Smart Community
The Age-Friendly Community Kitchen
Since January 2019, JCDISI collaborated with 25 final-year students from PolyU BA(Hons) in Social Design to carry out a study with a view to improving the services of the “Chan Un Chan Third Age Volunteers Centre cum Community Kitchen of TWGHs”. After understanding the needs of the Community Kitchen, the students came up with six ideas to enhance the recognition of the contributions by their Third-Aged volunteers.
Based on the six ideas proposed by the PolyU Social Design students, JCDISI, partnering with design consultant “One Bite Design Studio”, scrutinized the operation of the community kitchen and provided feasible design advice to improve the working conditions of staff and “third age” volunteers, thereby to create a sense of belonging to the kitchen among staff, volunteers, and customers.
During the study, the team co-designed “The Toolkit for the Age-Friendly Community Kitchen” as a reference for other similar community kitchens or elderly nursing homes, as well as to bring inspirations to the catering industry to confront the challenges of ageing workers.
Animation on design advice related to “Equipment”
With reference to Chapter 4 “Equipment” in “The Toolkit for the Age-Friendly Community Kitchen”, a 1-minute animation is produced to introduce the age-friendly equipment and tools that can be used in a community kitchen.
Students’ interview with stakeholders
In addition to observing the daily routine at the community kitchen, students also interviewed different stakeholders, including social workers, staff, third age volunteers and diners, during the preliminary stage of the project, exploring their needs and pain-points so as to develop service or product designs that are suitable for them.
Prototype testing with users
In the later stage of the project, students brought their design prototypes to the community kitchen and tested them with the users. Through observing how users use their products and listening to their feedback, students were able to further improve their designs, making the products more convenient to use for the users.
Design recommendations adopted in the community kitchen
The community kitchen adopted some short-term design recommendations in 5 aspects including “Layout & Furnishing”, “Operational Routing & Logistics”, “Equipment”, “Training”, and “Incentives”.
The Toolkit for the Age-Friendly Community Kitchen
Students and design consultant “One Bite Design Studio’’ produced “The Toolkit for the Age-Friendly Community Kitchen”, raising 8 aspects of design advice, namely “Layout & Furnishing”, “Operational Routing & Logistics”, “Labels & Signage”, “Equipment”, “Training”, “Inspections & Records”, “Menu & Recipe”, and “Incentives”.
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