Aging in Place
A User Research Study
Collaborative UXR Internship
Background
Allwayswithyou (AWY) wants to help seniors age at home. Their app monitors health metrics and gives advice. Investors doubt seniors will use it.
Role
UX Research Intern & Project Manager
Timeline
5 weeks
Project Onboarding & Scoping (1)
Survey Design, Recruitment (1)
Secondary & Primary Research (2)
Synthesis & Research Readout (1)
Research Statement
What are seniors' needs, wants, and pain points with aging in place?
Methods
Secondary Research
Villages support transportation, socialization, and fulfillment. Some also address affordability.
AmeriCorps Seniors gives meaning through volunteering. Some seniors get stipends.
Participant Recruitment
The screener survey was distributed using Reddit, Nextdoor, Facebook, SurveyCircle, and community outreach. No incentives were offered.
Over 7 days, we received 121 responses:
44 seniors
16 willing to talk
13 invited to video chat
7 interviewed
The Google Forms survey
Qualitative In-Depth User Interviews
We conducted six 30-40 minute remote interviews and one 11 minute in-person interview. The moderator’s guide split them into themes:
Getting to know them
Routine
Social and emotional needs
Communication with family
Health monitoring
Challenges
Tech
Sample Questions
Walk me through your daily routine;
Are there any foods you eat regularly? Tell me about them.
Tell me about the last time you exercised.
Do you have any concerns about the next 10-20 years?
Diverse seniors were interviewed
Synthesis
Affinity mapping in progress
Outputs
Affinity Map
Living conditions & tech usage/attitudes
Health & social/emotional needs
Concerns/pain points & hobbies
Insights shaped personas.
User Personas
Personas represented the two most common stances towards new tech.
Tanya is comfortable with tech but feels neutral about trying new tech.
Dave uses tech daily but is suspicious of new tech solutions.
Empathy Maps
Empathy maps built on their personalities.
Tanya likes helping people and staying busy. She’s worried about mental acuity.
Dave likes routine. He volunteers and worries about his future.
We built deliverables together. I led Jobs To Be Done and How Might We Statements brainstorms. We used these to determine recommendations.
Assumptions and Biases
User persona Emma was included in onboarding. Her pains didn't align with our research. We assumed she had declining capacity.
Since 6/7 participants live in America, we assumed our research represented U.S.-based seniors.
Insights were influenced by our experiences taking care of elderly family members.
Next Steps
Interviewees had concerns about privacy, radiation, and toxic content. This made them cautious with unfamiliar tech. We recommended non-intrusive solutions that blend into seniors' routines, like:
A smart fridge that asks what they ate today;
A smart bathroom mirror that asks about sleep quality;
A smart home device that asks how they exercised the day before;
An app integrated with WhatsApp that asks quick health questions before video chats.
Before deciding on a solution, we recommended:
Researching family caregivers;
Conducting market research;
User journey mapping;
Designing and testing low & high fidelity prototypes of an MVP;
Iterating based on findings;
Releasing in the target market (instead of one global release); and
Testing usability in new markets to account for different cultural, medical, and legal contexts.
Deliverables presentation to stakeholders
Reflections
Despite being spread across 4 time zones, this internship was highly collaborative. We wrote planning documents, synthesized findings, and created deliverables together. We polished UI and wrote sections of the research report asynchronously.
We delivered news that seniors are unlikely to use the AWY app. They’d be more motivated by apps that enhance community or meet practical needs. Stakeholders took our feedback constructively.