Clifton Avenue Senior Center
a concept to address a community in need
Background
Having worked at a senior center for a year and a half, creating and running programs, doing community outreach and home delivered meals, I saw the challenges many seniors face. Social isolation is a huge issue for those who live alone and whose families live far. Senior centers are extremely important to the well being of the elderly, as it gives them a place to see others, share activities, meals, and find services they need. They also serve as a tremendous resource to their families and the communities where the generation gap can be breached through the efforts of volunteers and partner organizations.
The notion that the elderly shy away from technology no longer holds true. In fact, research has shown that seniors are increasingly embracing technology to address their numerous needs. This has become especially true with the COVID 19 pandemic.
Having a site that is easy to navigate, enables seniors, families and volunteers to access services and resources they need, should be of utmost importance to all communities. For the sake of privacy, the name and location of the town this case study is based on has been altered.
"The pandemic might be the bridge to close the generational tech divide as older adults flocked to adopt technology in 2020."
Our Personas
Saanvi
Senior 78 yrs old
Goals and Needs:
Just relocated to the area and is seeking an elderly community to meet new people.
Looking for activity programs to join.
Seeking a place to eat a couple of times per week with other seniors.
Socialization needs.
Pain Points:
New to the area and doesn't know what is available in her community for people her age.
Has lower confidence and patience with using technology and gets easily frustrated. As a result will leave the site quickly if she can't find what she needs.
Tech Savvy:
Marcus
Caregiver 54 yrs old
Goals and Needs:
Seeking transportation services for his parents.
Seeking to have home delivered meals for his parents.
Would like to have a professional on site, a social worker or outreach worker that can do home visits to check on his parents regularly.
Seeking information and other resources about what is available in the town for his parents.
Wants to ensure they have a good quality of life and have access to the services they need
Pain points:
Lives far from his parents.
Feels overwhelmed and frustrated when trying to find resources for them.
Isn't sure what the community can provide.
Wants the advice and guidance of a professional accustomed to meeting the needs of seniors.
Tech Savvy:
Madison
Volunteer 22 yrs old
Goals and Needs:
Wants to make a difference for seniors in her community by volunteering with an organization that specializes in the elderly population.
Wants to know what her options are, as she has x number of hours per week she can dedicate to volunteering.
Pain points:
Doesn't know what options there are for her to volunteer.
Doesn't know who to contact to volunteer or where to register
Tech Savvy:
Understanding the Current user flow
The town upon which this case study is built has a vibrant, active senior center, but no true dedicated site thus making it difficult for seniors new to the community, families and even volunteers to find and get an understanding of the services offered there.
This is my mapping of the current user flow for someone seeking this particular senior center in the town.
Clifton Avenue Senior Center Current User Flow
My thoughts on the current user flow and the potential issues I see for users as they seek out the services offered by this center:
No dedicated site for the center, instead it is on the Town’s main website.
The Senior center is not featured prominently on the town main website, instead it is found in the Departments tab
On the Senior Center Department page there is no CTA on how to request or sign up for their services. Their programs and events are not listed.
Several of the left side navigation bar links take the user to PDF’s providing no way to sign up for classes, programs, events, meals, or the newsletter.
Devising a solution
A community's senior center needs its own site, that is accessible to all of its users; seniors, care givers and volunteers
Considerations
Must be easy to use and navigate for both tech savvy and less experienced internet users.
Vital services must be visible and accessible right away.
Accessible for an aging population.
Must meet the needs of both seniors, care givers and volunteers seeking information and services.
Goals
Create an intuitive, accessible, informative site dedicated to meeting the needs of the town's elderly population through lens of the services provided by the senior center.
Make all programs, including transportation, nutrition and activities easy to find and register for.
Provide additional resources beyond what is offered at the senior center to aid families and caregivers seeking to provide a better quality of life for their aging loved ones.
"According to the Pew Research Center, 75 percent of people over 65 in the U.S. used the internet in 2021"
Defining the key features
With the challenges and goals understood, these were the key features I identified as necessary.
A Focus on Accessibility
Clear navigation structure and information architecture.
Typography legibility and contrast consideration
Clear consistent links that drive user action
Creating a sense of community
Provide exercise videos for seniors to perform at home.
Provide videos and photos of events and programs at the center in order to help reduce social isolation.
Highlighting Support Services
Explain the 3 options available at the center for lunch.
Provide easy to use form to book your meal whether it is on site, picked up or delivered.
Explain the 4 transportation services offered.
Explain the support services offered at the center.
Providing Additional Resources
Provide exercise videos for seniors to perform at home
Provide videos and photos of events and programs at the center in order to help reduce social isolation
Presenting Activities and Programs
Provides the user with clear information of the activities and programs offered at the center.
Provide a clear calendar of events so users are aware of monthly and one time events.
Encouraging involvement
Provide visitors such as volunteers, community members, local businesses with 4 ways they can become involved with the center and contribute to its growth as well as its programs and services
Proposed User Flow
image of proposed userflow
Low Fidelity Wireframes
With the key features defined and my user flow worked out, I started on my low fidelity wireframes. At this point I’m not concerned with granularity, I’m worried about structure, broad strokes and information architecture. I have a basic prototype. You can see a few examples below.
Low Fi Wireframe : Welcome
Low Fi Wireframe : Services
Low Fi Wireframe : Inquiry confirmation
Low Fi Wireframe : Calendar of events
Low Fi Wireframe : Nutrition programs
Low Fi Wireframe : Contact
Medium Fidelity Wireframes
For the medium fidelity wireframes I become more granular. I begin to consider page structure; content hierarchy, typography, CTAs and imagery. I am identifying all points of interaction and diving deeper into prototyping to ensure proper flow. You can see some examples below.
Medium Fi Wireframe : Welcome
Medium Fi Wireframe : Exercise videos
Medium Fi Wireframe : Chosen video
Medium Fi Wireframe : Contact
Medium Fi Wireframe : Nutrition
Medium Fi Wireframe : Meal card
Medium Fi Wireframe : Zoom programs
Medium Fi Wireframe : Monthly events
Medium Fi Wireframe : Event sign up
Design Considerations
Before I moved on to my High Fidelity Wireframes, I decided to explore the color palette, fonts, and photography themes. Knowing that the wires would go to a UI designer, I wanted to provide a general visual direction. The image below was taken from one of my artboards for the project.
Clifton Avenue Senior Center Design Considerations Board
High Fidelity Wireframes
With the design considerations in mind I created the High Fidelity Wireframes. Here I got to bring everything together applying color, greater level of detail, photography, and the highest level of functionality to my prototype accounting for all the key areas of interaction on the site. I had a tremendous amount of fun in this stage and discovered that while my emphasis is on UX I really enjoy doing UI as well.
High Fi Wireframe : Welcome
High Fi Wireframe : Exercise videos
High Fi Wireframe : Chosen video
High Fi Wireframe : Contact
High Fi Wireframe : Nutrition
High Fi Wireframe : Meal card
High Fi Wireframe : Zoom programs
High Fi Wireframe : Monthly events
High Fi Wireframe : Program sign up
“As of 2021, 45% of seniors 65+ use social media, of those 50% use Facebook.”
Additional Considerations
To consider the entire experience for the user, establishing a social media presence would be a good next step and a natural fit. Facebook would be a good avenue for the senior center to announce their programs, events, daily meal options, member birthdays, as well as closures due to holidays or inclement weather..
Conclusion
Having worked in a Senior Center for a year and a half this project was near and dear to my heart. In my time there, I saw in the seniors a desire to become knowledgeable and comfortable with today's technology but experiencing difficulty in doing so because many sites do not consider the needs of this community, in their UX/UI approach.
My approach with this site aims to address the challenges that the elderly and their families face in finding activities to reduce social isolation, and the services and resources needed to improve their quality of life.