Research And Practice Of Toy Design For The Elderly Based On Empathy Design Method

Since the 21 st century,China has officially entered an aging society,but the development of hardware and software such as the aging security system,the elderly market,the elderly industry and elderly services has been relatively lagging behind.Due to factors such as late development,insufficient number of professionals,and uneven professional qualities,the elderly in many pension institutions lack cultural leisure and entertainment activities,adequate companionship and spiritual comfort.Under the current social conditions and economic development level,the physical needs of the elderly,such as clothing,food,housing,and transportation,can be basically met.What is more important is their psychological needs,such as the lack of family,friends,and communication,they are also easier to produce negative emotions.After the elderly retire,their free time has increased significantly,and they can devote more time and energy to meaningful leisure and entertainment activities.Based on the method of empathy design,combined with theory and practice,this paper conducted a survey analysis and product design for the elderly.During the user research,user interviews,physiological simulations,heuristic workshops,empathic observation and other methods are used to make design research,which truly return to the user-centric thinking.In the specific design process,it focuses on the understanding of the physiological characteristics,psychological characteristics and entertainment preferences of the elderly in Wangjianglou elderly apartment in Changsha City,and on the mining of insights in personal experience and the collaborative innovation design process.In the practical stage,based on the contents of desktop research and field research,a design strategy was formulated,toy products that meet the needs of the elderly were designed,and specific and complete design solutions were output.In the product testing phase,it recorded and evaluate the design plan using empathic maps,got product feedback and made design iterations,which provides new design ideas and directions for the emerging market of the elderly population in the future,and an effective research method of empathy design for the research of vulnerable groups.