Design for reduced social isolation
A service to foster a strong sense of community within virtual travel experiences, allowing senior citizens to connect with others who share their interests and passions.
The Problem
Social isolation and loneliness pose significant, often underestimated, public health risks, impacting a substantial portion of older adults. Around 25% of Americans aged 65 and above experience social isolation, with a considerable number reporting feelings of loneliness across the United States.
Research has shown that social isolation is as detrimental to health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day and can contribute to a 50% increase in dementia, a 29% increase in heart attacks, and. 31% increase in the risk of stroke.
The Urgency
For the first time in US history, ages 65+ are projected to outnumber children by 2034. America joins other countries with large aging populations, such as Japan, where more than one in four people are at least 65. Additionally, the U.S. population aged 65+ grew nearly five times faster than the total population over the 100 years between 1920 to 2020, according to the 2020 Census. The fastest rate of growth was between 2010 and 2020.
Goal
Designing for a strong sense of community within senior citizens, facilitating connections with like-minded individuals with similar interests and passions.
Outcome
Shared VR for seniors to combat social isolation:
A service that enables senior citizens to simply put on a headset and they’re immediately transported into an immersive experience. They can travel to all corners of the world, with family, friends, or by themselves.
My Role
Project Manager, Service Designer, Storyboarding, UX Writing
Understanding the Problem
To understand how senior travelers planned their travels in today's age, we used empathy mapping, stakeholder analysis, and customer journey visualizations to further define the problem.
Insights
Social Connection Priority: Social connections are important for the elderly. Features that facilitate virtual group travel experiences and foster a sense of community must be prioritized.
Real-Time Communication: To enhance the sense of shared experiences and connection, real-time communication features within the app must be prioritized to facilitate interaction and engagement among users during virtual travel experiences.
Personalized Travel Experiences: Users should be able to personalize their virtual travel experiences, catering to individual interests and preferences. This fosters a sense of autonomy and enhances the overall user satisfaction.
Technical Accessibility: Potential technological barriers must be addressed by ensuring the app is compatible with various digital devices and connectivity speeds.
Designing the Solution
To better visualize our target audience's journey while using the service we were conceptualizing, we started with storyboarding a mother-daughter's experience discovering, considering, and using SilverWings – as we had named it initially.
While concept testing with our core users – all the seniors such as Nancy, alluded to the difficulty (of varying levels) of the 'learning phase' of using the product. This helped us make continued enhancements to the prototype.
We wanted to build as immersive or real an environment as we could to the real destination, so the virtual travel experience was truly one-of-kind. A Greek meal kit delivered fresh to your doorstep just in enough time before you commence on your virtual unset cruise across a medley of islands –SilverWings could make it impossible with its rotating roster of partners and local collaborations.
Not only does this service enable children and grandchildren to connect with their parents across continents and create the memory of doing something special together, but also empowers seniors around the world to connect with their peers, neighbors, or anyone with shared passions and needs.
Evaluating the Solution
Usability Testing
Our goal here was to determine how easily elderly users can navigate through the app's interface & access virtual travel experiences, and assess the app's capability to facilitate social interaction among elderly users utilizing virtual travel experiences and assess the app's technical reliability, including the availability of user support resources for resolving any technical issues that users may encounter.
Usability Testing Script
While writing the script for our test, I categorized the questions and prompts into three types –
to understand users’ relationship with travel
Have you traveled much in the past?
Could you share an unforgettable story from one of your trips?
What is that you miss the most about traveling?
to understand users’ social interaction levels and activities
Could you walk me through a typical day in your life?
Could you tell me a bit about your hobbies and interests? How do you typically spend your time alone?
How well-connected have you been with your friends and family in recent times? How do you usually stay connected with them?
Have you ever used any social media platforms or online communities to connect with others who share similar interests or hobbies?
screening questions/prompts for the app
"First, I’m going to ask you to look at this page and tell me what you make of it: what strikes you about it, whose site you think it is, what you can do here, and what it’s for. Just look around and do a little narrative. You can scroll if you want to, but don’t click on anything yet.”
"That's why we have developed Voyagers, an application for connecting with your loved ones anywhere in the world through a virtual shared experience!”
We are not testing your abilities, instead, we are testing our abilities as UX designers! Please take a moment to look around and feel free to comment on our application’s interface.
Delivering the Solution
Our final service ended up being called Voyager. Our service's app was designed to bring the wonders of the world to the fingertips of the elderly. This application harnesses the power of virtual reality to offer an immersive and accessible travel experience for seniors, enabling them to explore iconic destinations, revisit cherished memories, and discover new cultures – all without leaving their homes.
Final Prototype
Impact
The Problem
Social isolation and loneliness pose significant, often underestimated, public health risks, impacting a substantial portion of older adults. Around 25% of Americans aged 65 and above experience social isolation, with a considerable number reporting feelings of loneliness across the United States.
Research has shown that social isolation is as detrimental to health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day and can contribute to a 50% increase in dementia, a 29% increase in heart attacks, and. 31% increase in the risk of stroke.
The Urgency
For the first time in US history, ages 65+ are projected to outnumber children by 2034. America joins other countries with large aging populations, such as Japan, where more than one in four people are at least 65. Additionally, the U.S. population aged 65+ grew nearly five times faster than the total population over the 100 years between 1920 to 2020, according to the 2020 Census. The fastest rate of growth was between 2010 and 2020.
Goal
Designing for a strong sense of community within senior citizens, facilitating connections with like-minded individuals with similar interests and passions.
Outcome
Shared VR for seniors to combat social isolation:
A service that enables senior citizens to simply put on a headset and they’re immediately transported into an immersive experience. They can travel to all corners of the world, with family, friends, or by themselves.
My Role
Project Manager, Service Designer, Storyboarding, UX Writing
Understanding the Problem
To understand how senior travelers planned their travels in today's age, we used empathy mapping, stakeholder analysis, and customer journey visualizations to further define the problem.
Insights
Social Connection Priority: Social connections are important for the elderly. Features that facilitate virtual group travel experiences and foster a sense of community must be prioritized.
Real-Time Communication: To enhance the sense of shared experiences and connection, real-time communication features within the app must be prioritized to facilitate interaction and engagement among users during virtual travel experiences.
Personalized Travel Experiences: Users should be able to personalize their virtual travel experiences, catering to individual interests and preferences. This fosters a sense of autonomy and enhances the overall user satisfaction.
Technical Accessibility: Potential technological barriers must be addressed by ensuring the app is compatible with various digital devices and connectivity speeds.
Designing the Solution
To better visualize our target audience's journey while using the service we were conceptualizing, we started with storyboarding a mother-daughter's experience discovering, considering, and using SilverWings – as we had named it initially.
While concept testing with our core users – all the seniors such as Nancy, alluded to the difficulty (of varying levels) of the 'learning phase' of using the product. This helped us make continued enhancements to the prototype.
We wanted to build as immersive or real an environment as we could to the real destination, so the virtual travel experience was truly one-of-kind. A Greek meal kit delivered fresh to your doorstep just in enough time before you commence on your virtual unset cruise across a medley of islands –SilverWings could make it impossible with its rotating roster of partners and local collaborations.
Not only does this service enable children and grandchildren to connect with their parents across continents and create the memory of doing something special together, but also empowers seniors around the world to connect with their peers, neighbors, or anyone with shared passions and needs.
Evaluating the Solution
Usability Testing
Our goal here was to determine how easily elderly users can navigate through the app's interface & access virtual travel experiences, and assess the app's capability to facilitate social interaction among elderly users utilizing virtual travel experiences and assess the app's technical reliability, including the availability of user support resources for resolving any technical issues that users may encounter.
Usability Testing Script
While writing the script for our test, I categorized the questions and prompts into three types –
to understand users’ relationship with travel
Have you traveled much in the past?
Could you share an unforgettable story from one of your trips?
What is that you miss the most about traveling?
to understand users’ social interaction levels and activities
Could you walk me through a typical day in your life?
Could you tell me a bit about your hobbies and interests? How do you typically spend your time alone?
How well-connected have you been with your friends and family in recent times? How do you usually stay connected with them?
Have you ever used any social media platforms or online communities to connect with others who share similar interests or hobbies?
screening questions/prompts for the app
"First, I’m going to ask you to look at this page and tell me what you make of it: what strikes you about it, whose site you think it is, what you can do here, and what it’s for. Just look around and do a little narrative. You can scroll if you want to, but don’t click on anything yet.”
"That's why we have developed Voyagers, an application for connecting with your loved ones anywhere in the world through a virtual shared experience!”
We are not testing your abilities, instead, we are testing our abilities as UX designers! Please take a moment to look around and feel free to comment on our application’s interface.
Delivering the Solution
Our final service ended up being called Voyager. Our service's app was designed to bring the wonders of the world to the fingertips of the elderly. This application harnesses the power of virtual reality to offer an immersive and accessible travel experience for seniors, enabling them to explore iconic destinations, revisit cherished memories, and discover new cultures – all without leaving their homes.
Final Prototype
Impact
The Problem
Social isolation and loneliness pose significant, often underestimated, public health risks, impacting a substantial portion of older adults. Around 25% of Americans aged 65 and above experience social isolation, with a considerable number reporting feelings of loneliness across the United States.
Research has shown that social isolation is as detrimental to health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day and can contribute to a 50% increase in dementia, a 29% increase in heart attacks, and. 31% increase in the risk of stroke.
The Urgency
For the first time in US history, ages 65+ are projected to outnumber children by 2034. America joins other countries with large aging populations, such as Japan, where more than one in four people are at least 65. Additionally, the U.S. population aged 65+ grew nearly five times faster than the total population over the 100 years between 1920 to 2020, according to the 2020 Census. The fastest rate of growth was between 2010 and 2020.
Goal
Designing for a strong sense of community within senior citizens, facilitating connections with like-minded individuals with similar interests and passions.
Outcome
Shared VR for seniors to combat social isolation:
A service that enables senior citizens to simply put on a headset and they’re immediately transported into an immersive experience. They can travel to all corners of the world, with family, friends, or by themselves.
My Role
Project Manager, Service Designer, Storyboarding, UX Writing
Understanding the Problem
To understand how senior travelers planned their travels in today's age, we used empathy mapping, stakeholder analysis, and customer journey visualizations to further define the problem.
Insights
Social Connection Priority: Social connections are important for the elderly. Features that facilitate virtual group travel experiences and foster a sense of community must be prioritized.
Real-Time Communication: To enhance the sense of shared experiences and connection, real-time communication features within the app must be prioritized to facilitate interaction and engagement among users during virtual travel experiences.
Personalized Travel Experiences: Users should be able to personalize their virtual travel experiences, catering to individual interests and preferences. This fosters a sense of autonomy and enhances the overall user satisfaction.
Technical Accessibility: Potential technological barriers must be addressed by ensuring the app is compatible with various digital devices and connectivity speeds.
Designing the Solution
To better visualize our target audience's journey while using the service we were conceptualizing, we started with storyboarding a mother-daughter's experience discovering, considering, and using SilverWings – as we had named it initially.
While concept testing with our core users – all the seniors such as Nancy, alluded to the difficulty (of varying levels) of the 'learning phase' of using the product. This helped us make continued enhancements to the prototype.
We wanted to build as immersive or real an environment as we could to the real destination, so the virtual travel experience was truly one-of-kind. A Greek meal kit delivered fresh to your doorstep just in enough time before you commence on your virtual unset cruise across a medley of islands –SilverWings could make it impossible with its rotating roster of partners and local collaborations.
Not only does this service enable children and grandchildren to connect with their parents across continents and create the memory of doing something special together, but also empowers seniors around the world to connect with their peers, neighbors, or anyone with shared passions and needs.
Evaluating the Solution
Usability Testing
Our goal here was to determine how easily elderly users can navigate through the app's interface & access virtual travel experiences, and assess the app's capability to facilitate social interaction among elderly users utilizing virtual travel experiences and assess the app's technical reliability, including the availability of user support resources for resolving any technical issues that users may encounter.
Usability Testing Script
While writing the script for our test, I categorized the questions and prompts into three types –
to understand users’ relationship with travel
Have you traveled much in the past?
Could you share an unforgettable story from one of your trips?
What is that you miss the most about traveling?
to understand users’ social interaction levels and activities
Could you walk me through a typical day in your life?
Could you tell me a bit about your hobbies and interests? How do you typically spend your time alone?
How well-connected have you been with your friends and family in recent times? How do you usually stay connected with them?
Have you ever used any social media platforms or online communities to connect with others who share similar interests or hobbies?
screening questions/prompts for the app
"First, I’m going to ask you to look at this page and tell me what you make of it: what strikes you about it, whose site you think it is, what you can do here, and what it’s for. Just look around and do a little narrative. You can scroll if you want to, but don’t click on anything yet.”
"That's why we have developed Voyagers, an application for connecting with your loved ones anywhere in the world through a virtual shared experience!”
We are not testing your abilities, instead, we are testing our abilities as UX designers! Please take a moment to look around and feel free to comment on our application’s interface.
Delivering the Solution
Our final service ended up being called Voyager. Our service's app was designed to bring the wonders of the world to the fingertips of the elderly. This application harnesses the power of virtual reality to offer an immersive and accessible travel experience for seniors, enabling them to explore iconic destinations, revisit cherished memories, and discover new cultures – all without leaving their homes.
Final Prototype
Impact