Keywords

1 Research Background

At present the Chinese elderly population continues to rise at the end of 2016. China’s aging population has reached 230 million, accounting for 16.7% of the total population, in the 2020, the proportion of China’s aging population will be expected to reach 17.8% of the total population. Pension has become a more common social problem. With the development of population aging, a new generation of elderly people have a significant different with the traditional ones. They make a great improvement in many conditions, such as the high income, education background and the concept of health. At the same time, they pay more attention to their health image and have more requirement of the quality of life, which also led to the development of aging health product.

2 Theoretical Review

2.1 Perceived Quality

Product quality is divided into objective quality and perceived quality [1]. Objective quality refers to the real quality which is the suitable terms to describe the status of whole product with excellent quality and leading technology (Hjorth-Anderson, 1978). Perceived quality is usually defined as: ‘evaluation on the Quality of the Products by the consumers’ perception ‘(Steenkamp, 1990; Szybillo and Jacoby, 1979). The customer perceived quality, refers to the customer’s subjective evaluation for a product or service [2].

It is found in one of our study that there are seventeen key factors in the perceived quality dimensions of health product for elderly adults, including personality factor, service factor, agreeableness factor, utility factor, material factor, basic function factor, entertainment factor, safety factor, shape aesthetic factor, health factor, convenience factor, brand factor, interface factor, communication factor, size factor, coordination factor, and price factor. Therefore, in the context of the silver economy [3], the innovation method based on the perceived quality and user experience for elderly is needed to help designers improve the design effect [4, 5]. With better user experience design for the elderly, the health living of the elderly will be improved.

2.2 Basic Innovation Tools of Triz Theory

The TRIZ theory was founded by Archie Schuler (G.S. Altshuller) in 1946, and Altshuller is also called the father of TRIZ [6]. In 1946, Altshuller began the research work on the theory of inventing problem solving. Altshuller found that product improvement, technological transformation and innovation in any field, like biological systems, all exist the rules of begin, grow, mature and die. If people master these rules, they can dynamically design the product and predict the future trend of the product. He set up a comprehensive theoretical system consisting of various methods and algorithms to solve technology and innovation, and set up TRIZ theory system [7] based on the principles and rules of multidisciplinary fields (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Triz system architecture

Full size image

2.3 Kano Model

The KANO model is a tool for classifying and prioritizing user needs invented by Professor Noriaki Kano of the Tokyo Polytechnic University. Based on the analysis of user needs and user satisfaction matrix, the nonlinear relationship between product performance and user satisfaction is reflected [8]. Five levels of customer requirements are defined by the KANO model: basic needs, expected needs, exciting needs, undifferentiated needs, and reverse needs [9], and the first three needs are mainly taken as effective data. The design direction can be effectively determined by identifying the different needs of the product system by the survey questionnaire. The Kano model is based on the UCD. Because of lacking of the development trend of technology, the opportunity for design innovation may be limited.

3 Research Methods

Taking the health products for elderly adults as an example, the research procedure is as follows: (1) Elderly users’ feedback on the perceived quality of the product was collected with questionnaire survey, and the perceived quality factors were got by the factor analysis of the SPSS software. (2) The Triz innovation method was combined with the perceived quality factors in the innovative design process. 15 students with design background worked together to get more design concepts with Triz design tools. (3) In the later stage of design, the Kano model was combined into the design process which is a method to classify the user demands. The survey results were analyzed with the Kano model. The elderly users’ demands were classified into four categories: demand with no differences, essential demand, expectation demand and exciting demand. This method overcomes the limitations of the user research for elderly and becomes a systematic innovation method for elderly adults.

4 Innovation Design Process of the Aging Health Product System

4.1 Innovation Method of Health Products Based on Triz Theory

The difficult of aging user insight is in the survey of user needs, because some users’ thinking and habits are conservative,it is difficult to dig out innovative design insights from them. Therefore, traditional market research methods can not provide valuable insights for design innovation.

This research explores the concept of innovative design through product structure decomposition and nine graph model. Then, combined with the requirement identification and weight analysis of Kano model, users’ needs sequencing is got and forward-looking design plan is designed (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Solution process of product innovation design

Full size image

4.2 System Structure Decomposition and Resource Analysis

Build a product structure tree. The structure of the elderly fitness product includes backrest cushion, hand hold heart rate measurement, seat adjustment before and after adjustment, seat height adjustment, balance adjusting foot pad, front moving roller, antiskid foot pad, 8 stall resistance adjustment, fixing and adjusting handrails, and instrument panel.

4.3 Analysis of the Product Resources by the Nine Screen Method

The nine screen method is used to analyze the resources of the fitness bicycle. The current research system, the super system, the subsystem, the past and future of the system, the past and future of the super system, the past and the future of the subsystem are included in the corresponding nine screen lattices (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3.
figure 3

Analyses of nine screen methods based on a fitness bicycle system

Full size image

According to the six types of resources, we analyze the resources of the nine screen grids, and get all the resources available for the elderly fitness product system, as shown in the following table (Table 1).

Table 1. Resource analysis1 (Triz theory)
Full size table

4.4 Requirement Analysis of User’s Perceived Quality of Product System

According to the Triz evolution trend forecasting and the product evolution curve, combined with four stages (infancy, growth period, mature period and decline period) of the technology development of S curve ,more design concepts are got with the parameter judgment and evolution route analysis of the components of products (Tables 2 and 3).

Table 2. Concept prediction of the perceived quality requirements of the aging health product system
Full size table
Table 3. Perceived quality and corresponding customer requirements of the aging health management system
Full size table

5 System Requirement Analysis with Kano Model

User requirements analysis based on Kano model. Based on the results of future prediction, a prospective, scientific and targeted customer questionnaire was built on the basis of two dimensional evaluation table of KANO model. The positive and negative problems are shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Kano questionnaire design
Full size table

Make the Kano model questionnaire. The positive and negative questions in the upper table are filled into the corresponding spaces of the KANO model two-dimensional evaluation table. For example, select the questions corresponding to the “dashboard” in Table 4 as an example, and the form of the questionnaire is shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Examples of the application of the KANO model
Full size table

In the above two dimensional evaluation table, positive and negative questions are put forward. Among them, I = Not essential, M = basic requirements, R = negative opinion, O = expected demand, A = exciting demand. Then, according to the innovative design requirement screening principle, we eliminate Class I requirement items, retain Class A, Class O and Class M requirement items, and set various demand weights to 3, 2, 1, 0, −1 respectively. Kano weight priority calculation formula: API = 3 × A% + 2 × O% + M% − R%.

The main object is the user who is related to the subjects of this research. The questionnaire is distributed to 50 to 70 years old users. A total of 200 questionnaires were issued in this survey, and 180 valid questionnaires were recovered, and the effective recovery rate was 93.3%. Finally, based on the results of the survey, the analysis is carried out to get the Kano category of the requirement items, as shown in Table 6.

Table 6. Customer demand list
Full size table

6 Establishment and Solution of Product Concept

According to the results of the above table, the sorting of the exciting and expected needs of the elderly users is as follows: (Table 7)

Table 7. Needs Sorting
Full size table

Setting the weights respectively 2.5, 2, and 1.5, three oriented functional requirements can be obtained. The designs of perceptual guidance are F2, F8, F7, F9. The experience oriented design are F15, F13, F6, F11, F1. The practical oriented design are F14, F4, F3, F12.

Based on the above statistical analysis, we can further explore the implicit needs of users, clarify the hierarchical relationship of user needs, and lay the foundation for further development of product design.