Investigation of people aged 65+'s home living room experience for improving living room design in the UK

Abstract

As the world population is ageing, many researchers have explored and contributed to improving older people’s quality of life from diverse perspectives, such as social care, healthcare, homes, transportation, and pension systems (ONS, 2018; Wittenberg and Hu, 2015; NICE, 2013; Kim et al, 2011; Martín, 2010). Although home related risks such as falls, collisions, fires and security have been well documented in the context of stairs, bathrooms and kitchens, older people’s experience in the living room has been neglected in the UK. The living room has been identified as one of the most frequently used spaces at home. It is multi-functional: used for reading, tea/coffee, TV and entertainment, meeting with friends, meals, and even sleeping. Due to the frequent use and multi-functionality of the living room, older people’s interaction with their living room is far more complex compared to other functional rooms (bathroom and bedroom). Thus, it is worth exploring potential risks (such as collisions and falls) and challenges older people face with different daily activities in the living room. This project aims to investigate the experiences of older people with their living room at home so as to identify risks and challenges they face in their day-to-day life and indicate the reasons behind it, then develop design insights for improving living room space design, furniture and furniture arrangement, and atmospheres design so as to improve older people’s living room experience in the UK. There are three key research questions:
1. How do older people currently use their living rooms for different activities and purposes?
2. To what extent do older people experience challenges and hazards in their living rooms?
3. How can we improve the living room environment for older people in the UK through better inclusive design?
In this study, the English Housing Survey (EHS) was utilised to design a sampling strategy to identify participants who represent older people’s living situation in the UK representing different characteristics. An ethnographic user study approach was employed to explore older people’s natural behaviour with multiple activities in their living room through video-based observation, in-depth interview and cultural probes. Qualitative content analysis was applied to analyse the collected data in order to identify key factors that have an impact on older people’s living experience in their living room. Finally, all findings from this project help the author to develop design insights for improving living room space design, furniture and furniture arrangement, and atmospheres design so as to improve older people’s standard of living in the UK.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Yuanyuan Yin: orcid.org/0000-0002-2109-0135

ORCID for Shan Wang: orcid.org/0000-0002-3530-6232

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