Natalia Zolyniak

“How might we improve the lives of older adults and their carers by encouraging and enabling cultures and higher standards of care?” proposed by the Royal Society of Arts.

Young people have the best accessibility to various communication methods, so I encourage initiatives in orchestrating opportunities for connections, by placing it at their fingertips. This has the most likelihood for action among a busy group, who are most comfortable reaching out over social media platforms.

For seniors, I wanted to integrate this into their lives by situating these kiosks in the senior hotspots. This way they can update their profile and check events easily whilst pushing for being active independently and integrated into society. Gaining first-hand insights from elders as well as from outsider perspectives e.g. GPs, Paramedics and Care workers, elevated my ability to adapt everything surrounding elder safety and communication needs which was above all in this project.

By understanding the back-end processes of the kiosk, I was able to iterate my app accordingly for the two products to work holistically for data transfer. Overall, my breadth of insights into past and current technologies allowed me to implement features to tackle communication gaps through all ages e.g. voice recognition instead of typing, and phone calls with automated responses to serve as data transfer for those homebound. Regarding the kiosk materiality, I critically adjusted the model to reach accessibility and safety concerns to full potential.

In response to my dissertation “How can Design Anthropology promote Sustainable Design practices?”, this self-led project undergoes deep critical development to understand the cultural intricacies of materials and their whole journey.

Using inspiration from the Kincentric worldview where humans and nature are equals – of kin to one another, I propose to investigate “Can bio-composites help us heal our relationship with nature?”. This leads to the Kincentric line of bio-plastic overwrap for luxury beauty and fragrance products, replacing polypropylene film.

In a world increasingly conscious of environmental impact, luxury brands are seeking sustainable packaging solutions that align with their brand ethos. Not only do these alternatives reflect my anthropological research, but equally adhere to customer needs with various nature-based incentives, textures and aesthetics e.g. pineapple leaf embossing, scented overwrap, beetroot dye anthotype. This ‘Luxury Bio-Library’ will be the ideal benchmark for overwrap alternatives to elevate packaging opportunities for manufacturers.