Design Exploration for Medication Adherence of Elderly: A Conceptual Twist Using Affordances

Aging population is increasing particularly in developing countries. This increase causes higher rates of medicine consumption for chronic illnesses among the elderly. Poor medication adherence in the case of poly-pharmacy patients is a frequently reported pervasive healthcare problem. This paper elaborates on the design of a product service system that has been developed as the graduation project of the third author for improving adherence to medicine among the elderly and focuses on the exploration and conceptualization phases of the design process. Based on the theory of affordances, the study not only reveals the importance of numerous iterations during the conceptualization phases, but also the specific nature of designing health-related products for older adults. It is exemplary in terms of questioning the initially developed concept by means of using affordances and it shows how affordances may be used in redesigning a totally new concept.