Our team is focused on possible innovations for elderly living in assisted living in the city. To gain the most amount of knowledge and experience for our project, we individually observed four different locations. I had the wonderful opportunity to observe the communal area in The Settlement Community. I watched a group of men/women play bridge, some were doing water aerobics in the indoor pool and a yoga class had just finished when I got there. I noticed that this center offers allot of in-house and community opportunities for all guests of varying ability.
I focused on observing the bridge group. Their ages ranged from approximately 60-88 years old. They started with a small lunch where groups of friends collaborated and talked about their weekend. I noticed some people were very quiet and ate by themselves. When bridge began, everyone was included and there was banter throughout the two hours. It seemed some people felt out of place. They could have been new members of the community or had difficulty making friends. This observation is important for our group to address. We should have introduction parties and other weekly events that encourage the members to become a community.
The most challenging aspect of the activity for me was not talking to people. I felt the urge to begin the interview process early. I like to know “why” and ask many questions. Some members came up and spoke with me during the lunch period which interrupted my observation a little, but it made my being there not awkward. I feel this helped because I was accepted, and people seemed to behave naturally rather than as if someone was observing them.
My grandfather goes to “men’s breakfast” every Tuesday morning and I overheard some of the members complaining about the logistics of getting to activities out of the communal area. A problem is scheduling designated drivers since everyone in the community cannot drive. This is also a common problem when big groups are planning to go to plays, movies etc. Our team can easily combat this problem by offering a public transport system throughout the city. We could also look toward collaborating with Uber/Lyft to give of senior residents a discount. When the bridge group finished playing, I documented how they got home.
Total players: 24
Walked: 4
Drove individual: 14
Carpooled: 6
After we all did our observations, it was difficult not to go back and alter our initial research questions. We stayed steadfast to the project and came up with approximately eight behavior research questions that were inspired by behaviors we observed.