Research On The Application Of Design Ethnography In The Experience Design Of Age-Friendly Washroom Space

With the deepening and acceleration of aging,the home-based elderly care model has become the general trend of elderly care services in the future.At present,more than two-thirds of the elderly in China live in old houses.The growing material and cultural needs of the elderly do not match the current situation of toilet space in old communities,and the problem of discomfort with old age is significant.This study focuses on the toilet space in the old community,and provides suggestions,opinions and solutions from the perspective of design for the transformation of aging space.In practice,older users are often unable or unwilling to express their experiences and views.In order to understand the physiological,psychological,behavioral habits and cultural needs of the elderly and obtain real user insight,the design ethnography is selected as the method to study the experience design of aging toilet space in the old community.Its characteristics are summarized as flexibility,integrity,knowledge visibility,iteration and culture.Combined with the double drill model,the design ethnography process is proposed.In this study,user centered,demand oriented,design Ethnography methods were used to investigate users’ real life environment,record their daily activities,behavior habits and cultural orientation,and mixed qualitative and quantitative methods to help reveal the true face of the elderly.Firstly,the elderly living in the old community in Beijing were observed in a participatory manner,and the basic information and user behavior habits were obtained by cooperating with the site interview,and the experience points in the toilet space were collected for satisfaction evaluation.Secondly,collect the user’s personal list,excavate the cultural characteristics,clarify the preferences,attitudes and concepts of the elderly group in combination with the semantic difference method,and put forward the life-oriented safety design,humanized convenient design,practical beautification design and variable design to adapt to changes as the design principles of home aging,so as to respect the cultural identity of the elderly users and conform to the behavior habits of the elderly users Design solutions aimed at improving the toilet experience of elderly users.Finally,the ethnographic evaluation and verification are carried out in the target group,the design prototype is improved,and the design results are output.This paper elaborates the adaptability between the design ethnography method and the living environment experience design of the elderly,refines the design requirements of the aging toilet space,and provides different perspectives for optimizing the toilet experience of the elderly and improving the quality of life of the elderly.Design ethnography emphasizes standing in the perspective of users,which can effectively avoid the limitations of designers’perspective,so as to create valuable innovations for users.