An Approach for Consideration Competences of Elderly People in the Development of Technical Systems

Elderly people are restricted in their efficiency due to the aging process. Technical systems provide a considerable capability to support elderly in their domestic surrounding field. Important is, that not only aspects of ergonomics and operability are standing in the focus but also the functionality of the products themselves will be strongly more included in the considerations. To support the designer in his development task, at first typical age-conditioned restrictions and diseases from an engineers view will be described, as well as the influence of the biography on the technique use will be analyzed. With consideration of these aspects an approach for classification and structuring will be derived, in which typical symptoms and their characteristics will be related to appropriate product requirements