Made in Collaboration with Kristen Dang-Nguyen and Andrew Baek
Finding Ollie
Making a positive impact on the lives of older adults living alone. Our innovative solution encourages meaningful interactions, improves daily living, and reduces the risk of health complications. Follow along through our process of Finding Ollie
Abstract
Curiosity, research and testimonies have allowed us to understand the struggles older adults face when living alone, and from that we wish to provide a design to help them live to their fullest potential, encourage meaningful interactions and improve their day-to-day living. Older adults living alone, who feel a lack of self-fulfilment and are without consistent motivation, are susceptible to health complications such as depression and dementia. Environmental scans, interviews and our findings through research papers have suggested that the loss of meaningful social interactions, alongside the loss of ability and independence creates this unfavourable situation for older adults. Henceforth, our result aims to tackle these two issues simultaneously. Specifically, we focused on exploring ideas through prototypes and receiving firsthand commentary and advice from older adults and peers, with the goal of finding the balance between companionship and assistance. A clock, designed to be a friend to the client and give consistent reminders on things they might forget, is our decided direction. As a result, through creating a product that is friendly and interactive, whilst helping and giving older adults the courage to complete their daily tasks, the hope is to bring fulfilment and relief to their otherwise isolated lives.
Brainstorming Themes
Conducting Research
Key Insights:
The transition from moving to Baycrest can be very hard for patients who are used to the familiarity of their own homes and surroundings. Especially because they've lived in the same house for many years, and are used to being surrounded by familiar items, people and even pets. A design solution to this issue would involve trying to create that feeling of home for somebody moving into this new environment and making the transition easier for them.
Older adults with Alzheimer's enjoy spontaneous activities such as activities that are art based and encourage creative expression. In these sorts of activities, you often see people who have never done anything artistic, though they embrace the activities and excel. It also doesn't challenge any incapabilities as there is no right or wrong. When things become too complex or too much to think about or too much to process, it can become very frustrating for them. Essentially, creating an exciting activity or game which is effortless yet still lively could be a solution to this.
Interview with Mellisa from Baycrest Hospital
Data from SeniorForums.com
Key Insights:
Older adults living in domestic situations commonly find themselves physically isolated after retirement. Their physical health begins to deteriorate, making it harder to move on foot, and from research, it seems common that immediate families begin to move further away due to work and starting personal families. The pandemic has further increased their risk of isolation. As a result, there is a need for systems and products that can prevent such predicaments and improve their quality of life.
As older adults become more isolated, they may also lose their autonomy, especially when they are no longer able to drive due to declining health. They begin to feel helpless and dislike relying on family members for errands and chores. However, there is also the risk of too much autonomy, in which older adults become reckless and put their own health and safety at risk. It is important to find a balance between aiding older adults, but also allowing autonomy of choice.
Older adults often resort to solitary activities like watching movies and reading books, while the pandemic has made it difficult to interact with others even while shopping or dining out. A service that encourages safe and social interactions is necessary, especially one that is easy to use and does not require much physical effort.
User Persona
Goal and Motivation
Bella is motivated by the prospect of seeing her children and grandchildren after a long period of loneliness.
Bella is torn between her desire to live with her children and her reluctance to be a burden on them, so she continues to live alone.
Bella is excited about planting new vegetables in her garden and looking forward to seeing them grow.
Challenges
Due to mobility issues, Bella finds it difficult to go out and socialize with others.
As a homemaker for her entire life, Bella has limited social connections and friends.
After her husband's passing, Bella has been grappling with loneliness and its effects on her well-being.
Needs
Bella needs engaging daily activities that are accessible to her.
Having meaningful relationships and a sense of belonging in her community is important
Basic human interaction is essential for Bella's well-being, and language assistance is necessary due to her limited fluency in English.
Bella’s Journey Map
Ideation
Prototyping
Features:
Lamp: Adjustable and can provide sufficient lighting and ambience, which can be easily turned on/off with the button.
Clock: Digital clock, indicating the time, date, and weather.
Reminders: Customizable reminders that trigger during a set time. They appear on screen, as well as get spoken aloud for the visually impaired.
Menu Screen:
General - basic settings and preferences (language, colour, volume, etc.)
Voice - reminder voice setting, open to personalized voice recordings from loved ones.
Network - connection to WiFi and the connected phone application.
Key Takeaways
How does this Design Solve the Problems?
By being a reminder for daily tasks, older adults spend time-based on the planned schedule, it keeping them busy with activities.
Avoiding forgetting important tasks such as taking pills and visiting doctors.
Older adults enjoy customizing Ollie to their own tastes, it being another activity for them.
What Difficulties Do the Users still Face?
Even though it is designed with bold typefaces and a big UI, the overall size of the screen is still too small for older adults to use.
It can be difficult for older adults to set up the schedules of the reminder themselves, so the caregiver’s help is inevitable.
Older adults with dementia or Alzheimer’s can be confused with the colours and the UI of the screen, making it even harder for them to use it properly.
What should your client consider or keep in mind when implementing your solution?
Be aware that the gender-neutral form of Ollie is beneficial for extreme users such as older adults with dementia. Changing the overall shape can cause unexpected problems.
Be wary of the technological knowledge that may be required since our hope is to develop an app alongside Ollie, to allow family members and caretakers to set up reminders.
Understand that our solution was made with its target audience as older adults, however, it isn’t limited to just that considering that Ollie can be used by anyone. I also believe that because we are designing for the extremes, it makes our product more inclusive to different kinds of users.
What outstanding research questions should your client explore in future work? What gaps in knowledge should your client consider filling?
A certain noise from the reminder can traumatize older adults. Clients should consider this and research what kinds of sounds are appropriate for older adults, especially for extreme users.
Our client should explore questions on how older adults with dementia fair with the product, and does the product actually prove useful long-term for older adults. These are gaps in knowledge that may be solved over time.
A big chunk of the knowledge that we are missing has to how our client would truly feel about the product. Would they actually use it daily? Would each individual like the visual appearance of the product? How useful would this product actually be for older adults? All these are crucial questions and they require in-depth usability testing with our final prototype to determine future implications.