Partner App — UX Case Study

A solution to reducing loneliness and social isolation amongst older adults

Project Overview:

According to the University of California, San Francisco, more than 40 percent of seniors regularly experience loneliness, which puts them at risk for dementia and other major medical problems.

Older persons face a variety of challenges as they age, such as the loss of a loved one, separation, or children migrating to larger places. These factors can lead to a lack of social interaction or loneliness amongst the elderly.

Partner is a social app to help reduce loneliness and social isolation amongst seniors.

The Problem

Nigeria is a family-oriented country due to its culture, and as a result, older adults in Nigeria typically have numerous people to interact with due to communal living. However, this has changed throughout time due to factors such as emigration, industrialization, and the death of loved ones, leading to loneliness and social isolation amongst the elderly.

The Objective of the Project:

• Identify potential strategies for reducing social isolation and loneliness amongst the elderly.
• Provide a medium for older folks to form friendships and share mutual interests

Solution:

• To make senior citizens feel less lonely as they age, the idea was to build senior housing that hosts events for them to interact and meet people with similar interests in order to suit the changing demands of the elderly and improve their quality of life. We will provide monthly meet-ups in groups based on their interests at the centre to encourage people to socialize.
• We will design a mobile app to supplement the solution, allowing users to meet new people and learn more about their interests

My Role:

• Product Designer and experience designer
• UX Research

My team and I devised a strategy, developed a few questions for our desired target group, then performed desk research and one-on-one interviews with them to fully comprehend the problem, eliminate prejudice, and provide a comprehensive solution that addresses their concerns.

Design Process:

1. Empathize — Desk Research and User Interview
2. Define — User Persona.
3. Ideate — How Might We solve the problem? , Sketch, Style Guide, and Task Flow
4. Build — Wireframe, UI Screens, and Prototype.
5. Test — Usability Testing, and Lessons Learned.

Empathize

Desk Research

A Report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) proved that nearly one-fourth of adults aged 65 and older are socially isolated because they are more likely to face factors such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and hearing loss. A study conducted by CC. Igbokwe et al. (2020) on the prevalence of loneliness and its association with depression and anxiety symptoms amongst retirees in North Central Nigeria showed that the elderly experience loneliness as a result of children relocating to bigger cities, lack of friends, and interaction.

User Interview

For our research process, we decided to conduct user interviews to get a better understanding of our potential users.

Questionnaire?

From our interviews, we discovered the numerous reasons people felt lonely, which collaborated with the findings from the desk research carried out.

Here are some of the responses I received during the interview process:

Define

User Personas

Using the information gained from each interviewee, we constructed user personas that highlighted their goals, requirements, pain spots, and motivation.

Ideate

My team held a brainstorming session to better understand our target audience and their wants, and come up with a solution that genuinely answers their problems.

A solution evolved as a result of this brainstorming session.

• Construction of a senior residence that hosts events for older individuals to mingle.
• In addition to the solution, we will develop a mobile app that will allow users to meet new individuals based on their interests.

The brainstorming session allowed me to design user flows and a mind map to help structure the app. Because the rate at which elders receive information slows as they become older, it was critical for me to design an app that is useful, simple to use, and prevents cognitive overload.

Low Fidelity Wireframe

Following my study, I developed low-fidelity wireframes before moving on to high-fidelity designs.

Colour Palette

I wanted to make sure I built a product that was accessible for all. I did some studies on elderly health issues and noticed that colour vision deteriorates with age. Color-vision problems in the blue-yellow spectrum affected 45 percent of people in their mid-70s, rising to two-thirds by the time they reached their mid-90s, according to a 2014 study.

As a result, I avoided using hues like red and green in the application because they were difficult to differentiate for colour-blind users, instead opting for blue, a colour that is colour-blind friendly.

Typography

The lens of the eye begins to harden about the age of 40, resulting in a condition known as “presbyopia.” As a result, reading small, close-up writing is becoming more difficult. The application utilizes the DM Sans typeface and has an average font size of 16 pixels.

Onboarding

For the onboarding screen, I made use of vibrant images that seniors would be able to understand and relate to.

Setting Up A Partner Account

Older adults face challenges such as Early-stage dementia and cognitive issues.

This causes them to forget their passwords or how to login into their mobile apps. Making them eventually lose confidence and stop using applications. They will be able to log into the app using a face ID or thumbprint to ensure that they can continue to do so easily without needing the assistance of others

Select Your Interest

Older people have a diverse range of interests. While onboarding, they can filter their feed to their interests to avoid noise.

Home screen

Tab Bar

The Tab bar is labelled to make it easy to identify and to give users a sense of familiarity with the app, as it is similar to apps they are used to.

Events

Many respondents expressed a desire to meet people who shared their interests in person, which is why the event's section was created.

Because of factors like distance, covid restrictions, Mobility Impairments, and the fact that people in their 50s and older are more likely to develop covid, the section was divided into virtual and in-person sections so that users could still participate and interact with people who shared their interests without having to physically attend an event.

Community

Users can explore all of their communities, discover new communities that are related to their interests, and create their own community in the community section.

Testing

Following the design and prototyping of the app, it was tested by people in the users’ age range to assess how easy it was for them to navigate the app and to collect feedback, which was then implemented.

Lessons Learned

I learned a lot about designing for senior adults as a result of this project. I realized that there was a lot to consider, such as making the app as simple to use as possible and as similar to apps users are acquainted with or have previously used, to avoid losing interest in the app.

Furthermore, I had to make the design as inclusive as possible for this project, which meant taking into account a range of cognitive issues that affect the elderly, such as memory loss, colour blindness, and more.