Designing Elder Friendly Environment for Indonesian Culture

Aloysius Baskoro Junianto

2009

introduction

“ People still think that elderly means pathetic, poor

and unfortunate. Elderly people have not been

considered important in the past with the result

that designers have not had any significant

opportunity to design for them ”

(Alan Tye, 1991, http://www.alantyedesignstudio.co.uk/rsacomm.htm)

Elderly and Design

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/05/0506_product_design/index_01.htm

How design can help elderly

http://marcinignac.com/blog/tag/design/

Design process that

involved elderly will help

designers to find out the

needs of user and will

understand more about the

real problems.

Fit In An Aging Society

http://pingmag.jp/2007/11/07/playground-equipment/

Elderly Design Reasoning

• Arifianto (2006) mentioned that the increased number of elderly in the country’s population will also result in an increased demand for medical care and services for this sector of the population.

• The reason also does not merely talking in the matter of health services, but how can the aging society in the country can get better living condition and also better future.

• Rethinking about cultural

issues within aging society and

how to provide safe, healthy

and happy environment

Fit In An Aging Society in

Friendly Environment

Cultural and Environmental

Situation

• Hazardous situation

• Urban and rural lifestyle

• Bad working condition

• Limited space

• Unsupportive public facilities

• Social irresponsibility

Environmental Aspects

• The Social environment concerns with the interaction

between people and people relationship in the system.

• The Built environment deals with any man-made

object required in surrounding environment.

• The Spatial environment will talk about dimensional

entity that is required by people.

• The Natural environment deals with any aspect that

relates to climate (temperature, vibration, lighting, etc)

and other natural being (plant, animal, etc).

Relational

• How those aspects can fit

in the Aging Society that

have to concern with

cultural issues…

• What the elders need…

• What the designers think…

• What do we do next…

Interview with Elders

• Mrs. Hanny Najoan, 81 years old, lecturer, live in

Jakarta:

– Most of public facilities around the country were

inadequate, unfavorable so elderly and disables

always find difficult to have activities in public

places.

– Other people assistance or help may be needed in

certain circumstances.

– She employed technology in order to maintain her

social activities due to she has certain physical

limitation. She agreed that technology (mobile,

internet, etc) might be very useful in the future.

– She asked Government to bring good policy in

order providing good environment.

– Socialization in media is imminent

Elders in Rural District

• Klaten, Central Java:

– Many elders still work in their daily live, they mostly doing domestic jobs.

– They tend to work in group so they can get socialized.

– Working conditions were so limited and traditional ways (cooking for example) were still being used because of old tradition, despite the fact that they had modern gas stove already.

– Sanitary system were inadequate sometimes, but some richer villagers had already employed better sanitary equipment.

What designer think about

designing for elders

One fellow architect mentioned that architect and designer should

be careful not to pay too much attention on providing every

detail to support solely for the elders in every design. Instead,

designers have to bear their mind to universal design principle

that more concern for all people. He also stated that the

designers should look at the level of public of the design in

order to design the suitable environment for the elders by using

universal design principles.

Alan Tye also comment: “Do not design 'special' products for elderly people. Elderly people are not

disabled. A shoe or saucepan designed for a disabled foot or hand is

unlikely to suit an elderly foot or hand. Provided elderly people are

considered at the right stage, all products should be suitable for young and

old”

What do we think about

designing for elders

People still play important roles in

providing and helping good and

conducive environment for

Indonesian condition and situation

for the elders. Elderly may still need

companion from other people to

support their activity.

What do we think about

designing for elders

Media and the government involvement

should be involved deeply for

socialization and to make regulation.

From the interview, it appeared that

universal design principles should be

taken into account to design good

environment for elderly in Indonesia by

looking at the context level of public-ness,

needs and level of importance.

What do we think about

designing for elders

Both urban and rural district require

health and safety living and working

environment. Nonetheless, the

difference lifestyle between urban

and rural district will require

different options of design.

What do we think about

designing for elders

Technology had been part of people living

today and the future. Urban elders use

new technology to build social interaction

with family members, friends and

colleagues. This can be useful also for

rural elders but not as extensive as urban

people.

What do we think about

designing for elders

Social activities are very important

for both rural and urban citizen.

Group activity was more likely

practiced in rural district while

urban elders can use technology to

get along with social activities.

Friendly Environment for

Elders

Easy adaptable to user; user can easily

interact without any excessive effort either

mentally or physically.

Safety and Healthy to user; the

environments must not give any possible

harmful conditions for the user.

friendly environment for

Indonesian culture

there are several possible solutions and

recommendations that might be applied:

Easy understandable to user with different cultural

background. So the design should be as simple and as

intuitive as possible.

The environment design must not give any possibility

that will break cultural rules, custom or old tradition.

The design should be empathetic and can represent the

society, and should be respectful to the elders.

Make design that will conform to cultural needs and

behaviors in specific manner with flexibility for most

users.

Some examples

Bathing Seat for Elders (designed

by: Anthony Edwin, Product Design

UPH, 2008)

Some recommendations

Design a good campaign throughout countries of

how to provide friendly environment for elders. This

will relate to visual communication design and social

communication discipline.

Make a clear and strong regulation regarding safe

environmental design for public places or facilities

for elders and disables that refer to correct design

principles.

Make a service policy in public offices (bank, public

services, post office, etc) that will assist elder citizen

and people with disabilities.

Thank you….