Abueliving

A website solution to help promote the Fundacion Roure’s  intergenerational living program in Barcelona.

View Prototype

My Role
UX/UI Designer
Web Designer
User-Testing
User Research
Project Management

Collaborators
Coral Pereda
Fin Pauls

01/ Summary

What was delivered and how

Services
  • User-Interface Design
  • User Research
  • Prototyping
  • High-Fidelity Mockups
Deliverables
  • User-Interface Designs
  • Style tile
  • High-Fidelity Mockups
  • Design Documentation
Outcomes

My collaborators and I defined the target audience and honed the marketing strategy of Abueliving to a more refined strategy.

We created a website that would serve the target population and help both the Fundacion Roure and Abueliving

02/ Understanding the Problem

Loneliness and social isolation increases as we age

Building communities that bring together young and elderly people have been shown to have positive effects on both generations.  With intergenerational co-living the Fundacion Roure in Barcelona created a program that worked with psychologists, colleges and elderly people to match college students in need of housing with an elderly counterpart.  

Abueliving created a platform to digitize the current system for the foundation, but in order to get buy in
from the Foundation, they needed to first help solve the problem that they were having.

We were brought in in order to find a solution that helped Abueliving show the value of digitizing not only their program, but how a digital platform would also be a good solution for their problem with their current program.
The Challenge

Although Fundacion Roure’s intergenerational living program has been successful in providing matches between the elderly and students, the amount of students in search of housing far outweighs the amount of elderly.  They needed our team to create a tool that would help them increase their pool of elderly people looking for a housemate.

The Opportunity

To understand what the target market would be in order to increase the number of elderly people in the Fundacion Roure’s program and to create a platform that helped showcase the benefits of intergenerational housing.

03/ Interviews, Surveys & User Research

What did we want to know, confirm or learn?

After learning about what our client and their investors understood about their target market, we set out to discover what types of issues the users might encounter with intergenerational living.
We created a survey to learn more about what our target audience felt about living with someone else.
Survey Findings
72%
USER:
Thought it would be difficult to convince their relative to live with someone else
INSIGHT:
This highlighted one of the pain points that people were having
68%
USER:
Would be willing to have someone live with their aging relative
INSIGHT:
This showed that there was a need for the program that the Foundation had
54%
USER:
Didn’t know that programs for intergenerational living existed
INSIGHT:
This gave us insight into the gap in the market and what we could create
84%
USER:
Valued Trustworthiness in people who would live with their relative
INSIGHT:
This highlighted what needed to be an integral part of our product.
Interview Insights
I’m afraid that they might take advantage of my mother’s physical and mental problems for his/her own benefit
‍
- A.R. (Relative)
Would they take care of the space? How would they react in a crisis situation
‍
- D.F. (Relative)
My mother is incredibly stubborn. I don’t think she would ever accept a stranger in her home
‍
- F.R. (Relative)

04/ Defining the Problem

Compiling the data into one pain point statement

From our interview and research we were able to establish a commonality between the surveys, our clients concerns and our interviews.  This commonality revolved around establishing trust and showing the benefits of co-living.
This led us to our problem statement:
“Family members of the elderly need a way to connect their aging relatives with younger trustworthy students so that they feel less alone.”
User Persona
Name: Maria Navarro
Age: 53 year old
Occupation: Bookseller
Maria's Pain Points
Doesn’t know how to convince her mother that living with someone else may be beneficial for both of them
Doesn’t know about the programs in place that could help her mother

‍Maria’s Goals:
To help her mother (82) have her independence, but be able to get assistance when needed.
To find a solution to her mother’s loneliness

05/ Competitive Feature Analysis

What can we learn from others?

Although there are many programs that allow people to search for intergenerational housing, but none of them acknowledge that there may be difficulty in convincing the elderly of the benefits to co-living.
Feature Analysis

Once we had come up with a solution to the problem, we needed to prioritize the features necessary for the MVP product.  We used a 2x2 chart in order to prioritize the value of each proposed feature in order to determine what MUST, what SHOULD, what COULD and what WONT be in the MVP for Abueliving’s website.

Must:‍

  • Testimonials about the existing programs
  • Explaining the process of the program
  • Sign up form for elderlyGeneral contact form and contact information
  • Benefits of co-habitation

Should:‍

  • Sign up form for students
  • Show where the program(s) are active
  • Who is applicable for the program?
  • How to talk about your grandparents about the program
  • How is the vetting done?

Could:‍

  • How does the match happen?
  • Information about work trade / chores trade
  • Logos of participating programs and supporters
  • Download page with materials to print and distribute
  • Give examples of cases in which the strong character did not hinder the co-living

Wont:‍

  • Show available housing

06/ Design & Implementation

Going from design to MVP

I knew I wanted the app to appeal to an audience between the ages of 45-60.  Our goal was to gain their trust and inspire confidence.
We chose pastel colors because in our research those are the colors that tested well.
Design Iterations
Before we settled on the final design, we worked to refine the original prototype through multiple style and copy iterations in order to come to the final product.

07/ Testing the Prototype

Using user data and interviews to discover insights and feature solutions.

Through testing, we were able to gather insight into what real users thought about our work and make changes based on feedback

Connecting the user to what they would receive

“I don’t get it, do they go to different places?”
Insight:
Tester was unsure about the multiple different CTAs and where they would bring you

Change Made:
We changed the titles and CTAs to better connect the idea of choosing who you are and what you are looking to get information on
“I just want to know what the program is, I don’t want to read a lot”

Simplifying the Mission Statement

Insight:
Text was overwhelming to read and CTA was too specific

Change Made:
We changed the CTA to be a bit more all encompassing and optimized the mission statement

Giving more Context

“What will happen when I give my information to these people?”
Insight:
Users were not given an idea of what they were signing up for

Feature Solution:
Added additional information about what would happen once they signed up

05/ Our MVP for Abueliving

08/ Outcomes & Learnings

What is next for Abueliving and beyond

Once we had completed our work on Abueliving we handed over the design document to the team and began to discuss what was involved in implementation. The development team was still in discussions on the best way to proceed.
COVID-19 hit Barcelona and the entire country of Spain and most of Europe shut down as we wrapped up this project. At the moment, this project is on hold because the most vulnerable population would be effected if this were to go into practice.
Next Steps for Abueliving
  1. Launch Website MVP:
    Coupled with sponsoring community events, a print marketing campaign and other word of mouth advertisement, the website will serve to gather more participants to the program.
  2. Get more organizations involved
    Seek out similar programs or markets in which this type of program could be a viable option and seek out organizations with the ability to oversee the implementation
  3. Shape the tool based on the programs
    Work to create a CRM and matching software that has portals for the organizations involved, the Abueliving team, a client facing side for students and one for family members of the elderly