A Research on the Correlation Between Tactile Perception Characteristics and Aging-Suitable Design in the Elderly Based on a Testing Tools Development

Abstract

“Aging” has become a common phenomenon in many countries. In order to allow the elderly to better integrate into this fast-developing society, and to provide more convenience for the elderly to travel and stay at home, aging-suitable design, which adheres to the design concept of “elderly-oriented” is being popularized. The most obvious feature of aging is five-sensation degeneration, of which tactile degeneration manifests in the decrease of sensitivity to the environment, temperature sensation, and pain. Tactile sensation is the most direct way for people to understand the external environment. The tactile sensation of different materials will affect people’s evaluation of products. It has been found in the research articles that the number of experiments for measuring the tactile preference of the elderly for materials from the basic level is small, and most of them lack sufficient data. Therefore, in this study, we explored and developed a Material Tactile Preference Testing Tool for elderly. MTPTT is mainly used to test the elderly’s tactile preference for different materials and their perception of material characteristics. The appropriate testing range and time length suitable for the elderly are reasonably set via the pilot studies. By means of random sampling, 42 elderly people aged between 60 and 89 were tested by experiments, questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The results showed that: (1) The elderly are more likely to feel smooth material, which is positively correlated with the evaluation of the material. (2) The environment and the temperature of the materials will greatly affect the evaluation of the materials by the elderly. (3) The elderly are more inclined to choose natural materials. The conclusion of this research and the design idea of material tactile evaluation scale can be widely used in product materials and architectural decoration, which has widespread guiding significance for aging-suitable design practice in different fields.