RESUMO
To better meet the emotional needs of older residents and to improve the design of age-friendly indoor interface forms, this study uses Kansei engineering as the theoretical basis for an exploration of the mapping relationship between emotional needs and interface forms. First, we collected spatial interface forms through in-home research, and using focus groups, we summarized and produced test samples for interface forms; at the same time, we screened out adjective word pairs that could fully represent the emotional needs of older people in the city of Jinan, drawing on expert interviews; then, we invited 500 older adults living in Jinan all year to evaluate each interface form using representative adjective word pairs as the emotional evaluation criteria, following the semantic differential method. Subsequently, the participants were invited to evaluate and score the interface form samples using representative adjective word pairs as the standard of emotional evaluation, employing the semantic differential method. Finally, the evaluation scores were input into SPSS software for the Kruskal-Wallis test to explore the relationships between various interface forms and emotional needs. The experimental results showed that the assessment scoring results for each interface form in each set of pairs of adjectives that differed significantly, where each interface had a clear emotional tendency. This study successfully established a mapping model for matching indoor interface forms with emotional needs in age-friendly housing in Jinan. These findings can provide a reference for future practice of designing residential indoor interface forms to match the emotional needs of older people in Jinan.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: The vertical dimensional arrangement of space is primarily influenced by the reachable range of human fingertips. Currently, this dimensional layout analysis concentrates solely on static body dimensions based on Farley's principle. However, the joint mobility of the elderly population has diminished, necessitating the identification of the factors influencing the age-friendly spatial vertical dimension layout through experimentation. METHODS: A random sample of 62 adults and 62 elderly individuals were selected to measure the joint mobility of 8 groups with varying comfort levels. The measurement results were analyzed using an independent sample t-test with SPSS software. RESULTS: The joint mobility of the elderly group exhibited a notable difference from that of the adult group across distinct comfort gradients. A significant reduction in the range of motion of all joints in the elderly was observed. The findings suggest that the reachable range of the upper limbs of the elderly should be considered in conjunction with joint mobility. We propose a vertical dimensional layout method for residential spaces that accommodates the joint mobility of elderly users. CONCLUSION: The joint mobility of the elderly is significantly deteriorating, and the traditional vertical spatial layout method cannot adequately support the daily life of the elderly. It is essential to integrate the joint mobility factor into the vertical dimensional layout design process. In this paper, we propose an elderly-friendly vertical spatial dimension layout method. It offers a reference for subsequent planning of elderly-friendly vertical dimension layout.