Wellness App — Vanathi Selvan

“Long Time, No See”

Wellness app + smartwatch

Problem Statement: As a non-tech savvy senior citizen, I want an easy way to contact my family, so I can constantly keep them in my memory.

Contextual Interview Questions

Demographics + Interests

How old are you?
Where did you grow up?
What was your occupation?
How do you pass time during a normal day?

How comfortable are you with technology? With your phone? Smart watch (if you have)?
- How often during a day do you use your phone, watch, etc.?
- How do you stay in contact with your family and friends?
  - Has COVID impacted this at all for you?

Tell us about a positive memory you recall with family/friends. What happened?
How often are you in communication with them?
How do you keep track of your memories with family/friends?
Do you use photo albums? Camera roll? Scrapbooking? etc.

Contextual Interviews Insights:

Pain Points

not comfortable using most technological devices
- needs to ask kids/grandkids for help sometimes
- small screen/text size on smartwatch
- isn’t able to hear audio well through smartwatch
- texting, compared to email or phone/video calls
- can’t use technology to communicate with older friends

Habits

prefers to use email/phone calls/FaceTime to stay in touch with family and friends

passes time by seeing good friends everyday and calling family members
uses smart watch emergency features as quick way to contact people

Persona

Donna Garcia

AGE 60

EDUCATION College grad

STATUS Married

OCCUPATION Retired

LOCATION Kauai, Hawaii

Bio

Donna is a parent to 3 children and grandparent to 7 grandchildren. She and her husband have lived alone together for about 15 years. In her free time, Donna enjoys reading, doing puzzles and word games, gardening, and cleaning.

Core Needs

Spending quality time with family and friends.
Reminiscing about the good times when she was younger.

Frustrations

Struggles to use more modern technological devices and apps without help.

Old photos and photobooks cause too much clutter in her home.

Frequently Used Apps

Phone, FaceTime, Mail, Health, Smartwatch

User Scenarios: Problem Manifestation and app intervention

Ideation

User Flow

Reconnect.Recall.Remember

lack of memory recall of past experiences → photo notification on smartwatch from x amount of time ago
lack of social interaction during COVID → prompt to reach out to friends and family through text/phone call/video call/email
small screen/text size on smartwatch → use fullscreen photo and large text + allow user to view notification on phone

Figma Low-Fi Screens

usability testing

Learnings from usability testing

Hard to face match the suggested contacts in the photo to in the list view
Natural tendency to click suggested contact straight from photo
No need to add a contact to favorites before sending them a message
Desire to view more information about the daily photo & view more like it
Need for indication of how many missed notifications there are before clicking into the pane

Interaction Design Choices: Catering to Seniors

Large buttons (i.e. on the home screen) to ensure users can clearly see what they have the ability to do & are able to easily do so

Most important interactive elements are centered and not near edge of the screen

Simple, bright color palette to ensure users can read everything clearly and are drawn to the most important elements
- Black and white (grayscale) with a yellow accent
- Minimal number of navigational elements so users can carry out their tasks with the least number of taps and least amount of confusion

Sans serif typeface at a larger point size (often bolded) allows users with poor eyesight to see everything easily

Universally recognizable icons in the navbar & to-the-point CTAs in buttons provide users an easy way to conduct tasks
Providing suggestions (in the form of contacts & sample texts) makes the app easier to use and more user friendly
- Allows users to accomplish their tasks in much less time with much less confusion