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Bridge is an SNS to cultivate purpose and fulfillment in the lives of adults 65+ by sparking organic social connections with members of all ages in their local community during an era of increasing social isolation and ageing populations. Based on our primary research, we discovered key insights regarding how people interact with others and what they would like to gain from those interactions. Our users want in-person connections to reduce their feelings of loneliness. Their sense of purpose is strengthened after talking to people and realizing they have helped by sharing their stories and experiences. They cultivate fulfillment as they grow in their connections with people.
While more than 75% of individuals aged 65 and above maintain a favorable outlook on technology and express openness to forging new connections, a significant challenge lies in cultivating the intrinsic motivation to sustain those connections.
To create an innovative social network offer that is feasible, fills a unique user-stakeholder need, and addresses a market opportunity that so far remains unexplored/unsaturated by real and potential competitors.
Initial conceptualizing the idea as a platform for adults 65+ to connect with young adults (18-32) who are interested in bridging the generational gap and fighting social isolation together. I along with a team of 4 from various cross functional team worked with changing the experience of interaction of a certain age group.
Our final insights based on our research was that adults 65+ want to feel engaged , needed , fulfilled. These insights eventually became the basis for our value proposition, value pillars, and core drivers.
On conducting a competitive analysis, we identified several companies offering similar services as ours. We evaluated these competitors based on two key factors: usability and social impact.
Some main takeaways from our SWOT analysis is that we will thrive off of designing our app visually tailored to this age group. This will set us apart from other apps. We thought our weakness was that our product relies on the use of a digital platform and product, but later we realized that was actually good because many adults 65+ use technology on a daily basis. We do see a strong opportunity to target neighborhoods that do not have a pre-existing neighborhood/community association. Our biggest threat is that there are some platforms that are pre-existing that people use for similar functions as our app. Some known competitors are Nextdoor and Facebook.
Through conducting primary research, including interviews and surveys, we gained valuable insights into the pain points, gains, and jobs to be done for our target audience. After analyzing this information and studying our competitors, we developed a comprehensive business model that allowed us to refine our ideas and identify key gain creators, pain relievers, and product/service jobs to be done. This process helped us better understand how our offerings align with the needs of our customer base.
We prototyped with cluster of ideas to sort out all the overlaps in the results, as well as a functional ranking based on the relevance of the value pillar. After the discussion, we summarized 4 comprehensive categories:profile, calendar, messages, and events.We also proposed initial commercialization ideas: opening channels to allow local businesses to place advertisements, and partnering with local communities for commercial profitability on a to B platform. Based on the first round of prototyping, we wanted to hear from real users, especially since our users are 65+ adults who will have more specific habits in using digital devices and software.We held both in-person and online user tests, where we provided 3 main tasks to ask for task completion and invited them to voice-out their feelings, pains and gains at any time during the operation.We recorded the audio of all user tests for subsequent research. Through user testing, our functionality and ease of use of the software has been confirmed by many users. They expressed their interest in such software with social attributes, but at the same time, they made some suggestions for some detailed feature needs and told the psychology for the reasons behind the feature preferences.
Throughout this research journey, as a passionate user experience designer and design strategist, I was deeply moved by the realization that the vibrant and wise age group of 65 years and above has often been overlooked, missing out on the interactive experiences that other age groups enjoy. This project introduced me to incredible individuals who generously shared their life lessons, exuded boundless charisma, and radiated enthusiasm for life. It was abundantly clear that they have so much more to offer. With unwavering dedication, we delved into every intricate detail of our app's development, tirelessly working to ensure a user experience that not only caters to their unique needs but also celebrates the richness of their life journey.
