Simple Stories

Jordan Coffey | Miko Fogarty | Vivian Hong | Matthew Nelson

Summary of Project

1 Problem: Working with SF Jewish Living Center, we helped them redesign a website portal for the public
and private view of Byer Square.
2 Interviews: To understand our user base, we conducted 9 one-on-one interviews for more qualitative
data and secondary research for a better understanding of the older adult population and how to best
design technologies.
3 Insights: From our insights and personas, we realized that adult populations prefer bigger buttons,
simplified and intuitive user interfaces, and colorful designs. They have numerous interests and enjoy being
actively involved in society.
4 Ideation: We then explored various ways to redesign this portal, from incorporating aspects of
storytelling and memory to interests and rewards.
5 Prototyping: We ultimately designed a consolidated informational-based platform with all different
forms of activities, ranging from group activities and connections, health, games, and education.
User Testing: We conducted two rounds of user testing to better reform our prototype catered to our
6 customer base.
Project Framing

Develop
Perform Isolate
unique
Primary primary
features that
Research to causality of
specifically
gain first-hand problem for
serve
insight customer
customer

How might we design a community driven portal that combats

isolation and loneliness in elderly adults?
Research Methodology
Primary Research
We conducted 9 one-on-one interviews with the following interview guide linked here:
Our interviews had two main components: storytelling and technology. In our storytelling component, we
tried to ask our users questions about their past, occupation, living situations, and communities. To
further understand their pain-points with technology, a component of our interviews included an
observational portion. We told them to walk us through an app or website and tell us what they like or
dislike about the website / app.

Secondary Research
We each conducted secondary research to gain a better understanding of the scope and scalability of our
issue, websites and other similar organizations that older adults use or are a part of, and the UI/UX that
appeals to older populations

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Primary Research Key Insights
Loneliness
• Some factors to loneliness are that friends are passing away more frequently and children are grown and
less accessible.
• To mitigate loneliness, adults try to remain active.
Technology
• Tech is tool, not a lifestyle.
• Adults use technology to connect with family.
Community
• Adults’ community usually involve primarily their family.
Education
• Disseminating their own stories helps them feel validated and relevant.
• They enjoy volunteering and counseling and being around like-minded people because it gives them a sense
of belonging in society.
Fear and Painpoints
• Adults have a fear of separation and loss of support systems.
• Pain-points with technology are small screens, small fonts, overwhelming options, lack of privacy in the
digital age, tedious password protections, memory loss, lack of purpose and incentive

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Primary Research Key Insights

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Secondary Research Insights
Background and Statistics
• Population of 47 million seniors in the US and 1/3 (11.3 million) of older adults lived alone
• Living alone increases with age. Among the older population, there is a decrease in the number of people living
in family households and an increase in the number living alone – American Community Survey Reports
• Older adults without communities/ who are socially isolated have a higher risk negative health outcomes
including depression, chronic illness, mortality – Livable Community Indicators for Sustainable Aging in Place
• Being in a strong social network serve as preventative means for older adults to protect themselves from
disability and functional decline – Livable Community Indicators for Sustainable Aging in Place

Good UI / UX Bad UI / UX
• Large font size (>14pt) • Tiny Font size (<8pt)
• Bright colors • Muted colors
• Clear purpose • Unclear purpose
• Updated information • Outdated information
• Easy to navigate layout (help phone number) • Difficult to navigate layout

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Research Synthesis
We attempted to synthesize our user research, including interviews and secondary research, by
creating two user personas as shown below. Our ideation phase aims to address the frustrations
and needs they face.

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Summary of Key Challenges
Social Isolation & Loneliness
Older adults tend to be more prone to
social isolation and negative health
outcomes (e.g. heart disease,
dementia, depression) due to their
social circles shrinking as the years go
by
RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS
User Experience
Adults have difficulties using
technologies due to the majority of
user interface designs being
marketed and designed for younger
users.
IDEATION
Community
There is a lack of support network
and sense of social connectedness
with society. Adults try to remain
active in society because they want a
sense of value and social
belongingness.
PROTYPING REFLECTION
Ideation
To address the problems of our users, our team delved into brainstorming and ideation. We engaged in a
five to ten minute brainstorming session to creatively think of solutions and individually mapped out
solutions.

Here are some of our main ideas:

• A storytelling archive bridge generations together. Adults can share their stories via voice record and
written transcript, while young adults can also share their own accomplishments with them
• An interest based platform with all types of interests and volunteer activities that adults can engage
in
• A personalized digital calendar that has all the activities of Byer Square consolidated into one.
Calendars will have specific activities depending on users’ interests
• Provide accommodating features for adults with disabilities on websites and translational services for
those who do not speak English.

We ultimately decided on creating an interest-based platform because this more accurately aligns with
Byer Square’s mission.

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Ideation

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Ideation
How Might A Game Designed For Solitude Reduce
Loneness?

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Prototype Description - Onboarding
Access our prototype here: https://invis.io/FWRVKQIMNG7#/361812637_Home

Our website has a simple and intuitive onboarding portal. Users can sign up by simply inserting their name,
date of birth, username, and password. In the case that they do forget their password, they can simply
input the answer to a security question tailored to their memories (e.g what was your childhood address,
etc.) Afterward, they select their interests!

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

 Prototype Description – Main Platform
Access our prototype here: https://invis.io/FWRVKQIMNG7#/361812637_Home

The home page is a consolidated platform of all activities that adults can engage in. We have four different categories
including connect, health, play, and learn. Adults can select their top three interests and connect with other adults with
similar interests and they can then attend a community event together. In Health, Adults can also find group fitness
exercises, individual training, fitness videos, and group therapy exercises. In our Play platform, adults can attend
community game nights or play online games. Adults can also learn by listening to other members via Member Talks,
take online classes, and access a variety of news sources.

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Prototype Description – Badge Plan
Access our prototype here: https://invis.io/FWRVKQIMNG7#/361812637_Home

The more members participate in these activities and attend community events, the more badges they will earn!
Members can utilize these badges to redeem for prizes like movie tickets or game tickets!

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Prototype Feedback
USER TESTING

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Prototype Feedback
A series of constructive critiques came from user testing the preliminary version of our
prototype.

1. Add a scrollbar. A simple a automatic feature of any website was awkwardly missing
2. Transparency with instructions and website navigation is crucial for older adults. A
computer interface is not always intuitive and even less so for those wo have neither
grown up using nor used it for work.
3. “Welcome Home” is counterintuitive and rather assuming of the mental state of the
customer. Many people are at the facility because they have to be.
4. Icons are not the way to go. They do not tell the user anything about how to operate
the website
5. Concision is imperative for the sake of attention span.
6. Color does grab the audience.

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Recommendations to Byer Square
1. Translator. As Byer Square continues to expand, they will encounter
customers who do not speak English, or prefer another language. For them,
it’d be great to have a “Translator” button that converts all content to a
language of their choice.
2. JAWS. A tool that narrates the content of a site for the visually impaired
3. Community Partners. Although Byer Square will provide numerous activities
for on campus members, it would be beneficial to connect with outside
companies that can offer a variety of activities within the community,
allowing members to continue living outside the walls of Byer Square
4. The Badge Plan. A way to incentivize members to continue to participate in
on campus events, the Badge Plan offers tangible rewards that allow
members the chance to experience events and activities tailored to their
interests, provided by community partners.

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION

Team Challenges
Communication within Team
and with Client
We addressed this challenge by
keeping each other updated
regularly about what we were
individually working on. We kept
in contact with the client via
Skype and clarified expectations
RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS
Finding Customers to Interview
and User Test On
User testing was difficult because we
did not have a solid group of adults to schedules. Meeting times were difficult
test out our prototype. We mitigated
this by spending more time in getting
extensive feedback with the few
customers that we did have contact
with.
IDEATION
Finding Times to Meet Up within
Team and with Client
Everyone in our team had very busy
to schedule. We tackled this by
delegating specific individual tasks to
specific members of the team. We
mainly kept in contact with our client
via Skype.
PROTYPING REFLECTION
Member Contributions

Miko Fogarty Matthew Nelson Vivian Hong Jordan Coffey

Research Research Research Project Management
User testing User testing Ideation Need Finding
Delegating tasks Website Pitch deck Website Prototype Concept Ideation
Prototype Video Deliverable Pitch deliverable User testing User Testing
Final Deck Interactive prototype Pitch deliverable Film Editing &
design. Final Deck Scoring

RESEARCH KEY INSIGHTS IDEATION PROTYPING REFLECTION