✽ Xinyue Li

BOTHAI

I created BOTHAI with my grandmother in mind, envisioning it as a means to re-establish connections between elderly residents of nursing homes and their children. BOTHAI serves as a multi-sensory interactive emotional medium designed to facilitate emotional expression, fostering a deeper sense of love between parents and their children.

Time 5 week

Team Individual

Type Human Interaction Design | Design for Emotion

Tool Arduino, Rhino, KeyShot

Design background

Statistics on nursing home care in China

2017 in Shanghai China, 11.2% of people over 60 are willing to live in nursing homes, nearly 539,000.

80% of elderly lack communication with their families, which are gradually alienated from their families and become more and more lonely.

Frequency of phone calls from children is positively correlated with the emotions of the elderly.

80% of children call their parents only once a week, and most people usually can’t find ways to communicate with their parents.

Normally, 2/3 of the elderly’s rest time is conflicts with their children’s work time.

In particular, working overtime has become a norm for office workers.

Design Process

Primary Research

I conducted interviews with a total of six middle-aged individuals aged 30-65, as well as four elderly individuals over the age of 65, from the perspectives of both children and the elderly. These interviews were conducted through face-to-face and phone interviews. During these discussions, I delved into their habits and methods of expressing emotions towards their loved ones. Through these interviews, it became evident that the ways in which people express their feelings towards family members in China vary significantly based on age and gender. However, a common theme emerged: the expression of emotions tends to be quite subtle and somewhat reserved, regardless of age or gender.