The current approach to stimulating elderly physical activity mostly uses medical rehabilitation methods or popular forms of outdoor recreation. In the context of an ageing population, there is a growing demand for innovative rehabilitation methods that use information technology. In this article, we present the Urban Health Path as an innovative form of activation for older people using urban therapy, where the architectural elements, such as details, façade features, and urban furniture, inspire movement and attentiveness in the experience of space. The concept is supported by a mobile application that takes into account the specific preferences of older users. Our concept of the physical and cognitive activation of older people was the result of a user-centred design approach and it was tested as a prototype solution. At the same time, the aim of this article is to identify opportunities and limitations for the implementation of this type of solution in other urban spaces. The article presents the process of developing a solution using the Design Thinking method. The process was focused on the needs and preferences of older people. The results of the research project indicate the main important guidelines for implementing the Urban Health Path as a new form of urban facility in the city space.
The world’s population is rapidly ageing, which places a heavy burden on traditional healthcare systems with increased economic and social costs. Technology can assist in the implementation of strategies that enable active and independent ageing by promoting and motivating health-related behaviours, monitoring, and collecting data on daily life for assessment and for aiding in independent living. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) tools can help prevent cognitive and physical decline and social isolation, and enable elderly people to live independently. In this paper, we introduced a comprehensive tool for guiding seniors along the designed urban health paths employing urban architecture as an impulse to perform physical and cognitive exercises. The behaviour of seniors is monitored during their activities using wearable sensors and mobile application. We distinguished three types of data recipients (seniors, path/exercise designers, and the public), for whom we proposed methods of analysing the obtained data and examples of their use. In this work, a wide range of diverse information was examined from which short- and long-term patterns can be drawn. We have also shown that by fusing sensory data and data from mobile applications, we can give context to sensory data, thanks to which we can formulate more insightful assessments of seniors’ behaviour.
The objective of the article is to present working methods in didactics and in design practice in terms of the implementation of the inclusive design concept. It obliges the students and participants to be involved in the design process in order to recognize the needs and preferences of different user groups. Additionally, since the development of ICT technology allows us to increase the availability of space, the expansion of the range of tools in the design process requires the expansion of the knowledge of future designers. Therefore, the authors pose questions: how to educate future architects in this context? what tools and technologies to offer to local communities so that they can actively participate in such design processes? The subject of the analyses involves the implemented didactic projects regarding the solutions for the elderly and the disabled, both in facilities having the caring function and in public spaces. The effects of the completed didactic projects and project activities had a diverse character: from conceptual designs to the prototypes of small architecture elements. The basic assumption in the implemented projects is to adopt the formula of education through experience and the use of pre-project research. According to the state of the knowledge in this respect, the effectiveness of a design process for people with disabilities requires direct contact with users, research on the functioning of space and how it is experienced. The article presents the tools and techniques of work applied in the method ‘education trough experience’: focus meetings, individual interviews, observational studies, role playing, experimenting, testing the solutions.
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