At the start of COVID-19, our team wanted to create a meaningful solution for friends and family to stay connected, specifically an elderly target audience of 55+. We challenged ourselves to intersect social entertainment and the sense of being in a community onto a platform accessible for our older users. We asked ourselves: How might we facilitate meaningful moments through a social entertainment platform that promotes authentic conversation, relationships, and a community environment for the elderly? Through intensive research, virtual user workshops, and iterations of designing, we created “Together”— a platform for shared experiences to come to life — virtually. The interactions are meant to reflect the feeling of physically being together and sharing nuanced interactions when with another person. We divide our signature experiences into three devices: the mobile device highlights onboarding and how to choose an activity with a friend or family member; the tablet displays real-time conversations and reactions; and the desktop features how one can save their "Memories" into one space. The visual language of the app follows the keywords chosen in our framework: friendly, expressive, and accessible. We ensured all decisions of the color palette and icons had enough contrast and readability for our older audience. The illustrations have a tone of family-friendly, inclusive celebration — encouraging users to feel welcome and to have fun. Overall, our team has learned the challenges and rewards of collaborative remote learning and the creative methods to conduct virtual workshops and ways to present our ideas. This project not only taught us new technical skills, but also to be vulnerable and empathetic with each other, and appreciate and hold on to our loved ones.
FULL PROJECT LINK