This document summarizes research into senior mobility issues and solutions. It finds that current products only address individual problems like walking but do not help with related issues of standing and sitting. Through interviews and observations, it was found that seniors struggle to stand up from and sit down onto walkers and rollators. Additionally, current designs do not consider senior ergonomics or the need for security and ease of use. There is an opportunity for a new solution that can help seniors walk, stand, and sit while addressing these other important factors.

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5200 Design
Research documentation
Yue Wang
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CONTENT
Background
Demographic
Fact & Analysis
Interview
Observation
Analysis
Current Market
Research Summary
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5
7
8
12
14
16
18

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BACKGROUND
An increase in life expectancy causes the aging of populations. As
aging starts, problem starts to reveal. Most of seniors have certain
diseases caused by invertible aging process and those diseases not
only cause the pain on seniors but also, more significantly, result in
inconvenience in their daily life.

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DEMOGRAPHIC
12% 32%
1950 2050
Increasing Aging
Population
Health issues
Physical issues
Psychological issues
38%
35%
27%
All issues could
result in life
inconvenience Health issues Physical issues
Psychological issues
Incontinence
Mobility issue Memory issue
Vision weakness Hearing weakness
Off-balance
Top common inconvenience:
World population
aged over 60:
Major issues caused by aging:

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Universality of inconvenience
55%
Mobility issue Off-balance
35%
Incontinence
27%
Memory issue
15%
Research shows a variety of inconvenience caused by aging. But most of people will ignore
that, the weakness of aging body can cause inconvenience, reversely, inconvenience can
also result in health problem. Because it is a sequential loop. Among the most common
inconvenience in senior’s life, mobility issue shows the widest universality, which a large
population of senior is suffering the inconvenience caused by mobility issue. Hence, to
focus on and solve senior’s mobility issue in priority is very necessary.
32%
Hearing weakness
40%
Vision weakness
Mobility typically declines as people enter our 80s. Motor skills directly impact our ability
for getting around, and when regular exercise is not practiced, balance can be affected,
leading to falls and fractures.
In addition to limited mobility, many seniors also have arthritis, osteoporosis or both.
Arthritis ranks second only to heart disease in the number of disability claims filed each
year. According to a recent Center for Disease Control and Prevention study, one in three
adults have arthritis or chronic joint pain, making it the nation's most crippling disease.
Osteoporosis, a form of arthritis, is a devastating disease that is very common in seniors.
It robs the body of bone density and is the single most important risk factor for fractures.
This is an especially critical issue, because 94 percent of hip fractures occur in people
over age 50 and more than 30 percent of hip fractures result in death.
Senior mobility issue

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FACT & ANALYSIS
Statistics - Safety issue
Senior mobility issue involves every aspect of senior life. It can bring up
inconvenience from basic movement such as walking, sitting, standing
to hand-assisted movement like go upstairs and picking up staff. More
importantly, most of mobility issue can result in severe safety issues.
Age
65
85
33%
45%
Accident
10%
50%
Injury/death
25,500
Deaths/year
Senior off-balance and falls take a major part of mobility safety issue.
The most profound effect of falling is the loss of functioning associated
with independent living. Twenty to thirty percent of people who fall
suffer moderate to severe injuries such as lacerations, hip fractures,
and head traumas. These injuries can make it hard to get around or live
independently, and increase the risk of early death. Many people who
fall, even if they are not injured, develop a fear of falling. This fear may
cause them to limit their activities, which leads to reduced mobility and
loss of physical fitness, and in turn increases their actual risk of falling.
Current solution - Usage rate
According to the usage rate, it is apprent that rollator and walker are the top
choices for senior mobility solutions. However, most of them are merely designed
to solve the mobility issue, ignoring the usability and user experience, which
causes the weakness in the relationship between user and product. Since those
product designers are not in the same age group as product user’s, there still
exists the concerns beyond the designers’ intent, which could result in senior’s life
inconvenience by using the products.
Is it convenient for seniors
to use those products?
Do those products fit/work with the environment?
32%40%
18% 7%
20%22%
12%15%
Are those product designs well thought for users?

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INTERVIEW
Eddie K. - Home
68
Cathy C. - Home
80
• Eddie uses rollator as her balance
support all the time, especially
when standing up from sofa or
chair.
• She often forgets to lock the
rollator when she trying to lean
on it for a rest, which makes her
almost fall.
• She likes to use rollator to carry
stuffs.
• Sometimes Eddie needs to hold
different furnitures for support until
she gets the rollator.
• Eddie seldom goes out and has no
complaints about transportation.
• Cathy lives alone in a full assisted
equipment senior apartment.
• She use walker and rollator
everyday as the weight support.
• Cathy feels hard to move rollator
among different furnitures since
the space is limited.
• She can not get out of sofa even
with the help of rollator.
• The current brake handle on
rollator is too hard for her to lock it.
• She thinks it is necessary to make
more storage room on her rollator
or walker.
Need support to
stand up from sofa
Rollator size
too big
Brake handle
too hard to
operate
Hard to
stand up
from sofa
Limited
storage
space

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Willice A. - Rehabilitation
72
Judy G. - Nursing home
77
• Willice lives in rehabilitation center
for recovery from his leg surgery,
which he has to rely on the
wheelchair.
• Willice feels dependent since he
needs nursing workers to assist
him operating every related to
mobility.
• It's painful for him to be
transferred every time from
wheelchair.
• Willice hopes to have an
equipment that can help him do
recover exercise at the same time
help him move as normal people.
• Judy keeps doing exercise every
morning with her rollator.
• She mentioned it will be better if she
could sit down on rollator directly
from walking instead of turning
rollator around and locking it before
sitting.
• She feels insecure when
transferring from rollator to a
chair so she needs to grab the
chair arm first then slowly move her
another hand and body towards the
chair seat. Same feeling when she
transfers herself to rollator.
Joint problem caused
by overusing
Need to turn around
to sit down
Feel insecure/ has
to catch chair arm
before sitting

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Yona M. - Nursing home
73
Stark J. - Rehabilitation
77
• Yona just starts to use walker for
her falling incident.
• She gets annoyed when the
walker goes too fast and can not
take control. She is afraid of falling
again when using the walker.
• She likes her grabber which can
help pick up or reach things when
using walker but she is also upset
about placing the grabber on the
walker so it won't influence her
using the walker.
• Yona cleans her walker regularly
but she complains about the
wheels getting dirty so quickly.
• Stark has problem in standing up
and sitting down from a chair. He
always using walker as a support
and sometimes he needs someone
to put a belt on his body to give
him extra strength and balance to
complete basic movement.
• He complains that he really wants
to be independent but he has to
be followed by a worker to carry
the oxygen pump which he can do
it by himself or place on the walker.
• Stark wants a easy way to solve
his moving support problem while
providing sitting solution.
No proper place
to hold grabber
Walker moving
too fast
Painful to stand
up from chair
Always followed by worker/
no independence
INTERVIEW

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Derrick Boyer
Therapist
Joe Hileary
Therapist
• Therapists have to change the
equipments based on user’s
situation so they can adapt
themselves into equipments
(walker, rollator).
• The current product are built
universal, not personalized. Most
of walker and rollator are bulky
and heavy, for heavy weighted
people. So people with normal
weight might have difficulty
operating the equipments.
• Equipments that we using now
are mostly height adjustable
but not width and weight
adjustable. It will be appeal to
customers and medical institution
if the equipments could be full
customizable to each users.
• To ensure security, we usually
put a safety belt around patients'
body to grab or give them extra
support when they are moving.
Although it might make patients
more dependent, that is important
to their safety.
Some patients can not
move without safety
belt providing extra
weight support
Only 2 sizes available
and can not adjust
their weight and width

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OBSERVATION
From chair to rollator
Sitting down and resting on rollator
Standing up very slowly
with the support of chair
arms
Using rollator handle for
support
Reaching for rollator Walking and leaning
towards
Uncomfortable gesture to
operate brake handle
Turning around to sit Reaching handles for
security and support

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From rollator to sofa
Standing up from rollator
Moving the hip forward
feet backward to adjust
body center of mass
Leaning body forward/
arms backward
Turning around again Reaching sofa for support • Sitting down very slowly
• Sitting down is harder
than standing up

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ANALYSIS
User journey map
Standing up
Sitting down
Hard to stand up
even with rollator as
weight support
User tends to lean
forward when walking
Has to turn around
to sit on rollator
Has to turn around
everytime when sitting
Sitting down is
actually harder for
user than standing up
Needs sense of
security
Needs sense of
security
Walking
Resting
50% of users forget
to lock rollators when
using them as support
Storage space
is useful but
limited for
most of users

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From interview and observation...
Senior ergonomics
Harder surfaces
The fingers start to lose sensitivity with
age. So product should provide fingers
with more sensation. A harder surface
or interface can give seniors stronger
feedback so they know whether they
operate products correctly.
Lighter structure
Seniors have relatively weak muscle
strength compared to adults, so they can
not carry as much weight as they used to
be. A lighter but durable material should
be used to manufacture the products to
ensure the usability and durability.
More handles
Handles are great mobility aids. A
relatively large, comfy handle should be
considered when there needs a hand
hold.
• Unthoughtful product designs could result in inconvenience and safety issues.
• Current products are designed for solving one problem at a time, ignoring the related issues that remaining to be solved.
• A lack of relationship between product and user, which refers to the sense of security and safety needed by users.
• A need for more attention on human ergonomics.
Reachability
Reachability decreases with age.
The normal intersect of reachability
range for adults is 990mm. As age
goes, there is an average of 70mm
range of reachability difference
between people aged 40 and 80.
Muscle Sarcopenia
People who are physically inactive
can lose as much as 3% to 5% of
their muscle mass per decade after
age 30. An average of 8-12% less
of strength requirement should be
considered into the product for
senior.

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CURRENT MARKET
Power Seat
Scooter
Canes & Crutches
Walker
Rollator
Price
$$
$$$$
$
$$
$$
Pros Cons
• Standing up and sitting down much easier, no
need to rely on support
• Adjust to any seat position (angle)
• No need to walk
• Carrying stuff more easier
• Move faster
• Less limitation of application environment (can
use anywhere)
• Light weight
• Easy to handle
• Easy to store
• Electricity required
• Electronic system might be unstable/doesn’t work
• Leading to long time sitting, lack of exercise
• Indoor use only
• Can not help senior walk
• Outdoor use only
• Require charging, might need other’s help
• Not water proof
• Hard to stand up/sit down/get in/out
• Less flexibility, rotation/certain angle/corner
• High cost
• Hard to stand up/sit down even with its help
• Users can not sit at anytime
• Require upper body strength to operate it
• Hard to stand up/sit down even with its help
• No seat
• Unstable
• Require upper body strength to operate it
• No brake, easy to slip
• Moving too fast
• Hard to stand up/sit down even with its help
• Has to turn around every time when sit
• Brake handles are too tight to operate
• Light
• Folding structure, easy to store
• Easy to handle
• Height adjustable
• Seat
• Folding structure, easy to store
• Wheels brake ensures safety
• Height adjustable

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Interview on store
Rollator is the best seller.
Most of customers have off-balance and fall issues, they usually purchase rollator and canes.
50% of customers are not only buying one product at a time, they buy a set of product.
(walker+handrail+cane).
Wheels are too smooth so
walker move too fast to control
by customers.
All the handles are made from hard and textured plastic or rubber, which uses uncomfortable.
Some customers will wrap handles with soft rubber tape or band to give them extra soft feelings.

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Based on primary and secondary research, senior who has one
of walking, standing or sitting issue can not perform the other two
movement normally neither, while current products can only provide one
side of solution. Besides, current products are mainly focusing on solving
the problem but ignore the aspects of ergonomics and user experience.
A new solution is absolutely needed to solve senior's walking, standing
and sitting issues together.
RESEARCH SUMMARY
Problem statement Design opportunity
Senior mobility issue involves every aspect of senior life. It brings up
inconvenience from basic movement such as walking, sitting, standing
to hand-assisted movement like go upstairs and picking up staff. More
importantly, most of mobility issue can result in severe safety issues.
Current products are focusing on solving one mobility issue at a time, such as
walker. Although it can help seniors walk, but it still remains problems when it
comes to sitting and standing back and forth. Walking, standing and sitting
are very consistent movement that cannot be solved individually once any
one of them becomes an issue, which is ignored by most of people.

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