We Care is a system included an interactive network and installations to advocate passengers to offer their seat to the people in need in the metro system.
Released:
2014
Client:
HK MTR Corporate
Award:
Best of Show (category: BAIM) of HK PolyU Design Annual Show 2014
Current situation
Priority seats are installed aimed to let the people in needs, who are mostly defined as the elderlies, pregnancies, disables, and parents carrying a child, to be offered a seat.
Offering seats is not a compulsory act, however, it is an act to show respect or care to those people in need.
However, in Hong Kong, most passengers are focusing on their smartphones or take a nap once they got a seat to sit. Thus, they ignored everyone pass-by. Even someone in need is standing right in front of them, they did not notice.
Problem analysis
Interviews
To know more about the thought of the people in needs, especially elderlies, I interviewed a number of elderlies inside a McDonalds, since a lot of elderlies were resting there. I interviewed 14 elderlies with aged between 51 and 77. During the interview, I focused on asking them had they ever been helped, and had they been ignored or refused to help? Also, I asked for some related experiences which they would like to share.
All of them said they experienced to be ignored or being treated impolitely at least once.
After the interviews and gathered their experiences. Most of the elderly wanted to get help from others. However, due to different reasons, they preferred to rely on themselves instead of others.
Observations 1 - Elderlies' pride
I wanted to know how independent they are as they said. Therefore, after the interviews, I walked around and wanted to see if any special behaviours do elderlies have.
I found that a lot of them prefer to use an umbrella instead of a walking stick, even that was a sunny day. Hence, I counted and found four old ladies and two old men were using an umbrella instead of a walking stick within one and a half hours. There were other four ladies using a normal walking stick. And two men who had obvious difficulties on walking did not use anything for help. To conclude, I found that elderlies have their own pride, especially men.
Observations 2 - How people in needs seek others attention
Secondary research
According to a book, named “Universal Design: Psychological care design research and practise” (通用設計－心理關愛的設計研究及實踐) written by Jiang Ke (姜可). He explained walking stick creates a negative perception, it tells the public that the user is not good at walking, sick, or old, etc. And this made the users look weak and feel embarrassing. Therefore, they refused and avoided to use it.
Additionally, the book also introduced that Universal Design makes things safer, easier and more convenient for everyone, including the people in need. There are mainly three points for universal design:
1. Universal design focus on the feeling while users are using the product.
2. Emphasise “equality”.
3. Universal design equally raise the ability of every users.
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