Nissan's "aging suit" allows designers to better understand the needs of older drivers. (Photo by Junji Kurokawa / Associated Press)
ATSUGI, Japan -- To understand what it's like for a 70-year-old to get around, Nissan designers are donning an "aging suit," complete with a 2-pound vest, uneven shoes that make walking a precarious hobble and belts that strap knees so they can't bend.
Such painstaking efforts have produced bits of design innovation -- door handles opening from either side, easy-on-the eye displays, extra knobs in car interiors to grab for support -- that Nissan Motor Co. believes is critical for aging populations.
About aging suits
- Nissan and Ford Motor Co. use aging suits to help designers and engineers understand typical age-related issues. Some of the ways the suits work:
- The Nissan suit simulates poor balance through a raised front-toe design.
- Both suits use goggles that imitate poor eyesight and color-blindness.
- The Nissan suit has casts that make it more difficult to raise arms and legs, mimicking arthritic pain. /li>
- The Nissan suit has a 2-inch-thick waist-belt that duplicates middle-age spread.
- The Ford suit adds bulk in the knees, elbows, stomach and back to reduce flexibility and maneuverability.
- --NWautos staff
The designers say such changes can make a big difference in winning buyers, and also fit today's hard times, as automakers try to cut costs, because the innovations are relatively cheap but beneficial. "These design proposals don't require super-new technology, and most of them don't cost that much," says Etsuhiro Watanabe, associate chief designer. "They're designed to make using and seeing easier."
For years, automakers accepted the assumptions of what a door handle, cup holder or other interior styling should look like -- the industry benchmark. But Nissan is breaking from tradition and starting from scratch to observe how people use cars to tackle what Watanabe calls "interaction design."
For example, the door handle in a Nissan minivan looks more like a metal ring so it can be opened easily by either hand. Cup holders slide out, an arm's length away, at a comfortable angle.
Watanabe, who has donned the aging suit for his designs, has also driven around with special glasses that intentionally create blurry vision. The result: navigation equipment that displays routes in fatter and clearer red. The numbers on speedometers also use an easier-to-read font.
"A car must be something that gives people the freedom of movement," said Naoki Yamamoto, another Nissan designer. "We hope customers will appreciate how useful these designs are."
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