Designing for the Future
Challenge: Every 7 seconds an American turns 50. That’s 77 million aging Baby Boomers in addition to the 45 million older adults Tom Brokaw fondly termed the “Greatest Generation.” With increasing strains, our current generation of professional caregivers is striving to meet the needs of an aging nation.
Challenge: 3/4 of “boomers” will experience one (1) or more chronic conditions.
Challenge: 89% prefer to “age in place,” despite the possibility a spouse may suffer from a debilitating condition. An even larger percent of seniors anticipate technology will help them live longer, better, more independent lives even if they are unaware of what that technology may be or how it will help.
Solution: Diakon Smart Homes. Outfitted with the latest technological advances, Diakon Smart Homes are designed to enhance safety, particularly as older adults desire to grow older residing in their own homes.
Challenge: Create a way for people to learn about Diakon Smart Homes showcasing the technological advances and attractive living space designed to support this new idea of “Aging in Place.”
Too complex to be boiled down to a single bullet point, the solution for explaining the advantages of aging in a Smart Home was best accomplished by creating an intricate, multi-tiered virtual “in-home experience enabling website visitors to interact with and learn about these new inventions. It also required the time and talent contributions provided by a team of creative individuals. The result is groundbreaking. More importantly, it empowered the efforts of Diakon to inform and educate prospective residents.
The process started with a complex three-dimensional illustration of a Smart Home, rendered by our partners, the fine folks at FUSE FX out of Minneapolis. The illustration was scrutinized down to some of the most minute details. It needed to accurately display the new technologies which will revolutionize the way people thought about senior living. Medication Reminder Systems, Minimal Threshold Showers and Under-Counter Appliances were just some of the amenities featured. At one point, even the bed spread was changed because it wasn’t cozy enough. It was this attention to detail that would resonate with potential buyers.
Once the groundwork, pun intended, of getting a layout was finished, a way of introducing people to the different technologies of the home needed to be implemented. Though research has shown 85% of Baby 
Boomers are tech-savvy, the system needed to be accessible, intuitive, and practical. The resulting interactive animation makes it fun to experience Smart Homes technology—virtually. Moving throughout the home, an animated character would trigger room sensors signaling lights to turn on and off, as a room was entered or exited, all the while leaving a dotted trail showing the course of its path—harkening back to the days of Family Circus cartoons.
The next step was to create an interactive means for enabling website visitors to access specific information pertaining to Smart Home facilities. To achieve this, a series of navigation menus and drop-downs were designed to appear at the click of an icon. 
Easily understood, user-friendly icons were designed to encourage participation. Any solution too technical in appearance and the opposite might occur—scaring visitors away from discovering important benefits. Fun and easy to use, the interactive illustration is guaranteed not to become pure eye-candy.
In order to present this revolutionary system, a new website was created. Reportedly the first of its kind in the country, the new Diakon Smart Home website showcases and incorporates all the various features from the home. It is the ideal way for people who may be looking into retirement, to learn and familiarize themselves with this new initiative. It was and is the perfect marriage of form and function. As a young person just entering the work force, and nowhere near retirement, I often thought during work on this project that I wouldn’t mind having these amenities and technologies in my house. I mean, who doesn’t want lights to go on and off when they enter a room. They are definitely the future of senior living, and ultimately, living in general. It’s only a matter of time until houses look like that of the Jetsons. I can’t wait.
Leave a comment