Finding Ollie
A lamp, clock and friend aimed to improve the lives of older adults living alone
Problem:
"Finding Ollie" provides a solution by introducing a friendly and interactive clock designed to be a companion for older adults. This solution encourages meaningful interactions, improves daily living, and reduces the risk of health complications.
Solution:
Many older adults living alone experience loneliness, lack of self-fulfillment, and health risks due to isolation. Existing solutions often fail to balance companionship and assistance, worsening these challenges.
Tools:
Wood
Plastic
Lighting
Paint
Miro
Timeline + Type:
4 weeks
Human-Centered Design | User Research | Healthcare
Research
My exploration for "Finding Ollie" began with a crucial interview with Mellisa from Baycrest Hospital. She emphasized the importance of avoiding stress and frustration for older adults by not challenging them beyond their capabilities. This insight set the tone for the research, guiding the focus towards creating a solution that balances assistance and autonomy.
Findings:
Many older adults experience social isolation and loneliness, highlighting the need for interventions that promote social engagement and connection.
Older adults may face challenges related to the loss of autonomy, emphasizing the importance of maintaining independence while providing support.
Engaging in meaningful activities is crucial for older adults to maintain a sense of purpose and fulfillment, combating feelings of helplessness and boredom.
Designing products like "Finding Ollie" requires careful consideration of usability and accessibility factors, ensuring intuitive design for widespread usability.
If we're challenging and putting too much on things they're incapable of, you're going to be putting too much stress on somebody and causing frustration
- Interview with Mellisa from Baycrest Hospital:
Living alone can get quite lonely, especially when you're used to having someone around all the time
- Interview with Mellisa from Baycrest Hospital:
Brainstorming Themes
User Journey
Biography
Age
72 years old
Gender
Female
Bella Kwan
Description
By the time Bella turned 54, all of her kids had moved out, and she was living with husband. However, as the years passed, her husband passed away at the age of 74 and she has been living alone for 2 years now.
Bella feels that she is very isolated from people because there is a big language barrier in Canada as her English is not that great so she has a hard time making connections with people.
Bella does not fully understand her emotions and tends to suppress her loneliness. She feels guilty calling her kids too much, but also feels sad and lonely when she isn't in contact with them.
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.
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, so she continues to live alone.
Bella is excited about planting new vegetables in her garden
Needs
Bella needs engaging daily activities that are accessible
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.
User journey mapping:
Entice 🡲
User Action
Bella finds herself looking at old pictures of her family and husband and starts feeling lonely.Context
Bella lives alone in her home, with her husband recently passing away and children moved away.Analysis
Older females tend to be more vulnerable to physical isolationOpportunity
Older adults grieving with loss have unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Engage 🡲
User Action
Bella calls her children and asks when they can come see her, to which they cannot.Context
Bella's children live is different cities, with all of them having full time jobs and being too busyAnalysis
Bella can't drive and relies on her family to come to her.Opportunity
Giving autonomy back to older adults and making gatherings easier.
Enter 🡲
User Action
Bella instead occupies her time with other tasks, like reading, TV, gardening, and grocery shopping.Context
Bella, a once a stay at home mom, prefers to stay home and perform domestic tasks Analysis
Bella risks her physical health if she does outdoor tasks.Opportunity
Helping Bella with her physical limitations so that she can confidently go out.
Exit 🡲
User Action
Bella goes to socialize and asks her neighbours to go out grocery shopping with her.Context
Bella has mobility issues, making it difficult to go outside grocery shopping by herself.Analysis
Most older adults need companionship to perform tasks.Opportunity
Bella is able to socialize and perform errands at the same time.
Extend
User Action
Bella maintains a close friendship with her neighbours and frequently shops together with them.Context
Bella is amiable and her neighbours need groceries as well, so they agree to help her and stay friends.Analysis
Having reliable companionship is relieves stress for Bella.Opportunity
A regular group of close neighbours gives Bella consistent social interactionIdeation
Design
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
Voice - reminder voice setting, open to personalized voice recordings from loved ones.
Network - connection to WiFi and the connected phone application
Reflection
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.