EldSafe
Company: Microsoft Design Expo
Category: Product Development
Team: UX Designers
Role: Research, Design & Prototype
Date: April 2016
Background
'EldSafe' is a conversational user interface that I designed for the Microsoft Design Expo challenge and is meant to help elderly people live a better, longer and healthier life.
Problem
How can we make elderly people feel more safe at home when they live alone?
User Interviews & Personas
The first thing that we did was to go out in Washington Square park and ask elderly people if they would like to talk to us for our research project. We talked to about 10 - 15 people and this is what we discovered.
Solution & Technology
We realized that the UI had to be as simple as possible and the design unisex to match a bigger population age 65+. We started thinking of possible scenarios and how the system diagram would work. We used a pulse sensor to detect one's pulse that could detect if there's a change in pulse and would trigger and event for the user to press either OK, Help or no response.
Lo-Fi Prototype
We started doing lo-fi prototypes using a 3D printing machine to test the design and our idea. We tried different designs using the 3D printer and realized during usability testing that the simple wearable is the most suited design.
3D Prototype
Here is our final design where we proposed 3 main features: one for OK, one button for help, and last one for non-responding - the last two triggering a phone call to 911. The second picture of the design got chosen due to being accessible for the visually impaired as well.
