Designing for autonomy
In 2019, I served as a research assistant for Dr. Miso Kim's ethnographic study about older adults' sense of autonomy, examined through the lens of technology literacy. I conducted interviews, analyzed data & designed visual models to convey our findings.
BACKGROUND
METHODOLOGY
In the early stages of the project, I designed a stakeholder map to represent the different people and/or groups involved in the realm of older adults' technology usage, as well as their relationships to one another.
Identifying patterns in our interviews and surveys, I identified eleven barriers and ten success factors for technology adoption among older adults.
I also created three personas and their correlating journey maps based on the cluster analysis of our surveys and interviews. We found that there are insufficient channels for older adults to seek help for technical issues. Once family members or friends cannot provide effective solutions, many tend to give up.
We designed a service concept that includes the participatory components of a service that supports older adults' technological literacy, including a teaching tool app and a series of courses. These tools and courses connect older adults with student volunteers, community centers, and local libraries.