Smart Community
Re-Imagine Elderly Centres
“Baby boomers” born after the Second World War have now become the new generation of elderly. Compared with their parents, they are generally healthier, with better education level and financial ability, and more importantly, have much longer lifespans.
Elderly centres in Hong Kong perform a crucial role in promoting Active Ageing. Cooperating with different stakeholders of elderly centres, “Re-imagine Elderly Centres” Social Innovation Symposium aims to create solutions that can satify the needs of the new generation of elderly. Through breaking the boundaries of the traditional model of elderly services, our seniors may hence enjoy richer lives in the future.
I. DESIGN "GO ACTIVE" ONLINE PLATFORM
Event Listing Website for Elderly Centre
Carrying forward the prototype created by the co-creation team, JCDISI collaborated with Studio Doozy to design and develop the “Go Active” Online Platform, an event listing website for HKSKH Lady MacLehose Centre Dr. Lam Chik Suen District Elderly Community Centre (DECC).
Different stakeholders, including members and staff of Dr. Lam Chik Suen DECC, and several publicly recruited elders, were involved in the making of the platform. Their opinions brought huge contributions to the design of an elderly-friendly event listing website.
II. Elderly-hosted online music programme
Social workers and elderly members from Haven of Hope District Elderly Community Service produced an online DJ programme under the epidemic. They used music as medium to connect other members who are staying at home, at the same time exploring the possibilities for elderly activities to go virtual.
With the elderly DJs familiarised with the production of online DJ programme, we invited Chi-chung Wong and MonkeyMit from Commercial Radio HK as Guest Instructors of DJ Training Course for elderly members via Zoom meetings. Elderly members learned from professional DJs the knowledge and skills of producing radio programs, and tried to convey their own messages through music and their own voice.
III. DESIGN ROBOT "DONG JAI"
As a continuation to the design solution from the co-creation workshops, we cooperated with design consultant Eureka and technical consultant Roborn to develop a robot “Dong Jai” for Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Fong Shiu Yee Neighborhood Elderly Centre, aiming to enhance centre-member communication. In addition to allow members inquiring the activities of the centre, we imagine that “Dong Jai” will have more daily communications with the elderly, such as expressing care and greetings, and even telling jokes!
Elderly member of the Neighbourhood Elderly Centre participated in the co-creation workshop during the Action Project stage. They are invited to co-create the appearance of the robot “Dong Jai” together.
Elderly interacted with the initial robot prototype and express their comments towards it. User-centred feedback help designers to improve the product.
Interim Report
The Interim Report records the process of co-creation workshops and social innovation symposium of “Season 5: Re-imagine Elderly Centre”. It also documents the design challenges and solutions of each co-creation teams.
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