International Appliance Manufacturing 2008 - (Page 65) An oven model with bi-fold doors. In actual practice, the hot surfaces of the doors would mate, which would prevent accidental burns, and present a shelf on which to rest the food. those ranks are expected to swell in the next few years. The Baby Boomer generation is comprised of about 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964. And, this technologically savvy group has a lot of money to spend. According to a 2005 Commerce Department study, the Baby Boomers’ projected purchasing power might be as much as $2 trillion per year. Some of that money will be spent altering homes so that aging homeowners can continue to live independently in their own homes as long as possible. In their research, Baskinger says that, they met many people in their 50s who were starting to experience some physical or health problems and were willing to make investments in modifying their houses. “They may live in a multistory house, and are putting in wider doorways, and bigger appliances with easier access. They’re thinking, I’ve invested lot of time and money in the house, I’m not going to leave my neighborhood and go into an assisted care facility like my parents did.” For Baskinger and his students, the research may yield insights that help older consumers stay in their homes. “We can help empower people for autonomous living. Because there is such a connection between being able to According to Hottenroth, one of the key elements that they derived was a concept they dubbed the “strike zone” in reference to an appliance’s physical wash their own clothes and cook accessibility. The strike zone was their own meals and living indedefined as having an upper reach pendently. If we can make applizone of 66 in. and a lower reach ances work better for the people, zone of 17 in. and an optimal that is a real opportunity.” work zone of 28 in. to 54 in. This is the best working space height Inside the home for a 50th percentile woman The researchers took a numin terms of height. “That really ber of approaches to studying ended up being the most breakthe elderly population. It began through and the most elemenwith personal experiences that tary.” the students had with their own The concept of making it easy family members. “We have stufor the older consumer to access dents on the team who have appliances was a theme that grandparents and we heard perran throughout the designs. An sonal stories about grandparents example of this is the bi-foldwho couldn’t do something and ing oven door the researchers how it was difficult to watch.” devised. When the user pulls the Then, gerontologists were door open, the two hot surfaces brought in to give their input and mate and are contained, so there to put the researchers directly in is a reduced risk of accidental touch with participants. “These burning. Also, when the door participants opened their homes opens, it provides a shelf to pull a hot pan out onto the counterline. “The user doesn’t have to take a hot dish and carry it very far to a counter line or raise it or lower it,” says Baskinger. In watching how the subjects moved around the current appliances, they found that the doors often swing too far out into the walkways. “If you think of a dishwasher door that swings out about 24 inches into the walking space, those people who have a walker or cane might have a problem with balance. Reaching asher can be made in and grabbing those racks can her sketch highlights how the dishw The dishwas more accessible by reducing bending. and shared their lives with us in an unbiased and unedited way,” says Baskinger. “That is where we got the most information, by watching an 85-year-old person make tea or do laundry.” The work was revealing. In one case a couple had an old pair of laundry appliances. The indicators had burnt out, and the paint on the dials had worn off. They had placed notes on the unit that include operational information and warnings such as “don’t overload.” The researchers asked to be taken through the process. “We asked them how do they do it, and they said ‘I do this, this and this,’ but then they would forget a step.” The stories like this were numerous. For example, there were people on medication who couldn’t bend over to get glasses out of the dishwasher because it would make them dizzy. Those who were unsteady on their feet lost their balance as they tried to reach into the back of the stove to grab cookware. Some struggled with appliance doors that jutted to far out or with controls that were placed too high or too low. “What we realized was that the appliance shouldn’t just be a box with an interface stuck on it,” he says. “There should be some harmony about how the person moves around the appliance space, the way the appliance fits in the context, and where it is presented. We realized that there are a lot of dangers and a lot of opportunities for improvement in the way these essentially dumb boxes can behave.” Strike zone International Appliance Manufacturing 2008 65
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