August 2022 - May 2023
Georgia Tech Thesis Project
Figma, FigJam, Excel, Adobe CC
UX Researcher & Designer
Grandparents & grandchildren find it increasingly difficult to communicate with each other over long distance.
Grandparents and grandchildren can connect by tapping their interactive gadgets, sending colorful light signals that spark curiosity and encourage calls. The app enables easy voice or video calls, with a smart interface allowing grandchildren to manage tech settings so grandparents can focus on the conversation—stress-free for both.
User Research, Digital Design, Product Design
I found studies done at Pew Research Center and the University of Texas that more than 60% of adult grandchildren are not connected with their grandparents. Most them were also living far away from their families. Grandparents can provide a lot of emotional support to grandchildren.
I wanted to analyze previous related work because it is a saturated area of study, find a unique problem space to solve. While narrowing down my audience, I also found a unique problem space. I narrowed down my audience to Indian international students and their grandparents living in India.
- 12 published research papers
- Case studies previously at Georgia Tech
After narrowing user group - Indian international students and their grandparents, I took a deeper dive into their pain points/barriers. I realized that grandparents faced more challenges in communication than grandchildren and yearned more for communication than their grandchildren.
- 10 participants, 18 years & older
- 5 grandchildren, 5 grandparents
- 45 to 50 minutes, virtual + in-person
I compared existing technologies solving for long distance communication between grandparents & grandchildren to identify opportunities. I realized most of them are not very simple to use, might be designed for tech savvy grandparents or not solving specific challenges faced by Indian grandparents.
- Completed the S.W.C.D.UX.O analysis - Strength, weakness, content, design, UX, opportunities
- 12 different digital means of communication
I categorized the information from my research using affinity mapping on FigJam. Based on the affinity mapping exercise, I was able to identify 5 key barriers to communication between grandparents and grandchildren.
I prioritized the barrier that was most important to solve based on the number of people it was affecting and how intensely it was affecting people - Technology.
Ironically, long-distance communication between grandparents and grandchildren was mostly hindered by technological challenges, leaving grandparents struggling to navigate interfaces & grandchildren cannot easily resolve these issues remotely, leading to frustration.
Barrier 1: Technology
dependency | difficult to help from far | too many features | wifi/data issues
Barrier 2: Language
written english | word context | learning experience
Barrier 3: Physical
hearing | vision | arthritis
Barrier 4: Cultural
common topic | difference in thinking | conflicts | pride
Barrier 5: Time
coordinating schedules | conflicting time zones
- Love light inspires both grandparents and grandchildren to communicate their emotions through light. Using LED lights on everyday wearables/artifacts like necklace or watch, to send and receive signals.
- Easy talk's main idea here is to pair grandparents and children to help talk over video/audio calls without barriers. So the grandchildren can have control over the call settings of grandparents with their permission of course.
Combining Love Light and Easy Talk we can allow grandparents to focus on communication without having to worry about complicated interface. I brainstormed a few ideas on how to combine the digital light signals with a paired UI system for grandparents and grandchildren.
I started creating workflows to understand how the grandparents and grandchildren, artifact, lights and app will interact with each other, how would the ecosystem make sense together.
A user story to define how the eco system of digital device and mobile work together for grandparents and grandchildren in the real world.
Explore how a mobile app would work to enhance the main solution - lights on artifacts/wearables.
Explore how a mobile app would work to enhance the main solution - lights on artifacts/wearables.
watches connect with the mobile app for grandparents(easy UI) + grandchildren(advanced UI) to send/receive signals.
