olderguardian

OlderGuardians

Wellness Check Platform - September 2024

OVERVIEW

My Role

Product Designer

Team

Ka Po Chan

Isabella Solano

Timeline

August 2024 - September 2024

Overview

As a product designer at OlderGuardians, I was responsible for designing and developing a user-friendly platform that helped facilitate wellness checks for retirement home residents.

The team and I worked closely with the founder to ensure a seamless experience to help establish trust and comfort for the users.

HIGHLIGHTS

CONTEXT

Their needs were clear.

Isabella Solano (Founder), “As Director of Admissions at a Health and Rehab, I saw families come in and out of the building, wondering if their loved ones were being cared for. That's why I was inspired to start something for our most overlooked seniors: those in health and rehab facilities.”

My team and I aimed to design a solution that would support residents in retirement homes, providing families with peace of mind through thoughtful and empathetic design.

THE PROBLEM

Layers of constraints.

Communication barriers

Elders often struggle with technology, making it hard to stay connected with family

Isolation and loneliness

Many residents feel isolated, leading to decreased mental health due to a lack of social-interaction

Lack of personalized care

Standardized care approaches fail to address everyone’s needs, one-size fit models may not work for everyone

The challenge.

Ensuring seamless integration with existing establishments while fostering inclusivity for families in under two months.

RESEARCH

Conducting a competitive analysis.

Beyond physical wellness checks, many platforms don’t integrate personalization into their plans which are essential for the well-being of the elderly and their families.

Competitive analysis

Primarily focused on check-ins via texts or calls

Limited customizability to tailor individual preferences

Complex designs making it challenging for seniors

Improvements we can make

Compressive monitoring and follow-up

Personalized physical and mental support

Ensuring inclusivity in design choices for older users

DESIGN PROCESS

Core functionalities for users.

We designed a site map with simplicity as our primary focus, making it straightforward for users to explore our platform’s plans and understand how we can support them.

Setting the visual foundation.

We developed some low-fidelity prototypes to visualize our site map.

Reviewing the feedback from the team.

Tweaks before testing.

We made some adjustments after some meetings with the team to ensure a smooth testing phase.

Prototype testing.

Testing our product.

We conducted a usability test on people over the age of 40 using convenience sampling.

Reviewing the feedback.

Consistency

Participants noted a lack of consistent styling throughout the platform

Lack of illustrations

Most users wished there were more illustrations to highlight the content

Time consuming

Participants took a while to go through the whole platform, especially through the steps

Making necessary changes.

Maintaining a style

We opted to create our icons ourselves to ensure consistency throughout the platform

Replacing images

We looked for ways to mainly have illustrations but also retain a reputable look

Limit information

We decided to condense the information so the user can quickly glance and decide if the plan is right for them

Final prototype testing.

Testing variations.

We conducted a usability test, while timing the task completion with the same user group.

Reviewing the feedback.

Illustration consistency

Participants noted that some illustrations looked out of place

Information heavy

Users noted that the information was overwhelming and could be condensed

Time saved

Participants took less time to complete each task

FINAL DESIGNS

An inclusive experience.

Presenting the information in a quick and easy way.

We designed OlderGuardian to feel welcoming by incorporating hand-drawn illustrations and clear, concise sections. As users navigate the platform, it unfolds a cohesive story that effectively communicates our mission and plans.

RETROSPECTIVE

The situation that arose.

Unfortunately, our founder had to step away from OlderGuardian because of conflicts arising from the launch of her other startup. As a result of these unexpected circumstances, the final stages of product development came to a halt.

It was an excellent opportunity to collaborate with my team on developing a new product, and I gained valuable insights into balancing business strategies with user needs.

Future steps.

Inclusive design

Creating design that is accessible to a niche user group is essential due to differences in familiarity with technology

Consistent communication

To ensure that deadlines are met, we needed to communicate effectively online and offline, by doing so we were able to produce high quality work by each meeting