Redesigning Habit Forming Digital Platform For Seniors
Joint, Eshel
Public
Healthcare
3rd Age
Technology
Redesign the scenarios and user interface of the Activnet website that proactively promotes healthy lifestyles for seniors. The site helps users identify their health, physical and mental condition and provides them with proactive actions to maintain and improve a healthy lifestyle. The site's intelligent and motivating triggers are based on an analysis of adults' routines, needs and attitudes towards aging.
"It's true that I'm old and I have to adjust to my way of life, but I try to be happy with what I have and not think about the inevitable. I'm not nursing or sick, I'm independent and that's important to me."
The Challenge
Driving the senior users of the Activnet website to use it constantly in order to encourage their active participation in healthy lifestyle, promoting activities - physical, cognitive and social.
Activnet was created with the ambition to help seniors promote their way of life. According to this approach, the preventive treatment is better than the treatment of diseases after they appear.
The website achieves this goal thanks to an advanced algorithm developed by Aging Science experts. The algorithm presents users with a questionnaire that diagnoses their physical and mental health as well as their everyday and social function. The questionnaire product is a personalized basket of activity and service recommendations for each user based on their location.
The Project
We conducted research involving seniors of different ages, health and economic states, and different digital capabilities. We asked them to learn about their feelings and approach to lifestyle, aging and the use of digital online services. We have accompanied some of them into their homes and private work areas throughout their journey as Activnet users.
Thanks to the unmediated encounter with our users, we found out:
The impediments preventing them from receiving active services as they do not correspond to the self-perception of senior users.
“It's true, I'm old and I need to make adjustments in my lifestyle, but I'm trying to be happy with what I have and not to think about the inevitable. I'm not sick, I don't need assistance, I'm independent and that's what matters to me.”
The importance of receiving the legitimacy to pose personal questions in a digital space where many feel like a target for fraud.
The expectation of advice and explanations on the digital format and how to handle yourself while working in the format.
The need for a clear interface from visual background noises to help maintain orientation and focus on users' purpose.
Based on the needs and behavior that emerged from the research, a prototype of the user journey within the new website was built. The prototype was developed to respond to the opportunities presented in the study. We used behavioral economics, the architecture of choice, and refined the interface to respond to the unique interface needs of seniors.
The prototype has helped us to check with our users the components that required fixing - thus helped us and the professional team in Activnet to choose the right components for immediate development and for future development of the website.
The Outcome
The purpose of the new Activnet website is to provide a useful tool, guidance and assistance to seniors. The guiding principles for action which form the new basis for the website are as follows:
Legitimacy and confidence: Clear information about the site, who runs it and its purpose. .
A dialogue mechanism: The questionnaire is followed by explanations that help customers know themselves while referring to their personal preferences.
Orientation in the process: Dissemination of information at each stage to small ‘bites’. The dissemination of information helps to focus users' attention on relevant issues.
A Guidance that Assists in Implementing Contact to Services and Activities:
Active support in access to services and activities - proactive selection of users who create a user's commitment to active behavior. Detailed information helps to understand which recommendations are relevant to the user's way of life, and reminders help to drive and maintain new routines.
In the process of designing a service or product, there is no substitute for going deep into the human’s life, for in-depth conversation with users, and for using cutting edge ethnographic research tools. Understanding the individual - his/her characteristics, needs, motivations, pain and constraints is critical. It enables the organization to identify the type of response and develop new, customized solutions that deliver a distinct competitive advantage.
