Senior's Connect
Understanding technology can be a very overwhelming experience for many communities, especially the elderly.
We created Senior's Connect for those who want to stay close to friends and family, when using technology is the only option.
Senior's Connect was a project focused on creating an app for the elderly to keep in contact with partners and family and organize daily tasks. This project was conducted in regards to COVID policies surrounding retirement homes and the elderly.
The main problem focused on the difficulties that the elderly have when it comes to digital communication and organization. They need a product that will simplify video and digital communication, help in organizing and remembering daily tasks and keep their connection to loved ones via digital avenues.
User Research
In order to understand our users and their needs we conducted research through interviews and software audits.
Goals:
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What is the experience like for the elderly in regards to virtual calling?
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How do the elderly feel about being limited to technology during COVID?
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What challenges do the elderly face in regards to their day to day routine?
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What is the experience like for staff of retirement homes in regards to limiting in person visitation?
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What products are available for digital audio and video calling?
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What are the pains and gains from those products?
Software Audit
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Executed audits of similar video calling platforms
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Zoom
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Facetime
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Audited digital audio calling software
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iPhone calling
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Android Calling
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Findings
#01
Elderly have difficulties staying in contact with family due to the separation because of COVID policies. They also struggled with separation from loved ones who struggle cognitively.
#02
Some of the elderly members and those who struggle cognitively have trouble remembering daily tasks such as taking medication and consuming meals.
#03
Elderly have difficulties navigating digital video and communication platforms, such as Zoom or Facetime. A consistent barrier was that of the size of buttons.
Design Process
Alongside a design team, I took part in a design sprint that included empathy mapping, a round robin and brainwriting and customer journey mapping.
Empathy Map
Round Robin & Brainstorming
The elderly need an easy to use way to contact family and friends.
Problem
Results
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community or groups available for the elderly to join.
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pre-programmed contacts profiles for different users/contacts with the ability to add notes
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interface that provide daily task information
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an interface that presents favourite/recent contacts
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focus on accessibility an interface that displays events and current news
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physical feedback with typing and button selection
Customer Journey Mapping
Conclusion
This project gave us the ability to have more insight into the experience of the elderly when it comes to technology. Being able to empathize with our user and understand their challenges, gains and pains gave us the opportunity to design a solution. Conducting further research and iterations will only help us to understand our user more and create even more dynamic solutions.​
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I worked on this project for a total of 7 weeks and was part of a experience design team.
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If more time was available:
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More in-depth user research including interviews, surveys and polls
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Create a user persona for elderly, family member and retirement staff
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Conduct further customer journey mapping
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Perform walk through user testing with elderly and family members
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Work with design team to create a style guide for brand and interface consistency
Learnings
#01
A time beyond COVID
Although this project was conducted in regards to COVID policies, there is still a need for updated technology for the elderly.
#02
We vs. me
Collaboration is the key to developing solutions. Working with a team opens up concepts and offers ideas that are dynamic and can be iterated thoroughly.
#03
Research to persona
Continuing research and conducting different strategies will only help define the user even more and lead to the creation of dynamic user personas for those that interact with the product.