Project

Academic

Sector

Communal spaces, community building

My role

Service Designer, UX and UI Designer, and Illustrator

Tools mix

User research, persona modeling, concept development, content strategy, and prototyping

Project time

3 months

The challenge

The world is aging, and this is causing a massive reconfiguration of society, creating epidemiological and anthropological changes that influence the importance of active and healthy aging. The objective of this project was to conceive an age-friendly product-service-system within the themes of eatiher health or wellbeing, focusing on senior citizens living in Milan, Italy.

The solution

Keeper, a product-service system that transforms the care of the city into a motivational lever for seniors so they can overcome loneliness and become more physically active, while also addressing the present urban landscaping changes Milan is currently facing.

Understanding the problem

Before developing the service concept, we started by researching the topic and analyzing the factors related to healthy aging and the generational gap that affects seniors over 65. Then, we conducted an in-depth demographic analysis of senior citizens in Italy and Milan and finally, to round out our research, we reviewed research papers to deepen our understanding of our key findings.

Research data indicated turning 75 as a critical point where worsening of both health conditions and social connection converge. Furthermore, levels of education are intrinsically related to health and wellbeing, which consequently relates income levels to health and wellbeing. Finally, women make 60% of the over-65 Milanese population as they live longer; however, they have less quality of life in Italy.

Deep dive into key concepts

We conducted a research paper review to understand the distinction between social isolation and loneliness, the relation between physical activity and social connection, and to find out more about purchasing attitudes among seniors. We came across four key findings:

01

Social capital and income

Seniors with more social capital can seek out new relations and social involvement, while the ones with limited education and lower-income are more exposed to loneliness.

Seniors with more social capital can seek out new relations and social involvement, whereas the ones with limited education and lower-income are more exposed to loneliness

02

Community integration

Being part of a community and participating in it makes seniors feel needed and acquire a sense of purpose.

Allowing users to be proactive on the face of the symptom by taking away a part of its unpredictability.

03

Ageism

Seniors have the ability for self-care, strength, and courage, but the negative representation of elders through stereotyping leads them to think and behave otherwise.

Transforming reaching out into a normal element of the user’s daily life and routine, since asking for help is not always an automatic action for patients.

04

ConsumAuthors

ConsumAuthors are minorities within every generational group, able to influence members of both the same and other generations, shaping values and behaviors.

Getting to know our users

We continued onto on-field research by interviewing senior citizens living in Milan. We designed the interviews to collect relevant information from their background and to find out about their self-perception, their relationships, how they organize their routines, and their current health status. Our main insights:

01

Having a sense of purpose and feeling useful motivates seniors to move forward.

02

Age does not factor in the desire to take care of loved ones and the community.

03

Seniors consider working with their hands, going outside, and social interaction as vital to their daily life.

Case studies review

We collected and reviewed 36 case studies to understand the market. We focused on wearables, technical garments, medical equipment, and service projects. We then compared this cases based on the project goal, which was the improvement of seniors' lifestyles. Through a positioning map, we separated case studies depending on their degree of human contact and user-motivation. Additionally, we investigated overlaps among social activity, production of common goods, and physical exercise through a Venn diagram.

01-03

Physical exercise is often a consequence of doing other activities (Nintendo, Camminpulendo)

26

Consider an ecosystem of products rather than personal devices (Seniors Playground)

Consider an ecosystem of products rather than personal devicess (Seniors Playground)

Consider an ecosystem of products rather than personal devices (Seniors Playground)

30

A single product can address the needs of groups of people (Taizo Robot)

19

Good products are unobtrusive (Lechal Smart Sole)

Synthesizing data and problem framing

After collecting insights, it was time to synthesize the information to define our target audience, our product aims and finally, our product guidelines.

After collecting insights and synthesizing them to define our user base and narrow our project aims, we finished the synthesis process by defining our design guidelines, which were informed by both the previous research and the benchmarking. These principles would guide us when developing our solution.

Our target

Milanese seniors aged 65 to 74, who live alone or experience their daily activities alone.

Our aims

Make them acquire a sense of belonging while enjoying activities to overcome loneliness.

01

Familiarity

Embedding our technology into products familiar to our users.

02

Physical activity

Seamlessly integrating physical activity into people’s routines.

03

Social connection

Enhancing social interactions by providing seniors with reasons to leave their houses.

Enhancing social interactions by providing seniors with reasons to leave their houses

04

Sense of control

Allowing users to choose their degree of involvement in the activity.

Defining our final service

Design development

Based on the research insights and the themes that surfaced during synthesis, we created a concept scenario called Growing Together. This idea revolved around boosting physical activity and minimizing social isolation based on the community garden structure that the municipality of Milan offers to its inhabitants. This, because research uncovered that the senior population was already using it.

At this stage, we returned to researching about community gardens in the city and the city’s new green strategy. This last research phase uncovered additional issues related to these spaces that our possible solution could also tackle.

Based on the research insights and the themes that surfaced during synthesis, we created a concept scenario called Growing Together. This idea revolved around boosting physical activity and minimizing social isolation based on the community garden structure that the municipality of Milan offers to its inhabitants. This, because research uncovered that the senior population was already using it.

At this stage, we returned to researching about community gardens in the city and the city’s new green strategy. This last research phase uncovered additional issues related to these spaces that our possible solution could also tackle.

Based on the research insights and the themes that surfaced during synthesis, we created a concept scenario called Growing Together. This idea revolved around boosting physical activity and minimizing social isolation based on the community garden structure that the municipality of Milan offers to its inhabitants. This, because research uncovered that the senior population was already using it.

At this stage, we returned to researching about community gardens in the city and the city’s new green strategy. This last research phase uncovered additional issues related to these spaces that our possible solution could also tackle.

Based on the research insights and the themes that surfaced during synthesis, we created a concept scenario called Growing Together. This idea revolved around boosting physical activity and minimizing social isolation based on the community garden structure that the municipality of Milan offers to its inhabitants. This, because research uncovered that the senior population was already using it.

At this stage, we returned to researching about community gardens in the city and the city’s new green strategy. This last research phase uncovered additional issues related to these spaces that our possible solution could also tackle.

We then polished Keeper, a modular locker system for Urban Gardens that adapts to different configurations depending on the demand of the garden. It’s made up of a set of lockers and a garden smart-house.

The modular lockers can be stacked in different configurations according to garden subscriber numbers. Since sharing gardening plots is common, each locker is also meant to be shared by two people.

All locker configurations have a garden smart-house, which allows users to sign-up and access Keeper. The smart-house consists of two modules: the sign-up and events booth, plus two extra storage spaces for small community items and the shared warehouse for accessing the larger tools. It also serves as an informational space, and its modular structure can be used as a canvas for art exhibits and marketing purposes.

The service system

The service’s technical organization, the different actors involved in service delivery and their links, and the flow of information and resources are as follows:

Digital platform

The Digital product of Keeper’s system integrates a tablet interface that users can access through the garden smart-house and an informative website. I started working on the experience of the tablet interface by creating user flows. Then, I continued to work on the UI kit, defined the styleguide, and finished the product.

View clickable prototype

For the informative website, we defined the system map, the low-fi wireframes, and finally, I worked on the User Interface.

Reflecting on the process

Research deep-dive and product guidelines

For this project we were able to dedicate a lot of time to the research phase, and it really paid off in terms of team communication, problem solving, and time spent creating quality outputs. The simple product guidelines we created at the beginning of the process not only helped us make better and faster team decisions, but also made us always move in the same direction.

If we had more avaible time...

If we had more available time…

If we had more avaible time...

I would have tested both the digital and physical product with garden users and the seniors we contacted during field research. I would've also continued to polish and work on the design style guide to create a more robust digital product. And finally, dedicating more time to research the product's business model and the possibilities of partnering with the municipality of Milano, other companies involved in its innnovation projects, and other projects in the gardening sector.