Bubo
A community application that helps older adults create and join events near them to build a social support structure.
Older adults often face increased social isolation due to major life changes like retirement or loss of a spouse. This isolation poses significant risks to their mental and physical health. Research shows that socially isolated seniors have a 50% higher risk of dementia, and 43% report feeling lonely regularly. Our challenge is to develop effective solutions to help older adults build and maintain meaningful social connections, mitigating the adverse effects of isolation
Created detailed wireframes, laying the foundational design structure for the app, which facilitated a clear understanding of user flow and functionality among the team.
Crafted high-fidelity interactive prototypes that effectively demonstrated the app’s user experience, enabling realistic and constructive feedback gathering.
Actively collaborated with the design team in iterating prototypes based on user feedback, ensuring that the final design was both user-friendly and aligned with the project goals.
Contribution
Rapid Prototyping, Storyboarding, Design end-to-end, UI design, Hi-fidelity wireframes
Tools
Figma, FigJam
Team
5 designers
Type
Interaction design, UI design
PROBLEM SCOPE
How might we help older adults handle isolation as they go through major life changes that alter their social and environmental circumstances?
Solution Overview
We focused primarily on older adults especially those that were dealing with major life changes that may have created feelings of isolation or loneliness. While at first we were planning on centering our research on adults that were located in retirement homes, we pivoted during ideation to focusing on those that were around retirement age or living at home with self-sufficiency. Our reasoning behind this was to ensure that we addressed the problem early and as soon as it arose.
Our product users can expect to use the application to find, join, and create events. They will also be able to curate a group of close friends and family members called their ‘tribe’ which will stay updated about their activities.
37%
older adults regularly feel lonely, indicating a widespread issue of social isolation in this age group
33%
reported infrequent contact with people from outside their home
NATIONAL POLL ON HEALTHY AGING, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Ideation
EARLY STAGE DESIGN
An app designed to cultivate a sense of community and reduce feelings of isolation among older adults, fostering meaningful connections and enriched social interactions
HI-FIDELITY MOCKUPS
Flexible Response to Unforeseen Challenges
In the development of our app aimed at fostering community and reducing isolation among older adults, our design team initially focused heavily on research and testing. This approach was essential due to the intricate nature of our target users' needs, the variety of user groups, and a nuanced understanding required for senior-friendly design.
However, as the project progressed, we introduced changes to the functional requirements, and given the tight project timeline, we faced the challenge of having less time for comprehensive user testing. To adapt to these constraints without compromising the app’s effectiveness, we expedited certain aspects of the design process. This allowed us to obtain early feedback, which was crucial for making timely adjustments to the app’s design and functionality, ensuring it remained aligned with our elderly users' needs and preferences.
USER PERSONA
By specifying our main target users’ status, goals, and skills, we were able to make the goal of our project more clear and how we should aim it to be.
Responding to user preferences for simplicity and ease, our design iterations focused on straightforward interactions, avoiding complex navigation such as menus, searches, and filters. We aimed to minimize cognitive load by presenting only vital information, like event details, ensuring a user-friendly and enjoyable application experience.
01 ONBOARDING
View interactive elements like upcoming events/popular discussion topics on the homepage.
This design approach makes navigation intuitive and engaging, resembling a community notice board that many users are accustomed to.
03 CREATE EVENT
‘Settings’: make changes to your account and ‘Alerts’: stay updated on upcoming events and new groups.
Each screen is designed with accessibility in mind, ensuring ease of navigation and interaction.
02 BULLETIN [LANDING PAGE] + JOINING AN EVENT
The onboarding process is streamlined and user-centric, with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.
Follow easy steps to tailor the app to your preferences.
Easily organize and share your events within the community. It features a simple form where you can input details either by typing or by voice command.
You can publish the event to the app's community board and share with your friends.
04 OTHER SCREENS
Focal Point
FOCUS ON SIMPLICITY
Our users indicated that their favorite applications were simple, enjoyable, and easy to use. We focused on creating simple interactions that did not require navigating through menus, search features, and filters during our design iteration. We also focused on creating an application that reduces the cognitive load as much as possible by sharing only essential information wherever possible (such as the event details)
LEVERAGING MENTAL MODELS
We used the mental model of a bulletin board to create an interaction that is simple to use and highly learnable. In addition, we prioritized the ability for older adults to quickly scan the primary board to find new events without having to learn a series of controls.
Tools and Approaches
To develop ideas into designs and to test initial prototypes, we used paper and pencils.
For analyzing interview notes and working on high-fidelity layout designs, our team utilized Figma.
Impact
We strongly believe that this simplified version of a digital bulletin board would be impactful in the lives of both our primary and secondary personas. Our primary persona, an older adult that is looking for ways to continue socializing after major life changes, will find that BuBo can help them reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness. Our secondary persona, a close family member of the primary, will find BuBo helpful as a tool to stay connected with their loved one.
As designers, our primary ethical concern is the inability of our product to avoid the pitfalls of social media platforms. We are concerned that if our application begins to accept advertising as a means of revenue generation, our board will reorder bulletins by level of engagement. This will make the primary purpose of having an authentic board that is unaltered by an algorithm obsolete.
PITCH
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