About Project
Teammate UX Researchers | My Role Product Designer | Duration 5 hrs
This design story is about how we developed our solution to challenge the seniors' issue within 5 hours UX hackathon event which was hold by UXPA and Brooklyn Product Design in NYC. Our product, StoryHub, won the first place out of 13 teams, ya! 🎉🎉
The Hackathon Design Challenge
How might we allow for seniors to better connect with society and combat the feelings of social isolation and loneliness?
Our Research - The Fact
To find out the reasons for the problem, we started out our secondary research individually then consolidated results in the first two hours of the competition time.
Our research indicated that in comparison to the old days, the elders are being excluded from the mainstream social media — where younger generations seem to be the center of the modern world. Some of them feel that they are being isolated from this fast-paced world. Despite of high dependency on digital products in modern society, there are barriers between new technologies and old people, which leads to social isolations and the feeling of loneliness.
But why?
Loneliness and social isolation are both related to disconnection. People use social network to connect with each other, but seems like the elders are being excluded or being passive. We did researches on these topics, and found out that this gap was due to obstacles between elders and mobile devices — both mental resistance and usability issues. The elders, especially for those who are already in isolation, it’s very difficult for them to be the one who reaches out.
We thought of these factors, and started to seek for ideas which can remove these barriers, build up self-esteem for elders, and bring them out. In Marslow’s pyramid above, we noticed that the motivators are weaken in this isolated situation. People wants to feel values. The elders should feel valued, and their experience and life stories are valuable. This is the base of our project. Create a place, and letting younger generations come to them.
Our Solution - StoryHub
Our product, StoryHub is a platform that helps seniors pass their valuable experience and knowledge to young people. Unlike YouTube and Quora, our product reduces the technology barrier in hardware design. It was created based on our UX research and senior-friendly UI combined with Facebook Portal+ accessibility. By sharing stories through our platform, seniors are able to feel proud of themselves and the feedback from others will makes them feel valued, which also bridge the generation gap.
User Persona
Prototype mock-up
We created our product primarily for the elderly like Rose Green in our persona. With the consideration of the technology barrier and physical issues like sight and muscular paralysis, we decided to choose Facebook Portal+ as our main device to develop our platform after several brainstorming exercises with the team. Because the natural capability of Facebook Portal+ will and can automatically track people's movement at any corner in home, we determined that it can assist the elderly overcome beyond obstacles in usability issues and mental resistance with our help.
Interactive prototype
So, when the user, elder, comes to our platform, first they will see the questions that are listed by young people or anyone who wants to get help from elderly. At this moment, the user can tap one of the questions with the easy accessible icon and then choose the most comfortable way to deliver their experience or life story to answer the question. After the questioner received the answer, the elder will get the feedback from the asker, and these processes not only enable the elder to feel proud but also help make great connection with others.
Prototype walkthrough. Screen size based on the Facebook Portal+
What I learned
I earned the awesome experience in this hackathon and it's also my first hackathon in my life! Great time management, product development plan, and team collaboration were the key factors to win the hackathon. The best moment for me was to get consensus with teammates in the intensive process. In the team with people came from different backgrounds, we didn't really have a design lead. It was there when I learned to digest contrary opinions and then to discern when to refine product without sacrificing quality in the very short competition time. This not only helped make the compelling product in the end but made the design process more efficient for the team to make consensus.
