Kindred
A digital product that focuses on convenience, communication, and skill building for seniors.
Research
Synthesis
Design
Future Plans
Team Kindred
Software
FigJam
Adobe Xd
Miro
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Timeline
6 weeks; Fully Remote
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We had some hard hitting questions to answer.
How can I create an opportunity for someone else through my product?
What does it mean to have a product that targets a “diverse” audience?
How can we leverage the technological innovation that shaped our evolving world
and ensure that everyone has a seat at the table?
How can I bring together different communities/causes to generate a larger
impact?
Our team was tasked with creating a digital Product that creatively solved some of the on-going effects of the Covid-19 crisis. Our challenge was to explore and find innovative ways to rediscover a new post-pandemic life with a new mobile or desktop app.
The Problem
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During Covid, automation and technology have rapidly advanced. This has left seniors feeling excluded and isolated more than ever.
The Solution
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Design a digital product that focuses on convenience, communication, and skill building for seniors.
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My role: UX/UI Designer
Research and Data Analysis
Sketches and Wireframes
Prototyping
Clickable Mockups
Logo Design
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Deliverables
Insights that led to Solution
Sketches and Ideation
Personas
Wireframes and Mockups
Hi-fi Interactive Protoype
Presentation
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Welcome to Kindred
Kindred is an online application that empowers seniors in the digital age. With smart integration, friendly tutorials, and an accessible dashboard, seniors can learn the tools they need to complete daily digital tasks and strengthen bonds within their community.
Research and User Interviews
Our research was focused on the technological gap between generations. We assumed that the lockdowns magnified the gap, leaving seniors feeling increasingly separated from society.
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Discovery and User Interviews
To dig deeper, we conducted quantitative and qualitative research. We researched articles on seniors and loneliness, along with opportunities for communication, community, and growing technical knowledge. We wrote and sent out a survey asking seniors about their relationships with digital products during the pandemic.
Next, we interviewed seniors between the ages of 50 and 75 and asked them about related frustrations and motivations.
I've linked below my documentation of our Discovery and Qualitative research findings.
To read the full survey, please see below.
Affinity Mapping
After conducting interviews, we were able to identify key topics and pain points through an Affinity Mapping diagram.
Perhaps videos to help people not computer-savvy to navigate.
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If I could learn how to use it faster. I also wish I could make new friends and find groups with people my age to do fun stuff.
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Persona
Meet Susan, "The Social Snail"
Female, 68 Years Old
Lives alone and knits in her spare time
4 children and 9 grandchildren
Spends 3 hours a day on social media
Meet Susan, She’s a 68 year old mother and grandmother. Since the recent passing of her husband, she has lived alone. She loves to knit and spend time with her grandchildren.
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For Susan, the pandemic has been particularly challenging.
Usually quite independent and social, she finds herself
lonely and needing a lot of assistance doing simple things
like setting up a zoom account to see her family or buying
a book on Amazon.
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Susan could benefit from a digital product that helps her
manage daily tasks and teaches her how to use the apps
that will keep her connected to her family and community.
Wants
Convenience - The hassle of having to find where an app is, getting set up for a call/message/task makes her want to spend as little time as possible while enjoying being online.
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Recommendations- Being alone during the pandemic, she wants to stay up to date with what people are doing, get some recommendations from family auto-connected to her TV/Netflix and how to use/access the latest updates on her social media apps
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Learn - Be able to learn on her own how to remove the complications she faces to get through posting a message, fill up her Instacart, make purchases on Amazon, be able to change her password/profile picture.
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Staying connected - With such a large family and social circle, she wants to be able to easily access her scheduled zoom parties, make new friends with people her age.
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Ease of use - Easily access it all from one place in a fast, simple and stress-free way as much as possible
Does Not Want
Information overload- Scrolling and searching through endless lists of recommendations from ads, News etc. ''I don’t want to constantly be bombarded with news in my phone.''
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''If I could learn how to use it faster. I also wish I could make new friends and find groups with people my age to do fun stuff.''
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Walls of text- based instruction - ''Perhaps videos to help people not computer-savvy to navigate.''
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App bloat - Being able to have ease of use - ''I wish it could all be combined into 1 app.''
Design Studio
How might we bridge the technological gap between generations
and empower seniors in the digital age?
To the Drawing Board
The Features derived from the Affinity Mapping and Feature Prioritization Matrix.
Features
Customizable Profiles
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Apps and Websites in one place
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Cloud-based, allowing sharable information amongst Friends and Family lists
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Feature such as Bill Pay allow users can design their own experience based on their daily needs
Tutorials
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Learn-at-your-pace design with customizable Quick Guides
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Family can either record video messages or drop Youtube links into the app
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Academy courses designed at Levels to encourage learning and a sense of accomplishment
Community Building
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Integrated apps such as Meetup to facilitate community building
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Direct messaging and Chat functions
Wireframe Design
Designing the Home Page
First, I designed the first iteration of the home screen. The goal of this screen was to act as a tool where users could discover and organize their preferred apps and websites, and keep informed on their tech literacy courses.
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Because a prominent user need from our affinity mapping exercise was wanting a single place to see what’s going on, I decided to design the home screen to reflect a dashboard or widget page, with a customizable design to discover popular apps and websites, including a “Search bar”, and a “Footer” section with Chat, Profile, Bills and Friends icons already installed, using standard Material icons to breed familiarity. In order for a user to be able to see all three sections on the page and promote ease of function, the Homepage is one static page.
Additionally, I added a greeting for the user, along with a prompt in the Search bar to get started.
Designing the Tutorial Pages
For the Tutorial pages, we wanted to design a space where a user could come, watch uploaded videos, see their progress, see what other course work they have favorited, and check their inbox, keeping Senior accessibility issues in mind. The videos can be organized into sections, such as Friends and Family, for users that primarily want to use Kindred to feel closer to relatives. The video player is a widget that showcases the current tutorial loaded, and we added buttons for easily returning to the Homepage.
Throughout Kindred, all buttons are Large-format and as self-explanatory as possible. This is something we wanted to test through usability testing to see if users could easily navigate through the home screen, the tutorial pages, or more in depth functions such as Bill Pay.
Designing the Menu
One of the more advanced features we played around with is the Menu page, a fully customizable widget that allows users to add their favorite apps to Kindred, such as a Calendar, the Meetup app, Podcast, and a place to keep easily forgettable info such as Passwords. Since Kindred is designed to be used by Seniors teaching themselves how to use technology such as iPhones, Androids, iPads and home computers, having these apps stored in one place on the Kindred app is a stepping stone onward to those technologies, hopefully mitigating the sense of being overwhelmed by the unlimited nature of those designs.
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Another thing we wanted to be mindful of is that Kindred is designed for Seniors of different levels of comfortability, and that by adding advanced features we can simultaneously encourage learning while not coddling our audience into a sense of limited intelligence.
Mockup Elements and Style Guide
The Kindred Logo was designed to facilitate a sense of warmth, love, and community.
For the Design System, I worked with bright, engaging colors, easy to read fonts such as Amaranth and Helvetica Neue, and Marker Felt as the logo font for a bit of youthful fun.
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The buttons are designed large and bright for ease of navigation. Purple is used to facilitate awareness of a highlighted function with Green as the universal "Go" function.
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Material Icons are used as universal standard to breed familiarity.
Usability Testing and Final Iteration
We then prototyped our initial wireframes and tested the usability with 4 participants from both our initial interviews and new users.
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Below reflect the final iterations made from the usability test feedback.
In the final iteration of Kindred, user feedback and the Design system come together to create a Senior-focused experience. Large buttons and icons, highlighted apps and large, bright badges pull the eye and guide the user to the features they want to access. A microphone is next to the Search bar for those with tactile issues. Cloud based and therefore easily connected to family and friends, Kindred lets the user learn the ins and outs of popular websites and online conveniences like Bill pay and InstaCart- especially important for isolated seniors facing mobility issues.
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Sharable wallets allow approved relatives to top off InstaCart accounts complete with attached pre-filled banking information, and links to the site can be sent in Messages for ease of use. Tutorials can be requested- family can then make their own for an added sense of connection or upload a relevant YouTube tutorial. Zoom or another form of video chat can be linked for a user in need of a real-time walk through.
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Advanced features like Bill Pay can be linked to the users utility accounts, and tutorials for the chosen form of payment are always available, but can easily be dismissed by a user no longer in need of them. And in case of confusion, the customer service number of the utility is linked right next to the Payment option.
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Finally, the Menu allows for users to create a customizable experience by adding apps such as MeetUp and Netflix to further connect with others, share watchlists, keep passwords secure, and ultimately foster a sense of self-sufficiency in an oft-neglected population.
Kindred is ambitious, and in future iterations we would love to see the Courses module come alive with official, Coursera-like tutorials complete with Levels and Badges to encourage self learning, backed by the tech giants whose names have become synonymous with knowledge, ambition, and perseverance.
In Summary
Kindred Process Recap
Task:
Our team was tasked with creating a digital experience- An app that directly connects seniors and their friends/ family members for activities, shared media recommendations, workouts, and specifically tech training to encourage senior tech savvy while combatting isolation in a post-COVID society.
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Approach:
Through contextual inquiry, user interview, affinity mapping, task analysis, sketching, iterating, and prototyping.
Product:
Kindred, A Cloud-based Community Learning app prototype designed to emulate the self-pace of online learning, and help Seniors build community and self sufficiency through both uploaded and online tutorials, online Bill Pay scheduling, Music, Podcast and Event discovery, and integrated Chat and Zoom features.
Future Plans
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Continue User testing to develop Kindred further and streamline features to fit the user needs and market.
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Continue research into Senior focused tech issues and how we can utilize technology to combat isolation and knowledge gaps.
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In the future we hope to see major tech companies, such as Amazon, Google, Zoom and even electrical companies like Con Edison develop their own Senior-focused tutorials to help this user group navigate modern conveniences like online shopping and bill pay, and protect against online scams to which they may be vulnerable.