilities. All we know is he’s pretty big!

Rohan Claude D’Souza – Budding phonometrician, book-wormicelli, avid semi-gastronomist, cinemaniac, information-junkie. On an eternal quest to make sense out of chaos.

Shashank Balaji –  A god of multi-tasking. Forever delving into engaging head-on with human problems. Also, a technology and electronics enthusiast, preaches at the church of Apple.