Figuring out the needs of older adults for Allwayswithyou, a health and wellness companion.
My Role
UX Researcher in a team of 3 UX researchers ,while receiving guidance and support from my mentor, Laura.
Methodology & deliverables
Timeline
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5 weeks
Week 1: Research Plan
Week 2: Screener & Discussion guide
Week 3,4: Interviews
Week 5: Synthesis and research readout
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Tools​
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Figjam, Figma, Zoom
Problem Space
Allwayswithyou is an early-stage start-up based in Ireland that was founded in 2018. They aim to facilitate the process of elders aging at home. They have been iterating on several versions (UI and features) of their product and wanted our team to help them understand the core needs and wants of their elderly users to be able to figure out their MVP.
Why are solutions for the elderly important?
“The number of older persons worldwide is slightly more than 1 billion – about 13.5% of the global population. By 2030, 1 in 6 persons will be 60 years of age or older.”*
This shift towards the older ages and an increase in families living scattered across the world necessitates a closer look at aging. Away from their families, these older adults are vulnerable and need support with their health, finances and emotional well-being, yet they would like to age gracefully and be as independent as they can be. Often, when elder needs are not met, they are forced down a residential/home care pathway that ends up being traumatic and cost-prohibitive.
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Several stakeholders are involved in a solution for the elderly: the care receivers( the elderly), the caregivers ( family and/or friends), and care personnel( doctors, nurses, caretakers, etc.). We needed to understand the perspective of all three groups in order finally arrive at the optimum MVP. Given the paucity of time, we decided to stick to studying the elderly.
Project Goal
Understand the needs, preferences, and pain points of the elderly people (aged 65 and above) and make recommendations to Allwayswithyou on next steps based on findings and insights.
Secondary Research
We conducted secondary research not as a part of the deliverables for Allwayswithyou, but as a primer to help us understand the problem space better. The company also provided us with reports of research conducted by past students and several resources to help us understand the problemspace.
Takeaways from studying existing research
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Elders need to feel part of, and in control of the process of the identification and implementation of new care measures.
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Elders want to be involved with taking care of themselves.
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The elderly are more willing to adapt to new things once they understand the benefit of the change(s).
Primary Research
Understanding the needs of the elderly
We chose to conduct semi-structured user interviews to understand the needs and preferences of the elderly.
The questions we wanted to find answers to were :
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What are the needs and wants of elderly people living at home?
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How are these needs and wants being met currently?
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What are the pain points in the current process?
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What do older adults think about using technology to address their needs and wants?
A screener survey was created in order to determine if the respondent fit the target profile (65 years or older).
Interview Highlights
I conducted 2 interviews and my other team mates conducted remaining interviews. The interviews provided a wealth of knowledge and I enjoyed delving deeper into the minds of the elderly. Here are some key quotes that stood out from the interviews conducted.
"You always think one of us will go earlier. So then if you're alone, what are you going to do? Where are you going to stay?"
“I've done a lot more volunteering that hasn't really given me a lot of finances for my senior years.
How do I live with that is a big concern, financially.”
​“Your mind is your greatest gift. If you don’t have it, it’s going to be hard to do anything else.”
Decoding interviews
We organized the insights gained from the interviews into key themes: Living conditions, Tech usage & attitudes, Social & emotional needs, health situation and pain points &concerns. Each team mate was responsible for populating affinity map post its for their interviewee. Collaboratively, we identified common themes emerging from affinity maps. Here are some key insights from the affinity maps.
Technology & difference in needs : the personas
Affinity mapping led to 2 different personas emerging : that of Tanya and Dave. The main differences between them revolved around their attitude towards using technology and their primary concerns revolving aging.
Tanya believes in a proactive approach to health. She worries about loneliness and losing her memory. She is open to using technology to monitor her health.
Dave appreciates a consistent routine. He’s worried about his finances and doesn't know if he is monitoring his health enough. He is wary of using tech to monitor his health.
Using the data that the interviews provided day in a life sketches were written for both personas. This was helpful in understanding where Allwayswithyou could potentially help their target segment. We split up the affinity map deliverable between the three of us and had specific parts each person worked on.
Empathizing and delving deeper into the personas: Empathy maps
Creating empathy maps made it easier to delve deeper into what Tanya and Dave really wanted. These maps also effectively summarized goals, pains, gains, things they see & hear, think & feel, say, and do.
Tanya’s empathy map illustrates her need to eat healthy and staying active.
Dave’s empathy map illustrates his need to be independent & to give back to the community.
Translating insights into Jobs-to-be-done
Based on the empathy map, we created a framework of Jobs-to-be-done to translate the insights we got through affinity maps and empathy maps into detailed jobs : Emotional, social, main and related jobs
Main job : Grow old at home independently.
Emotional and Social jobs:
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Finding proactive ways (e.g. - eating healthy food, exercising regularly) to prolong mental and physical health.
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Enable elders to feel independent.
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Regular social interaction with community so they can feel connected.
How might we
We used the Jobs-to-be-done framework to finally arrive at the How might we statements . As a team we voted on the 25 How Might We statements that were generate. 3 HMW statements were chosen based on our votes.
Findings
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Some seniors are wary of privacy invasion when it comes to monitoring their health using technology. They see the benefits, but are guarded. Considering non-intrusive tech solutions that can be incorporated into routines elders already have could be beneficial.
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Further research needs to be done to understand care-giver point of view.
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Conduct market research to determine pricing, target markets, features, and advertising strategies before deciding on the MVP.
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Some differences in healthcare modalities in different countries came up while doing the interviews. Further research might be necessary to determine if these differences are large enough to make changes to the MVP.
Assumptions and biases
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Persona characteristics of previous research and current research showed some differences - e.g. Forgetfulness to take medication was not a characteristic that was found in the new research. Participants were not of declining capacity, but of high and stable capacity.
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Personal experiences with taking care of elders could have colored the way findings were interpreted.
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2 respondents were of Indian origin (1 still lives in India). This research is representative of needs of the elderly living in the US.
Conclusion
It was a wonderful experience working on a real problem and product with a team of other UX designers. Most deliverables were worked upon during real-time collaborative meetings.
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We faced some challenges in finding participants in the target segment and that delayed our deliverables.
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We would have interviewed more participants, if we were able to recruit more to bring in more insights.
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A few participants from older profiles (declining health) would have brought in a different flavor to the project.
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Collaborating with team mates from 3 different time zones was a challenge.
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