Togetherville
A voice-assistant app to empower the elderly to actively participate, connect, and contribute, enriching their lives and strengthening their relationships with family members.
Duration
4 weeks
(July — August 2023)
Tools
Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Procreate, Voice Flow
My role
User Research, Concept Development, Interface Design, Visual Design
Challenge
Limited Face-to-Face Interaction
Physical distance and the busy schedules of the younger generation pose a challenge to meaningful face-to-face communication with the elderly, hindering family bonds.
Loneliness and Limited Remote Communication
The absence of efficient remote contact methods leads to loneliness and disconnection among the elderly. Their inability to use smart devices due to physical, cognitive, and knowledge limitations exacerbates this challenge.
Low Family Activity Participation
Generation gaps, communication difficulties, and restricted activity options contribute to decreased family engagement and participation in activities, impacting overall family connectedness.
An app using a voice assistant to help elderly stay connected with their family by creating and revisiting family memories in an engaging and interactive way.
Gamification of 50 Things to Do With Family
Offers 50 challenges of various remote activities to engage and topics to discuss with family.
Creates a personal album and thoughts recording associated with each completed activity for reminiscence.
Encourages cognitive engagement, creativity, and emotional well-being.
Family Interaction Inspirations
Provides curated conversation topics and family activities through engaging interaction.
Stimulates interest, encourages participation, and improves communication skills.
Bridges generation gaps and fosters deeper connections within families.
Voice Assistant
Integrates a voice-guided interface for easy navigation.
Delivers step-by-step instructions and prompts vocally.
Enhances accessibility, reduces technological barriers, and empowers the elderly to use the app confidently and independently.
Research
Context
People are living longer – the number of older persons (those aged 60 and above) is expected to more than double globally by 2050 according to the UN. With the aging population grows, services and supports have been offered by different countries, organizations, and communities. However, this has inadvertently led society to perceive the elderly as vulnerable. They also desire to contribute and connect, beyond just receiving assistance.
User Interview
I interviewed my grandparents and some elderly neighbors about the topic to find their needs and challenges regarding initiative.
As many elderly mentioned family, I subsequently interviewed their family members to gather their perspectives.
Challenges
Elderly
The interview has revealed that physical, knowledge, and cognitive limitations are major challenges for elderly socialization. They restrict elderly individuals' socializing options, tools, and content, making it challenging for them to proactively connect with others.
Younger generation
Additionally, the younger generation's limited time, energy, and generation gap pose challenges for meeting the elderly's emotional needs within the family.
Challenges they are facing together
Communication barriers
Different interests
Limited family activities
Challenges of coordinating schedules
Different lifestyles
Inefficient remote connections
Geographic distance
Insights
Elders' desired social circles mainly include family
Interviews revealed that most seniors seek closer family ties and positive interactions with their family.
Family interactions involve numerous steps
Communication, coordination, preparations, and potential last-minute changes - all require efforts.
Multiple factors lead to low family engagement
The factors include, but are not limited to, generation gaps, limited activity choices, mismatched schedules, and declining cognitive abilities in the elderly.
Elderly need a simple, accessible social platform
Interview and research highlight the elderly's limited familiarity with smart devices, necessitating a senior-friendly platform to socialize more frequently from anywhere.
Remote connectivity is important for elderly and their family
It is vital to overcome barriers of coordinated in-person family activities caused by distance, schedules, and diverse lifestyles, enabling more frequent and closer family interactions.
Youth could address the challenges together
Interviews indicated that the younger generation is willing to provide more companionship and emotional support to the elderly, despite the lack of a suitable approach.
Seniors Need Help Using New Devices (Source: Pew Research Center)
Help-needed rate
Aged 65+
73%
Aged 50-64
62%
Aged 18-29
17%
(Research data)
Reframe the Problem
As a result, considering both the needs of the elderly and the potential of the younger generation’s participation, I propose a social platform that focuses on enhancing active family connections for the elderly. The central question becomes:
How can we create an elderly-friendly platform that enhances active, effective, and flexible family interactions?
Ideation
My enhanced understanding of the elderly's challenges and needs through research has led me to the more detailed and targeted ideation.
User Persona
Based on my research and key insights, I narrowed it down to 2 user personas.
Analyzing Elderly’s Experience in Family Involvement
Scenario and pain points
User journey map
Pain Points and Design Opportunities
Can we establish a user-friendly platform for remote family bonding, addressing distance and time constraints?
Additionally, to help address pain points, what if we make the platform:
Elderly-friendly
Easy to use
Straightforward
Stimulating for cognitive activity
and
Family-friendly
Offering family activity ideas
Bridging generation gaps
Helping coordinate schedules
Preserving memories
Voice assistant
Voice-guided
navigation
Step-by-step
instructions
Facilitating
interactions
A persistent theme that covers:
gathering ideas, starting activities,
participating together, and
accessing memories anytime.
Gamification of activity coordination
The platform needs to be:
User-friendly, practical, consistent, engaging, and support remote connectivity
Ultimately, I opted for a mobile app with a voice assistant for remote family activities.
Inspired by "nurturing the family garden," I decided to use a "waterdrop" as the symbol for "family activities" in the app. The elderly can get inspiring “waterdrops” with fun activities from “wishing fountain”,
and collect specified number of "waterdrops" by completing remote family activities guided by the voice assistant. These aim to foster cross-generational engagement, cognitive activity, and a sense of remote connection.
User Scenarios
Elderly in family involvement
Development
Information Structure
Low-Fidelity Prototypes
Designing Interface
Visual Identity
Illustration Evolution
Main symbol "Waterdrop”
Activity
- “Waterdrop” with name
Wishing Fountain
- making a wish (getting a family activity idea)
Nurturing the family garden
- collecting water droplets (completing activities) and retrieving each memories anytime
Start Family Journey
(Home page)
The elderly can access related pages focusing on family activities and the symbol "Waterdrop".
(Wishing fountain)
The elderly get family-activity inspirations from here.
Guided by Voice Assistant, the elderly make wishes to the wishing fountain, select “synchronous” or “asynchronous” family activities, and view detailed activity descriptions from the correspondently released water droplets.
(Activity intro & initiation)
Voice Assistant guides the elderly to understand and initiate the family activity.
Introduce activity information to the elderly through sound, text, and images for easy comprehension.
Guide the elderly step by step in setting up activities.
Offer personalized suggestions based on past records and family information.
(Activity in progress - asynchronous activity)
Users view activity details and complete the challenge with Voice Assistant
Displays activity basics, rules, and participant progress.
Voice Assistant is available for assistant at any time.
Voice Assistant guides step-by-step through completing the activity.
(Challenge completed)
Personalized memories are generated after challenge completion, viewed anytime.
Designed with a "Nurturing the Family Garden" theme, this garden path features water droplets, each representing a family activity challenge. Water droplets collected along the path nurtures the family garden of love and stores family activity memories.
Accessing any water droplet reveals the corresponding memory record.
Completing a challenge collects a water droplet on the path.
Create a unique activity report summarizing family achievements upon completion.
(Synchronous activity)
For different activity types, there will be unique treatments in voice guidance, interface, and content.
Activity intro and initiation - personalized suggestions
Countdown - Awaiting start
Activity in progress - participants in the same group chat
Voice assistant - Join the group chat to facilitate the processes
Report - unique to the activity
(Voice Assistant Is Always Ready to Assist)
For different activity types, there will be unique treatments in voice guidance, interface, and content.
The elderly can seek guidance with any operation problems.
As depicted in the image, the voice assistant is asked to search for specific activities.