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User Research
Interviews
Thematic coding
Market Research
Competitive...
Wireframing+
Prototyping
Quantitative
Research
Design Iterations
Usabilty Testing
Qualitative
Research
Pre/post study
Personas
Discover Phase
Brainstorming
We were tasked with brainstorming ideas related to the term 'elderly,' jotting down various concepts, associated problems, and target demographics. From this exercise, we narrowed our focus to people approaching retirement.
Expert Interviews
Our aim was to interview industry experts to gain deeper insights and understanding of potential challenges within each field.
"Retirement years mark a crucial transition, where seniors often encounter significant challenges, grappling with the loss of financial stability, the fading of friendships, a diminished sense of purpose, and a waning sense of societal legitimacy. Essentially, they face the profound and multifaceted concept of loss in many aspects of their lives"
Yuval Friedman
Social worker with doctorate in gerontology
"In a world constantly buzzing with activity, we are not taught to learn to be with ourselves, that is, without someone telling us to do something. Then we all of a sudden reach a situation where we have a lot of free time, and we have to learn by ourselves the skills to be alone and, on the other hand, the state of mind to be alone, an emotional journey requiring practice and courage which honestly not all have"
Dr. Gadi On
Psychologist
"As life becomes increasingly digitized, spanning everything from communication to banking, healthcare, and personal rights, the impact of inaccessible digital platforms on older individuals cannot be overstated. Beyond inconvenience, it undermines their quality of life, limiting access to crucial services and impeding their full societal participation."
Michal Halperin Ben Zvi
Senior-focused UX Researcher & Design Strategist
"The innate curiosity of an individual serves as the compass guiding them towards greater happiness, enabling effortless self-reinvention and the discovery of meaningful pursuits, retirement risks stripping life of its purpose."
Shani Cohen
Retirement Transition Coaching for Seniors
User Interviews
Delving deeper into our research, it was imperative for us to personally interview retirees. This approach provided us with firsthand insight into their challenges, routines, and daily lives, enabling us to develop a thorough understanding of their experiences.
Target Audience we interviewed
Age Range:
60 to 77 years old
Employment Status:
Employees and Retirees
Work Background:
Range of occupational types with varied years of experience
Interview Questions
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Can you tell me about your retirement journey, from before you retired to now?
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What did you enjoy doing before retirement in terms of hobbies, activities, and sports?
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Did you have any specific goals in mind?
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How do your expectations compare to reality now?
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Also, how socially active are you, and what kind of support system do you have?
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Emotional Reflections: Did you feel any fear, concern, or worry before retiring?
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Have you noticed any differences between what you expected retirement to be like and how it actually turned out?
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Can you share any specific fears or challenges you've faced, and what you think has held you back?
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From a broader perspective, what challenges do you think most retirees face?
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What strategies or resources have helped you deal with these challenges effectively?
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If someone were to create a tool to assist retirees, what features do you think would be most helpful?What kind of support do you think retirees need the most during this stage of life?
Insights
"I've got these constant worries, especially about the idea of being inactive – it really gets to me. Staying active and busy is crucial for me, so this is something that really weighs on my mind."
65, retiring in the coming year, accountant
"I'm interested in a tool that can expand my hobbies, introduce me to new interests, and help me pursue activities independently, enriching my life and making my time more meaningful."
62, approaching retirement, works in sales
"As I'm getting older, I try to keep myself as busy and feeling useful. But I honestly its scary , what will happen when I can't do as much anymore? Will life become nothing. The thought of a mundane existence worries me!!
67, retired six years ago, former policeman
"I don’t feel fully prepared for this transition, and staying at home all day feels challenging. I need to set new goals to stay motivated and find fulfillment during this time."
66, retiring in 2 years, teacher
What do psychological theories say?
To further our research in defining our problem, we also examined insights from various psychological theories.
Park (2010): Meaning in life is subjective and relates to self-fulfillment, which contributes to a good and meaningful life. Meaning can be divided into two types:
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Global meaning: This encompasses an individual's beliefs, values, and goals that guide their interpretation of the world and influence their thoughts, actions, and feelings
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Situational meaning: This pertains to specific events (positive, negative, or stressful) and the processes and outcomes associated with those events (Park, 2010).
When people face a stressful event like retirement, it challenges their beliefs, goals, and desires, and can disrupt their sense of meaning in life. (Park & ​​George, 2013). And it is necessary to combine the stress factor with the sense of global significance.
Narrowing down our exact target audience
After conducting numerous user interviews, we should prioritize our target population.
Our target audience:
Users aged 60+
Users approaching retirement in the upcoming year or within the first few years post-retirement
Users with extensive work experience and occupation
Users lacking concrete plans for post-retirement
Persona empathy map
To help us accurately define our problem, we created a persona empathy map, which allowed us to delve into the user's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This exercise provided valuable insights into their needs and pain points, guiding us towards a more empathetic and user-centered solution.
Defining the problem statement
After numerous interviews, psychological research, and target audience analysis, we defined the problem statment.
How can we help people who are retiring overcome the challenge of losing a sense of meaning?
Ideation Phase
"Learn from the best"
"Learn From the Best" was an exercise in which we analyzed existing physical and digital products to identify standout features. By focusing on what these products do best, we were able to brainstorm innovative solutions for our own app.
Convenient and easy to use
Allows money transfers without the need for a clerk or ATM
Bit
Instills a sense of security and certainty about transaction statuses (received, made, or rejected)
Applying this to our app
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Ease of Use: Digital, Yet Simple: The application will be digital but designed to be easy to operate and convenient, catering specifically to seniors who may face challenges with digital literacy
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Independence: Similar to how Bit facilitates independent money transfers, our application will enable users to perform tasks without relying on external parties, such as psychologists or counselors
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Quick Responses: The application should provide immediate support, addressing users' needs for a sense of purpose and meaning in a quick and straightforward manner
Includes questionnaires and guidance services, providing advice and digital literacy training
Automated responses based on user inputs to provide immediate assistance, saving users time compared to traditional consultation methods
​Users can input details about their values and personal meaning, metaphorically representing a "trunk" of personal data
Applying this to our app
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The application will include questionnaires and guidance services, offering advice and digital literacy training
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Users can input details about their values and personal meaning, which will be stored metaphorically as their trunk
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The app will offer a wide range of options for developing and promoting personal meaning based on the user's inputs, similar to how Tesla offers storage and utility
Tesla model 3
Full-Screen Utilization: maximizing the use of the screen area, eliminating the need for additional buttons, ensuring a clean and intuitive user interface
4-Step flow
We started by creating a very simple four-step flowchart to break down the user actions in the app and illustrate the system's feedback, guiding the user through the desired flow from beginning to end.
Tweaking our flow - 5-Step Flow
After designing our initial wireframe, we realized the need to recalibrate our focus on the user journey, breaking down the steps in order to ensure it aligns seamlessly with our app's goals.
Prototype Phase
Solution rooted in psychology
As we did when defining the problem, we revisited the research to explore existing theories and solutions that could assist us.
A sense of meaning in life requires identifying one's core values and performing actions that align with them
Continuity theory
A concept in the field of positive aging, proposes that individuals can achieve a greater sense of meaning in their lives by maintaining the structures and routines that have historically provided them with satisfaction and purpose. This theory emphasizes the importance of consistency in one’s activities and roles throughout different stages of life. For example, if a person has derived joy and fulfillment from certain hobbies, social activities, or work roles, continuing to engage in these activities, even in a modified form, can help sustain their sense of meaning as they age.
Adapting these past enjoyable activities to fit the context of retirement and the aging process allows individuals to preserve and even enhance their sense of purpose. This approach not only maintains a connection to what has been meaningful in the past but also helps individuals feel more prepared and content during retirement (Barney & Perkinson, 2015; Halama et al., 2021).
Initial Wireframing & Prototyping
We prototyped our initial design of low-fidelity versions, tested it, covering the entire flow, and then presented it to five new participants.
We asked the users to complete the following tasks:
​1. Follow the onboarding screens
2. Explore activities and choose one
3. Note it down and include it in your agenda
4. Boost ongoing engagement
5. Explore the screens freely​​
check out the first prototype
"I feel that the questionnaire answers align well with my personal values and do not push me to do something I do not want to do."
"It wasn't clear to me which activities I was selecting based on my interests, and only after clicking save did I understand my choices."
"Wait, I don't understand where I'm saving this. Is it going into the app, my calendar, or somewhere else?"
"Embedding meaning into life is a profound journey, achieved through the accumulation of small, purposeful actions."
Based on their answers and reactions, the feedback helped us identify areas of confusion in the screens and flow, confirmed that the overall design concept was understood, and led us to refine the design and further clarify our ideas
Wireframes and more wireframes
A look at how screens have evolved based on the usability tests we conducted every few weeks
Onboarding- presenting users' results with a brief explanation of their value
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Offering the ability for the user to either agree or recalculate, with the CTA coloured to encourage them to keep the first value presented​
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Refining the microcopy to lighten the results
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Further refining the microcopy to sound less official, suggesting rather than instructing
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Softening the design to make the page more inviting and less text-heavy
Pool of daily activities tailored to users' interests and preferences
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Collection of activities linked to primary value. Tap an option to view more details and contact info
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Changed to a more engaging format: a 'Tinder-style' layout where users can swipe right if interested in an activity or left if not, creating an engaging and interactive way to select activities
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Revised idea allowing users to start by selecting their preferred type of activity. This choice then funnels them into specific categories within that activity type, offering a more refined experience
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Tweaking the design of the 'Tinder cards' and, after realizing that users didn't grasp it's a daily activity, refine the info screen before it appears to emphasize that this is a daily occurrence, not a one-time event
Further refine the info screen to establish a clear hierarchy of information, making it easy for users to read and understand
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Feedback and customization
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Implementing a streak feature can nudge users toward consistent engagement in daily activities
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Based on user testing, we learned that users value reflecting on their completed activities using words or emojis.
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Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Added the feature for users to review progress and reflect on past activities
Refined reflection with key questions to personalize activities and reemphasize the connection between user actions and their purpose
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Wanting to emphasize the importance of user commitment to actualizing chosen activities
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Adding an in-app calendar feature to help users organize, schedule, and manage their activities more efficiently
Based on user feedback users preferring a single central we removed the calendar feature from the app and added integration with their Google Calendar.
User commitment and retention
Home Screen
Initial design was minimalistic, focusing on allowing users to easily view the activities they selected
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Shifted focus to showing users only the upcoming events
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Added a new feature: Daily Challenge to engage users in the app through daily small, meaningful activities, incorporating gamification elements
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Shifted back to minimalistic design, emphasizing the value that brings meaning to users' lives
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"Brandup" Style Guide
We decided it was time to "Brandup" and properly standardize the app's UI. This process included selecting an appropriate colour palette, standardizing fonts, and refining microcopy details.
Colour Palette
PRIMARY-60
SECONDARY-30
CTA 10
Accent
Why these colours?
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The chosen colors evoke freshness and tranquility, promoting mental rejuvenation and emotional balance
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They collectively create a clean, fresh, and mentally nurturing environment in your app tailored for retirees' mental health
Typography
Font- Alef
Final Prototype
Based on the insights from many user tests, we headed to create a high fidelity prototype of our app
You can interact with the prototype here
Qualitative Evaluation Phase
Pre/post study
We conducted a comprehensive week-long usability test to assess both the flow's usability and the prototype's psychological impact on our target audience. Using Maze, a UX research tool, we tested 20 participants before and after their daily use of the app over the course of the week
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Heatmap displaying user clicks on the activity screen.
Indicators show high levels of users feeling that the activities they are engaged in are connected and enhance their sense of meaning
The study looked at three main areas: Meaning in Life, Well-Being, and Readiness for Retirement. We used questionnaires to measure these before and after participants used the app
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Meaning in Life: Checked with the MLQ (Meaning in Life Questionnaire)
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Well-being: Checked with the WHO-5 (World Health Organization Well-being Index)
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Readiness for Retirement: Checked with a specific retirement readiness scale.
Participants filled out questionnaires both before and after using the app, allowing us to track their progress and changes.
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Users reported a stronger sense of purpose, with scores rising from before to after using the app
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Although meaning in life improved, overall well-being slightly decreased, indicating a need for further exploration
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Users felt more retirement-ready after using the app, with increased scores and varying impacts
"As someone approaching retirement, I don’t want constant reminders about getting older. I really like that this app doesn’t shove ‘retirement’ in your face. Instead, it gently encourages me to focus on the meaning and preparation for this next stage in a way that feels respectful and supportive."
"People need nudges in life no matter your age. I really like that this app doesn’t overwhelm you but offers gentle reminders to encourage healthier habits and positive changes."
"It’s a special part of my routine. I start my day with coffee, then use the app, which feels like a meaningful way to focus on myself and improve my well-being."
"I appreciate that the app provides daily options instead of just giving me a single value and leaving me to figure things out on my own."