An exploratory study on the design of the elderly-friendly smart shopping trolley / Adelin Abdul Latib

Shopping is regarded as one of the enjoyable activities for elderly to spend their leisure times. Since there are many hypermarkets available in Malaysia, the elderly occupy most of their ample time by going shopping as it can lead to more positive emotions such as joy, happiness and self-satisfaction. It can also enhance the elderly energy levels and avoid from daily frustrations, bad moods and changing the focus from the nagging demands of everyday life. However, there are many limitations for the elderly to do the shopping activities as they grow older. With the age declines, it affect the ability of the elderly in order to perform daily activities and maintain their independents like before. The environment and facilities provided by the retailers are not elderly-friendly especially the shopping trolleys available at most hypermarkets. This qualitative based study used the exploratory and realist research method approach to carry out the entire research. The approach considers both reality and knowledge in order to gain information and data collection. This study involved five (5) participants amongst the group of elderly woman aged 60 and over, who goes out regularly for groceries shopping at hypermarkets in Klang Valley. The purpose of this study is to discover the problems and limitations of the elderly when they go shopping at the hypermarkets. From the results, researcher gives a proposal of the Elderly-Friendly Smart Shopping Trolley which includes the elements and basic principles of the design for the elderly. By introducing the Elderly-Friendly Smart Shopping Trolley, the researcher believes it can assist and reduce the problems and limitations while the elderly go for groceries shopping alone in the future.