CASE STUDY:
Helping elderly people stay connected
Hukommelsen was a social initiative that focused on helping elderly people with dementia stay connected through age-friendly digital solutions.
Their mission became particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic. All of a sudden, people in elderly care homes became unable to meet their loved ones. Online became the only way.
We created a video call app to be used in elderly care homes in Norway.
/ app design
Things to solve
Existing means of contact do not always meet the specific needs in elderly care homes:
Even if an interface technically passes contrast requirements, text and text-based elements can still be hard to read.
Those who spent most of their lives outside of the digital world often have troubles interpreting icons.
People with dementia have troubles remembering names, which turns even a simple phone call into a challenge.
People working in elderly care homes had limited capacity of managing everyones increased communication needs. Process needed simplification.
Pre-loved registration
Registration was the biggest headache. How to create it in a way that does not overload the already busy care workers? UX focused on three user groups in order to address that:
A close person who handles the whole registration process. They have to create an account and invite others (including the elderly) to join the closed family/friends circle. They have full control of writing names and uploading good pictures of each member.
An employee of the care facility. All they need to do is to enter a code and click "Join". That´s it, an elderly person has easy access to calling anyone in their family circle.
The elderly person. They need to open the application, choose a person based on an image and tap to call.
Accessibility taken seriously
All UI choices were guided by one main goal: to increase accessibility. Even if that meant ending up with a slightly odd and bulky interface.
The non-admin flow design focused on tablet view first, a more common choice of device for elderly people.
Text labels, buttons and other elements are EXTRA large.
Black text on (near) white background for maximum colour contrast
Next to a name, large images of peoples faces were used for easier recognition.
No relying on icons. Focus on clear text labels.
End note
Given the urgency of the situation, Hukommelsen was built really fast. It was tested and used in the elderly care homes in Norway during the pandemic.
At the time of building the app, I had pre-determined visual identity to follow. For this case study, I took the liberty to add an extra splash of sunshine to the presentation graphics.
Do you have questions about this project? Or perhaps you'd like to discuss yours? I'll be happy to hear from you.