Rethinking communication with the elderly by connecting mobile to the senior's smartTV.

Overview

In the past decade, remote communication improved significantly thanks to digital devices. however, the elder population was left behind due to a lack of knowledge in that field.

Elder people are often left alone and wish they could spend more time with their family and friends, This project is exploring way’s to help them overcome the lack of knowledge they have about using remote communication.

role
Product Designer, Visual Designer

skills
Research, Interviews, User Experience, Visual Design, Photography

year
2021

Problem

Loneliness among the elderly (third age, over 65) that has no partner.

Identify key issues

01

Disability of movement - At a late age, people move less. sometimes they lose their ability to move at all because of health and physical matters.

02

Accessibility - There is a dependence on their geographical location concerning their family and friends who sometimes live in far away.

03

The despair of learning - Fear or impatience to learn to operate a new communication device.

Goal & Value

Maintaining weekly communication between the elders and their families in order to empower their sense of belonging and improve their interpersonal interactions. The product is meant to help the elderly communicate in a comfortable and accessible way.

Research

I chose to divide the users into two groups since each of them has a different challenge:

The first group - Adults who live with no partner and are 65 years old and above.

The second group - Families of all types that have at least one adult they don't visit often because of life constraints.

Most of the time we communicate on the internet because in our family each one of us lives in another city. it could be wonderful if grandpa could be a part of this, see our live activities and even comment.

Guy,

Son of a 90-year-old father

I have one child and it is almost three years since we met. we live in two different countries, he has two beautiful children. I miss them a lot.

I have a smartphone my son gave me but because of personal health conditions, it is hard for me to use it.

Betty,

78 years old grandmother

Since I moved from the city with my family, I see him less, and my children barely.

I tried patiently to get him interested in the smartphone but lost his attention very quickly.

Amit,

Daughter of a 72-year-old father

Conclusions

After understanding my user's needs and wants, I formed a few key insights that will help me provide them the best experience.

In order to allow the seniors to become users, the system should be based on a device they already know and control relatively easily - with the TV.

Families reported that each one of them from age 8 to 60 is active on smartphones. They do want to communicate with their seniors by text, images, and videos and share their experiences.

In order to overcome the fear of technology, we will need to allow seniors to be active users by operating the system in a simple way so the learning curve will be fast.

The users from both populations study don't have a platform for joint activities.
We will add a feature that will allow them to set up joint events.

After fully understanding which devices are suitable for this type of project, I had to check out

how similar systems work in the market.

There are positive effects of Internet communication: An increase in the sense of satisfaction of Adults; Decreased likelihood of suffering From depression, Improving cognitive function, and a sense of control. Despite this, there is still a challenge in teaching them to use the devices on which the network is located.

Dr. Michal Isakson

(Taken from market research)

Solution

An app that connects to the smartTV and helps families to share their life with the lonely senior.

Wireframes

Design Family's mobile app

Icon
The inspiration was taken from my grandmother's hot drink placements she uses the most

Colors

Font

First launch

My inspirations for the Welcoming images were home, togetherness and memories. those were my motifs before I started to design.

Invite code for fast engagement

After a quick Sign up the user gets an invite code to send the rest of the family. the same code will be used for the smart TV connection right after.

Post in the family feed

The family users create their own private feeds with their seniors. they can post text, images or videos, and create new events easily and fast using the blue action button on the bottom bar.

Joint events

Each family user can schedule an appointment with the senior on various topics from leisure activities to helping with basic tasks and inviting the rest.