Use of the Functional State Simulator of the Elderly Adult to Identify Requirements for the Design of Food Containers

Abstract

The mass consumption products such as food packaging are designed for people without physical and cognitive limitations, becoming barriers for the elderly who present functional conditions associated with the aging process. The main problems are: (i) the decrease in force that hinders the opening of the containers, (ii) the visual limitations that prevent the reading information on the labels, (iii) the loss of fine motor skills that impossible an optimal grip, (iv) the lack of memory that generates bad brand recall, among other difficulties. Taking into account the little information that there is on the subject from the design, and the gap between what is found in the literature and the student’s experience, in terms of language complexity, approaches, analysis methodologies, etc.; was proposed since 2016 within the line of research in Ergonomics of the Industrial Design at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) in Medellin, the design of a simulator that replicates the functional states of the older adult (sight, hearing, fine motor, posture and walking), allowing the user to understand the built environment by students from project areas who are interested in product development destined to this market. Given the above, the objective of this article is to identify the requirements and design specifications of food packaging aimed at the elderly, implementing the set of functional state simulators, to generate designs with formal, functional, chromatic, communicative and productive adaptive characteristics to the needs of this user.