Safety.

For my next design project was have to come up with a new product of redesign a product to make it safer. So the get inspired I looked stats.nz and ACC.nz to see if I could find some stats on the types of injuries that people face though out the home and then from that I could think of designing ways of preventing it. I found it had finding specific stats on the types of injuries recorded, it just gave numbers on the age, race and gender of the people making claims which I didn't find helpful in preventing injuries. I then decided to broaden my search and found a Scottish website that gave the list of the serous injuries in the home in 2009-2010;

This table showed that nearly three quarters of people who where hospitalised  from injuries in the home was due to falling. I then discussed these stats with an occupational therapist who focuses on the care and assisting elderly people and she said the not only is the fall rate high with in elderly but they also have the fare of falling but a lot of them are stubborn and don't want their lives to change to radically when that are getting older and frail because that shows that they are weak, so If I was to design something of elderly I would have to come up with something that assisted them or prevented them from injuries but also didn't look different or would draw attention to themselves. so will design hidden handrails or lager steps, but also has to be easy to use as well.

We talked about different ideas that could help and protect elderly;

• I know that my grandmother finds it harder now days to get in and out of our swimming pool as she cant pool her self easily up our steps as we don't have any handrails and the steps are at a step gradient. It would be cool to design a way to get her easily in and out of our pool but not change the aesthetics of our pool but putting in a rail. 

• A lot to elderly people take pride in their gardening and like to spend their days in their garden, grooming and trimming there flowers or planting vegetables. When people get older their skin gets softer and are more prone to get cuts, this is then a problem when it come to cutting their roses as they then get pricked by the thorns, so I could design something that didn't restrict them from cutting their roses but could protect their delicate skin from the thorns. Also as they are more frail they find it had to be down on their knees and also find it hard to get up from the ground so another thing I could design around the idea of gardening could be to make a vegetable garden that was safe and easy for old people to use and maintain, it could be raised higher of the ground so they didn't have to bend down, but also designed ergonomically so they can reach everything easily. 
• They also find it hard to get in and out of bed, going from the lying position to then sit up and turn and then from their to then stand up. it uses a lot of energy to just a simple task as it uses a lot of different mussels and you have to use a lot of power to pull or self up. I could design something that could make this take easer but didn't change their environment radically as they don't like things looking different so physiologically it shouldn't change their environment to much.
• Also when you get older your vision decreases it becomes harder to complete tasks and makes it harder to see your soundings as your world docent look as defined. To make it easier to see around you home when your vision is decreasing Occupational Therapist change the lighting, and light up rooms resulting in making the surroundings easier to see. I could design a device that  used light to make it easier for elderly to see where ever they go as they don't just need their homes lightened up they need everywhere they go. I could make a walker with lights on it or some kind of head torch, but I think you would just look radicals with that and would draw attention to your self in a way you don't want to be addressed.