Designing for Connection
Reimagining Horticulture Therapy for the Elderly
How might we make horticulture therapy more accessible, engaging, and meaningful for nursing home residents with diverse physical and cognitive abilities?
In collaboration with A.G. Rhodes, a senior living community in Atlanta, our team explored opportunities to improve the horticulture therapy experience through human-centered design.
Working directly with residents and a horticulture therapist, we investigated how physical accessibility, emotional connection, and social interaction influence participation in therapeutic gardening activities.
Through observational research, interviews, participatory design, and iterative prototyping, we translated our findings into a wheelchair-mounted vase designed to support more accessible and independent flower arranging.
My Role: Design Researcher & Industrial Designer
Methods: Ethnographic Observation, Interviews, Participatory Design, Research Synthesis, Ideation, Prototyping
Outcome: Wheelchair-Mounted Vase Concept
Publishings:
Word Design Organization Article: https://wdo.org/how-id-4843-taught-students-to-design-for-dignity/
Essie Knows Best: The Lesson Only Nursing Home Residents Can Teach Georgia Tech Design Students: https://news.research.gatech.edu/feature/essie-knows-best-lesson-only-nursing-home-residents-can-teach-georgia-tech-design-students
Recognized by WDO & Published in GT Real World Research Initiative!
CAD Render
Research Insights
Several important themes emerged throughout our research:
Accessibility is highly individual. Differences in mobility, grip strength, and cognitive ability create different barriers to participation.
Social connection is a key part of the experience. Gardening activities can provide opportunities for conversation, shared memories, and meaningful interaction.
Adaptability matters. Tools and activities must accommodate a wide range of capabilities without making residents feel excluded or overly dependent on assistance.
Personal meaning encourages engagement. Familiar plants, gardening memories, and connections to family can help make activities more personally meaningful.
Behind the Design
My design research at Georgia Tech studied the effects of horticulture therapy on elderly patients at Emory’s A.G. Rhodes nursing home. Our research focused on developing innovative, dignity-centered design solutions that make horticulture therapy more accessible, effective, and engaging for residents.
My group designed a wheelchair-mountable vase optimized for horticulture therapy. This product allows residents who use wheelchairs to more easily participate in arranging, transporting, and interacting with flowers and plants during therapy sessions. By reducing physical barriers, the vase supports independence, sensory engagement, and meaningful participation.
Understanding the Experience
Rather than beginning with a predetermined product solution, we started by observing horticulture therapy sessions and learning directly from the people involved.
Through field observations, interviews, and participatory design activities, we examined how residents interacted with gardening materials, navigated physical limitations, and engaged socially during therapy.
Our research considered not only functional accessibility but also the emotional and interpersonal experiences that make these activities meaningful.
From Research to Design
These findings helped identify opportunities for tools that support more independent and comfortable participation in horticulture therapy.
One design direction explored a wheelchair-mounted vase that could position flower-arranging activities within a more accessible working area.
By connecting direct observations with iterative design exploration, the project demonstrated how small changes to tools and interactions could potentially make therapeutic activities more inclusive.
Reflection
This experience strengthened my understanding of research-led design and reinforced the importance of involving users throughout the process.
Working with older adults challenged me to consider accessibility beyond physical measurements, including confidence, autonomy, dignity, and emotional well-being.
Most importantly, it taught me that effective design begins with understanding people's lived experiences before deciding what to create.
Designing for Connection
Improving Horticulture Therapy Through Human-Centered Research
Horticulture therapy offers older adults opportunities for creativity, social connection, and meaningful engagement with nature. However, traditional gardening activities can present challenges for individuals experiencing limited mobility, reduced dexterity, or cognitive changes.
Through a design research collaboration with A.G. Rhodes, a senior living community in Atlanta, our team explored how horticulture therapy could become more accessible, engaging, and responsive to residents' diverse abilities.
Form Exploration
Material Exploration
Our Design in their Hands
Our observation, co-design, and user testing looked a bit like this:
One particular observation session brought the residents’ challenges into focus.
Residents spent the morning arranging flowers. When they finished, they admired what they had created.
Then they waited.
They needed help. They couldn’t put the flowers away on their own.
“It was such a disheartening moment,” Tonetto said. “They created these beautiful arrangements, but they weren’t able to take them back to their rooms themselves.”
Tonetto didn’t see a limitation in the residents. “I think it’s a design problem,” he said.
The students went back to work.
The solution they developed was a lightweight vase attachment that clips onto a wheelchair, allowing residents to transport their flower arrangements on their own.
When Sabrina Hebert, a third-year industrial design student, returned with the prototype, Essie immediately understood how it works.
“She just grabbed it,” Hebert said. “Essie told me, ‘I’m making this work. I’m doing it myself.’”
Essie clipped it onto her wheelchair without any assistance.
I love it. I love it. It’s mine,” Essie said. “You can take it to your room and sit it on your dresser. Or you can leave it on your wheelchair, and when you go down the hall, people can see what you made.”
For the students, it was proof design changes could restore a measure of independence.
For Essie, it was a chance to do something herself — and to give something back.
“You know, it’s good to help,” Essie said. “I feel that I’m helping the students. That makes me feel good.”
- Excerpts taken from: “Essie Knows Best: The Lesson Only Nursing Home Residents Can Teach Georgia Tech Design Students” an article written by Michelle Azriel
Words from the Professor:“We want students to see that their skills can do more than land a job, they can change lives.”
-Professor Leandro Miletto Tonetto
Publications & Updates
Our work was published in the World Design Organization, and is featured in Georgia Tech’s Real World Research Initiative!
Click the photos for links to articles!
