Challenges and Limitations of Applying an Emotion-driven Design Approach on Elderly Users

Population ageing is without parallel in human history and the twenty-first century will witness even more rapid ageing than did the century just past. Understanding the user needs of the elderly and how to design better products for this segment of the population is crucial, as it can offer a competitive advantage for companies.

In this paper, challenges of applying an emotion-driven design approach applied on elderly people, in order to identify their user needs towards walking frames, are discussed. The discussion will be based on the experiences and results obtained from the case study. To measure the emotional responses of the elderly, a questionnaire was designed and adapted from P.M.A.

Desmet’s product-emotion measurement instrument: PrEmo. During the case study it was observed that there were several challenges when carrying out the user survey, and that those challenges particularly related to the participants’ age and cognitive abilities. The challenges encountered are discussed and guidelines on what should be taken into account to facilitate an emotion-driven design approach for elderly people are proposed.