The Usability Study of a Proposed Environmental Experience Design Framework for Active Ageing

Abstract

Growing ageing population today may be necessitating building design decision makers to reconsider the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) standards in a way that accommodates senior occupants’ diverse and individual needs and demands. An experience design approach to rationalising and individualising end-user experience on how to utilise tangible products may serve to reflect user perceptions. Generally, architectural design practices tend to incorporate neither IEQ monitoring and analysis data, nor environmental experience design today. In response to the need for filling this gap, the authors of this paper conducted a feasibility study previously that led to structuring and defining an ‘Environmental Experience Design’ (EXD) research framework. Based on the previous case study on the collective spatial analysis and IEQ monitoring results, this paper further explored the usability and applicability of this proposed EXD framework particularly to the previously documented aged care facility in Victoria, Australia, which has been stressing active ageing agendas. This EXD framework usability experiment helped to build the capacity for engaging the subjectivity and objectivity of end users’ expectations, desires, and requirements in the architectural design thinking process. Nonetheless, due to the limitation of this initial and fundamental usability study’s resources and the objective, the necessity of adjusting the scale and scope of EXD analyses emerged. Moreover, the universality of this EXD research framework usage under various architectural typologies and user conditions yet require further attempts and investigations.

Comprehensive 5P framework for active aging using the ecological approach: an iterative systematic review

“…Land-use Shopping and obtaining services The arrangement of activities and the the impact between trip origin and destinations Amount of activity in a given area The proximity of different land uses [23,33,[41][42][43] Service proximity [23,44] Public facilities [23,33,45] Land use mix diversity / land-use composition Amenities and facilities, such as library, community center, local shops, traditional clinics, community outreach projects [33,41,43,[46][47][48][49] Facilities management [50] Exercise, sports, and recreation facilities [ Neighborhood Safety [9] Residential density/density of housing [41,[47][48][49]93] Older Residential Care Facility [70] Outdoor gardens [56,94] Type of housing [95][96][97] Process Social Environment Social inequalities [69] Social demography [31,101] Social democracy [41,102] Participation (in the planning, implementation and evaluation process, civic participation)…”

Defining Domestic Environmental Experience for Occupants’ Mental Health and Wellbeing

“…The built environment has four interrelated characteristics or mandates and the settings are: (a) to be "humanly made, arranged or maintained"; (b) to be designed "to fulfill human purposes (needs, wants and values)"; (c) to be coordinated in a way "to mediate the overall environment"; and (d) to respond with "results that affect the environmental context" [16,17]. There is close connectivity between people and their surrounding built environment [17][18][19]. People adjust or adapt to the environments to fulfill their requirements, desires and expectations within various settings.…”

“…The built environment connects human thoughts and integrity to their social, physical and cultural contexts. Moreover, spaces created provide opportunities for the users' everyday life activities serving as a medium of human experiences [13,[17][18][19]. Bartuska (2011) noted that built environments are rooted in seven design, planning and management domains such as "products, interiors, structures, landscapes, cities, regions, and Earth" (Figure 2) [16].…”

Human Factors in Green Building: Building Types and Users’ Needs

“…Another article on aged care facilities by Masa Noguchi, Nan Ma, Catherine Mei Min Woo, Hing-wah Chau and Jin Zhou [12] aimed to incorporate indoor environment quality into the architectural practice of aged cared facilities through the proposed environmental experience design framework. The method is case study.…”