FineWine
technology for the underserved generation
Problem Statement
As the Baby Boomers(around the age of 60) continue to age, technology starts to play a crucial role in medical insurance, safety, communicating with others, and general easing in their daily lives. It is alarming to see the disparity existing among this generation and the amount of technology they interact with. How might we take the action to bridge the gap that exists between people of this age cohort and their interaction with technology?
Project Deliverable
Research
Product Design
Physical Prototype
My Role
Research
Interview
Product Design
Team
Haowen Bao,
Anshul Madappa
Gunhyung Cho
Isaiah Tabalbag
Target Users
While the category of adults above the age of 60 is too broad to address, we decided to focus our research and efforts into a subset of this general population, specifically people above the age of 60 with some forms of visual, hearing, and/or mobility issues.
As our team were discussing about our target user, I found it inappropriate to address the group of people we are designing for as “senior citizens” since they are just older than us. Putting a label on them gives the society a signal that younger people don’t want to be like this group. Hence, I have suggested using the term “Older Adults” as the group we are designing for.
User Research
Since we are designing for the older adults, I want to make sure that we are using the correct research method to get the best insight of the user group. Utilizing the proper research methods would allow me to empathize with a different generation of people by getting to know their daily interaction with technology and their thoughts on the process. With those thoughts in mind, the following questions raised up to me:
“what are the problems that older people face when interacting with technology?”
“what products or services do they benefit from?”
“how do they need their products to be designed and how they are supposed to use them?”
After comprehensive discussion with my team, we decided to conduct literature review and user interview in order to effectively collect data and information from our target users.
Interview
We have interviewed 5 older adults from different areas in Seattle with different backgrounds. Some of them suffer from visual impairment, mobility issue, or diseases like Parkinson’s.
Here are some quote from the interview:
“It’s sunny outside, I can’t see the screen.”
“It’s hard to hold the phone when it keep slipping off my hands.”
“I like actually typing on a physical keyboard, there’s not much feedback on the screen.”
Research Insight
After conducting literature review and user interview, we empathize with the older adults in a deeper level. They generally had a tough time interacting with their mobile device in terms of its affordance and usability. Specifically, it is challenging for them to see the screen under the sun, it is hard to interact with the keyboard on the screen when it does not offer a lot of feedback, and the device is hard for them to hold since it is slippery.
Aaron Smith, 2014
User Persona
Design
Hybrid e-ink / LCD technology enables the device to switch from LCD screen to e-ink screen seamlessly as the user move from a dark lighting area to a bright lighting area. It solves the problem of not being able to see the screen under sunshine.
takeaways
Seniors vs. Older Adults: It is important to define a clear scope for the group of people we are designing for.
Be Critical: We keep asking ourselves during the design process, “Is this what they really need?“.
Be Open-minded: I learned that going into a problem area without any stereotypical thoughts give me the opportunities to explore more about the problem. For example, conducting an interview without detailed questions gave the interviewee a chance to express the problem they are experiencing.
Thanks for reading!