By Paul Tateoka
Juniors and seniors in the industrial design program presented five models of exercise equipment geared to audiences 50 and older to LifeSpan Fitness, Wednesday afternoon, (Dec. 13, 2006).
The assignment in Paul Skaggs and Bryan Howell''s class was to produce models of a treadmill, elliptical and recumbent bike with the same uniform design including packaging, a manual and brochure geared to an audience 50 and older.
'Our goal was to have the students work as a team dividing up the tasks and breaking established prejudices by having them research and design for an older group, one that is outside their normal realm,' said Bryan Howell, an associate professor of industrial design. 'We are preparing them to step into any company doing the same thing because this is not academic book learning, this is an abbreviated real life design experience.'
Students presented their semester''s work to Peter Schenk, owner of LifeSpan fitness located in Park City.
After each of the five presentations, Schenk asked each group questions focusing on simplicity, cost effectiveness and basic model approaches.
'When you are in the industry, after five years the industry conditions you to think a certain way,' Schenk said. 'We are going for an outside approach looking in, melting together each of the five group''s ideas.'
The groups based their models off research taken from rest homes around the area.
Senior Bryce Haymond, from Sandy, and junior Justin Anderson, from Massachusetts, both observed and worked out with seniors in a rest home as part of the research for their project.
The group observed that easy access, accessibility to the equipment and safety were the key things that the seniors focused on, Haymond said.
'One lady didn''t use the recumbent bike because she couldn''t get one it,' Haymond said. 'One treadmill had a sign on it that stated, ''use at your own risk.'''
Student''s focused on key words such as discreet, inviting, simple, social and safe.
'We looked at our problem of complexity, comfort and bulkiness and used our key words to solve the problem,' said Jessica Stacey, a senior majoring in industrial design from Cleveland, Ohio.
Most seniors found exercise equipment to be ugly, hard to access, uncomfortable and hard to operate, said Brynn MacLennan a senior majoring in industrial design from Alberta, Canada.
'We made our design very accessible with only a few buttons on the interface and the assembly and packaging is also very simple and easy to use,' MacLennan said.
Schenk was impressed by the exercise equipment designs.
'I think the students did a very good job and having paid for their work, I feel they are right in line with what I would have paid for anywhere else,' Schenk said. 'The students created very practical models because of their excellent research.'