Nomie 

Welcoming one’s family in retirement homes: a way to feel home again. 

During the week I focused on the hospitality inside the family. Moreover inside a family with an elderly person in a retirement home. People get older and older and generations are more and more distant. My question was the following : How, by being designer, could I give back the possibility of welcoming their families to elderly person in retirement homes even though they don’t feel at home themselves ?   

Duration

1 weeks

End of second year project

Skills

Sketch 

Adobe suite (photoshop, illustrator)

Application Mock-up 

Goal

The theme was « hospitality ». How to help people becoming more welcoming? What kind of issues did it rise?  

Research and question 

First of all I did many research, I went to two different retirement homes in Meudon in order to understand properly what kind of places it was. I also asked questions to people who were working there as nursing assistants. 

Visiting grand-parents wasn’t the same if they were in a retirement home rather than at their home place. 

 Afterwards I had my question : How, by being designer, could I give back the possibility of welcoming their families to elderly person in retirement homes even though they don’t feel at home themselves ? 

My research

Hospitality at home or in the Design’s history

The first problem is not to know when the family is coming and for how long. In pink : happy moment linked to a family coming. 

The user-scenario of Nomie

1. Luce, 87, is in a retirement home.   

2. She would love to welcome her family. So she picks Sunday’s  cooking activity with the idea to organise a family dinner.

3. To invite her family Luce goes back in her room so she will be more peaceful. 

4. For the Sunday’s dinner she would like to cook desserts. She scans the dessert’s recipe. 

5. Now she can pin the event up on the common board. 

6. Lili, her grand-daughter, is told about the event. She can decide what she wants to bring on Sunday for the dinner. 

7. Luce can see the menu which become more colorful when someone picks up things to bring. 

8. On Sunday Luce cook the dessert with the person in charge of the cooking activity who can help her if necessary.

9. Family members arrive : a good dinner organized thanks to Luce ! 

A multimedia application

I wanted Nomie to be linked with current elderly people and their technology’s approach. What seems ideal was the use of the television as a way to interact with the application. All retirement homes have televisions, moreover a remote control is easier to manipulate than a phone if your hands are shaking.

That’s the reason why Nomie is on tv for the elderly person and on your phone if you are a family member. 

Here Paul the grand-son of Luce can help her to subscribe and create a first group from his own phone. 

Now it’s Luce’s turn : she can create an event and scan her recipe : everything is accessible on her TV. 

With Nomie it is easy to remember what you have chose and what you have to bring for Luce’s dinner on Sunday

Thanks to Nomie it is now possible, even in retirement homes, to welcome one’s family.