Boon
TIMELINE
6 Weeks
Nov/Dec 2023
SKILLS
Visual Design
UX Design
User Research
ROLE
Lead Designer
Tech made easy— for seniors, by seniors.
TEAM
Bach Nguyen
Aissatou Diallo
Kathy Zhong
Eric Elliott
MOTIVATION
Our societies are rapidly aging.
As life expectancies rise and birth rates decline, developed nations across the world are grappling with the challenges of societal aging. This phenomenon gives rise to various issues, including diminishing labor forces, isolation among the elderly, as well as an increased frequency of cognitive disorders and technological illiteracy.
We asked ourselves—
How might we improve the quality of life for the elderly?
Technology can greatly aid the lives of the elderly, yet our user research uncovered a widespread apprehension to using new, unfamiliar tech, despite the benefits it offers.
MY ROLE
As a part of a team of four, I conducted background research, user research, hypothesis testing, and fronted the prototyping and design of the final product.
SOLUTION PREVIEW
Introducing: Boon
noun.
1. a thing that is helpful or beneficial.
2. a favor or request.Boon is a specialized community platform for the elderly, empowering users to not only share enthusiastic reviews about the technologies enhancing their lives, but also to generate and share tutorials to help each other understand and use various technologies — from basic mobile apps to advanced interfaces such as websites and smart TVs. It is a platform that is meant to encourage the elderly the explore and adopt new technologies, that they may otherwise overlook, which can improve their quality of life.
PROCESS
We followed an approach close to the double diamond method.
We began by exploring potential problem areas, delving into our chosen one in more depth by conducting user interviews, and narrowing in on a problem statement. Then, we explored potential solutions and conducted more interviews to test our hypotheses. Based on those results, we converged on a final product concept and prototyped the solution.
NEEDFINDING
We conducted 7 interviews with 8 individuals.
We first sought to gain a well-rounded understanding of issues facing the elderly, which we roughly defined as those ages 65+, by selecting elderly interviewees from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and ages, as well as a variety of lengths of time spent in retirement. Additionally, we interviewed several caretakers, a demographic we determined to be a significant stakeholder, as well as a good source for gaining a better understanding of the problems elderly people face.
Then, we converted our interview findings into sticky notes in order to extract themes and insights through affinity mapping.
After affinity mapping, we identified 10 overarching insights, four of which were key to arriving at our defining problem statement.
KEY INSIGHT 1
Socializing is important to the elderly, and they seek out ways to maintain their social relationships.
KEY INSIGHT 3
The elderly have mixed attitudes towards trying new technologies and expressed positive feelings towards tech that is geared specifically towards elderly users.
KEY INSIGHT 2
The elderly primarily use technology to address important needs (keeping up with loved ones, safety), or to enhance preexisting hobbies and interests.
KEY INSIGHT 4 - MIGHT NEED TO CHANGE
A better relationship with technology might indirectly benefit quality of life, which could combat boredom.
Key insight 2 highlighted an apprehension to using technology for purposes completely novel to them
Key insight 3 suggested a need for more user-friendly tech and education to encourage adoption among older individuals.
NARROWING IT DOWN
Problem Statement
Elderly individuals face barriers to adopting technology that could enhance their quality of life, stemming from design issues, accessibility concerns, and a lack of perceived relevance to their daily challenges. While some are open to technological interventions, others avoid them due to accessibility issues, fear of mishandling, and privacy concerns. Overcoming these obstacles is crucial for a smoother transition into aging, as many miss opportunities to adopt technology that could significantly improve their quality of life.
EXPLORING SOLUTIONS
We then began to ideate different solutions, coming up with a list of 20+, then narrowing in on 4 to prototype/storyboard.
We coded and prototyped the first idea, and storyboarded the second, third, and fourth ideas. Below are brief descriptions of the ideas as well as some hypotheses we had about them, which we’ll delve deeper into.
TESTING HYPOTHESES
Our ideas each depended on a number of assumptions and hypotheses, of differing levels of uncertainties and risk, so we conducted 6 interviews with participants ages 65+ to see which ones were supported.
We presented participants with a mix of the four product concepts (some saw two, three, all) depending on constraints like time to gather feedback on our solutions. Below are the key conclusions we drew for each of the concepts, and we took parts from all to guide our final product concept.
Most of our hypotheses and assumptions for idea 1, 2, and 4 were debunked. Additionally, with the first idea, we would be limited to web devices and with the second, we found that all interviewees were skeptical and especially worried about security/privacy. On the other hand, almost all the assumptions and hypotheses we had for idea 3 were supported.
Idea 3, the communal tutorial app, seemed the most promising. We went forward to further develop it.
Based off of our research, we knew we wanted to make a social, mobile-first app with an easy design, where the elderly would be able to learn about + share new technologies, and create tutorials to help each other.
DETAILING THE PRODUCT
First, the team needed to align on features, functionalities, and user flows, so we began to brainstorm.
At this point, we all had some idea of the product’s general concept, but we weren’t all on the same page, so there were many discussions needed to clear up the confusion. We explored many flows and use cases whilst also thinking about how to address issues such as privacy management on both the front and backends.
IDEATION + WIREFRAMING
After we reached consensus, we ideated layouts and sketched rough wireframes until we agreed on the most effective designs.
Below are wireframes of some of the most pivotal pages in Boon (tech reviews page and tutorial search) which we used to guide our final designs.
FINAL CONCEPTS
After playing around with some of the layouts a bit more in Figma, we came to our final designs.
Let’s explore them in more detail:
Onboarding
After registering, users are asked to select at least 5 topics of interest. These selections will be used in our recommendation algorithm in recommending reviews for users to read. These will help tailor reviews towards each users’ likes and preferences and help suggest the most relevant technologies.
We want to give users a tutorial/walkthrough of the app to showcase all of the features they should know about, since our users are assumed to have low tech literacy. Navigating new tech is challenging, and is why Boon exists in the first place, so this tutorial should help make it easier for users to understand the app’s functionalities. However, recognizing varying comfort levels, we also offer users the choice to navigate through the app independently.
Reviews
Reviews are user-generated critiques of various technologies. The Reviews page functions as the app's homepage, because we want to encourage discovery, aligning with our goal to assist the elderly in exploring technologies that can enhance their lives. It is organized into three distinct sections:
Essentially, our aim is to encourage users to click by showcasing the most appealing content right from the start.
On the right is an example of a review article. To safeguard users' privacy, they can opt to remain anonymous authors when publishing. Users can express appreciation for reviews by clicking the heart button.
Tutorials
User-generated tutorials assist individuals in navigating and troubleshooting various technologies, across multiple platforms and devices, such as mobile apps, computer software, TVs, and more.
When users navigate to tutorials using the nav bar, this is the page they see:
We recognized that individuals with low tech literacy may struggle to identify or articulate their issues. To address this, we incorporated a "Popular Searches and Tutorials" section, enabling users to explore common problems faced by others and access relevant tutorials.
When the search bar is clicked and filled in, users see these screens:
We want to give users a tutorial/walkthrough of the app to showcase all of the features they should know about, since our users are assumed to have low tech literacy. Navigating new tech is challenging, which is why Boon exists in the first place, so this tutorial should help make it easier for users to understand the app’s functionalities. However, we also want to give them a choice in case they feel comfortable with navigating through the app themselves.
Tutorial
Tags for tutorial format and device
Rating displayed at top and bottom with option to leave rating
Each step is highlighted - can include text, video, audio instructions
Help out someone else
“Tit for tat” — user is prompted to contribute to tutorial community after viewing a tutorial.
These prompts are determined algorithmically, considering user searches and identifying topics for which tutorials are currently unavailable (e.g., based on users clicking "I can't find a tutorial" at the bottom of search results).
Add Post
We highlighted the create tutorial flow since it was the more complex.
Upon selecting "Done," users are directed to a preview of their post, allowing them to ensure everything appears as intended. The editing/publish action bar remains fixed at the bottom of the screen, providing users with the flexibility to either continue editing or proceed to publish their post.
