Quick Assistance
Accessible design | App Design | UX research & strategic thinking | UX interaction & usability
This is a four-week school project that partners with a research project on "Social Isolation of Older Adults." We are focusing on alleviating the social isolation and loneliness of older adults. We designed an App that will help assist older immigrants. Our goal was to break the language barriers of older immigrants. Through this App, they will be able to use their first language to receive assistance through text messages or video calls. Also, everyone else can register as a volunteer to offer help with any language they prefer to use.
Timeline:
4 weeks
Role:
UX research, UX design, Visual design, prototype, usability study, iteration
Team:
Sabrina Medrano (V1.0),
Qijia You (V1.0 & V2.0)
Tools:
Adobe XD, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects,
OVERVIEW
The challenge.
Design a human experience focusing on improving human interaction in digital media. In 4 weeks, I need to define my target users first, then focus on adapting information to users' needs and ideate potential solutions that will help older people increase social connections and reduce social isolation. During the whole process, we need to present our research outcomes and final project to our clients.
Design process.
DEFINE
Target users.
We started by doing some research and finally identified our target users to be 60+ elderly currently immigrants to the U.S. Most of them were sponsored by their children. Their English is poor, and they are lonely since they don't have many friends/family nearby.
Brainstorming...
Mind map
RESEARCH
Goal.
Synthesize our research and interviews' key findings and insights to generate some opportunities to solve issues among the targeted immigration population.
Secondary research visual report and interview highlights
Insights.
• Older immigrants are often at risk of social isolation associated with language barriers and cultural differences.
• Most older immigrants' children need to work outside during the daytime, so they need to stay at home by themselves.
• Older immigrants have weak attachments to the community due to mobility issues (e.g. No driver's licenses)
• Researches show that tech ownership among older adults is growing, especially smartphones.
• Most older adults have vision problems. They prefer simple UIs with large buttons, large text and intuitive visual cues.
• Common problems when using a smartphone: complex operation system, too many functions, and concern about privacy.
How might we...
• How might we design an App that older adults can search for people nearby by filtering their first languages?
• How might we design an App that can help older immigrants translate English to their own language in any scenario?
• How might we develop an online forum which allows users to choose languages they prefer, so older immigrants can
communicate with others with similar hobbies when they are at home alone?
• How might we introduce an audio book App which allows users to choose languages to older immigrants?
IDEATE
IDEA #1
An online forum for immigrants to communicate their interests and hobbies in their own languages.
IDEA #2
An mini-program with some social media App which allows older immigrants to reach assistance with different languages at any time through both texts and video call
We chose to work on idea #2 since...
From secondary research and evaluative interviews with our users, we found:
• Most older adults don't own a laptop or computer, but smartphones.
• Idea #1 might be too fancy for older adults. They will be overwhelmed by all information on an online forum.
• Some interviewees mentioned privacy concerns about making friends online.
• Based on our research & interviews, we found some Social Apps older immigrants use most on their smartphones are
WeChat and WhatsApp.
DESIGN
V1.0 (MVP)
Goal.
• Build a minimum viable product;
• Focus on breaking the language barriers;
• Focus on older adults friendly UIs;
• Collect feedback for future iterations.
Ideas.
We named our mini-program "Quick Assistance" Besides older immigrants who potentially seek language assistance, we also targeted everyone else as our users. We decided to set up a voluntary system for this mini-program, which means although you don't need assistance, once you have a WeChat/WhatsApp account, you can sign in as a volunteer to offer assistance to others.
Sketches.
Wireframes with workflows.
V1.0 final design.
Welcome page
Choose the language
Choose your role
Choose the method
Text the volunteer
Video call the volunteer
Activate functions
Receive text messages
Reply text messages
Receive video call
USER TESTING
Feedback.
We present our MVP to our clients, guests, and some older immigrants for feedback. Overall, we received positive feedback about the accessible idea and older adults' friendly interface. Additionally, we also received valuable suggestions for later troubleshooting and iteration.
Pain points.
• Confused "Need Assistant" function with the "Volunteer" function
• Don't know how to switch between the mini-program and the main App
• How if I don't use WeChat/WhatsApp, but still want to use this service
Troubleshooting.
Older immigrants are not familiar with the mini-program within an App. They can't locate the mini-program, and don't know how to exit it and go back to the main App.
?
Many users during the test got stuck at the "Choose the role" phase. The difference between these two roles was not clear. Old immigrants got confused about the following few interfaces when they accidentally selected "Volunteer."
Insights.
Users have less related content about our service and a poor distinction between different functions. Especially for those who have heard about this product for the first time might not know that volunteers will also log in from this page.
ITERATE
Goals.
• Make it an individual non-profit App instead of a mini-program
• A more seamless user flow
• Refine intuitive visual hints and enhance guidance
• Add a menu bar as a guide
Paper Prototyping
I started by creating different layouts for different info sections, which then were tested with users.
User testing.
Findings
• Users felt an individual App that needs to log in with phone number is acceptable (most older immigrants don't use
Facebook or Gmail, so they can't log in with social media);
• Users suggested selecting the language before entering login information;
• Users worried about waiting time to connect volunteers and the limitation of available volunteers.
ITERATE
V2.0
Wireframes.
For those seeking assistance:
• Clean and simply menu;
• Show current available volunteer;
• "Not urgent" section for users to leave
message to volunteers;
• “Inbox” section for messages.
For that offering assistance:
• Clean and simply menu;
• Access to assistance pool;
• Be able to reply to assistance requests
• “Inbox” section for messages.
V2.0 final design.
Choose your language and role
Log in by phone number
UIs for those seeking assistance
UIs for those who offer assistance
Prototype.
REFLECT
Takeaways.
This project is a practical solution focusing on adapting information to human needs. As a UX and visual communication designer, one of the expected strengths is visualizing the problem and the solution. Through this project, I learned to identify the target user and goal before designing, did design research to support the design process, understood that design artifacts come after design research and strategic thinking, and generated interactive strategies that innovate in the communication and service challenges. By doing the user test, I found prototyping is a tool for iterating and understanding the complexity of the problem.
