Elderly-Oriented Intelligent Wooden Sofas: Mapping Mental Models to Furniture Design

Abstract

Wood-based furniture, which is valued for its durability and timeless elegance, remains popular among the elderly. Intelligent wooden sofas now transform traditional usage patterns through technological integration. This study explores elderly users’ needs and challenges in intelligent wooden sofa interaction. It examines user experience (UX) and user interface design (UI) trends for seniors in Intelligent furniture systems, followed by market analyses of existing wooden sofa designs and control apps. Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews were used to assess elderly preferences toward intelligent wooden furniture. Survey results were used to inform user personas based on wooden furniture habits, with affinity diagrams identifying material perception mental models. The study involved 116 elderly participants, and questionnaire data for 16 indicators were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 27, confirming a four-dimensional structure through factor analysis (KMO=0.869, p<0.01). Based on the results, key areas for software improvement were identified, including 'discoverability', 'usefulness of content', and 'aesthetics of the interface'. These findings are crucial for addressing user experience problems, correcting the product development direction, establishing a user-centric iterative path, and providing foundational insights for developing elderly-friendly intelligent wooden sofa designs.