Designing for “Empty-Nesters”

18 min readOct 23, 2019

Introduction

“Empty-nesters” are parents of children who have left home. As a group, we thought it would be interesting to research “empty-nesters” because, as college students, we all have personal experience in leaving home ourselves, but less insight into what it feels to be a parent whose child is now gone. Each group member interviewed a parent with at least one child living outside the home. Out of coincidence, all of our interviewees were mothers, so we thought it was appropriate to re-frame our target users as “empty-nester” mothers. After creating empathy maps for each interviewee, we came together and formed one needfinding How May We statement.

Interview Questions

We began with a general high-level question:

“How is socializing different for ‘empty-nesters,’ in comparison to how they socialized when their children lived in their homes?”

With this high-level question in mind, we created the following questions that would guide us in our user interviews.

Name?
Age?
What are some of your hobbies?
What hobbies did you develop after your kids left your home?
How many kids do you have?
How many kids do not currently live with you? Why?
Tell me about a standard weekday in your life when your kids lived with you.
Tell me about a standard weekday in your life now that your kids don’t live with you.
Tell me about the last time you hung out with someone who was not one of your children. How did it initiate?
Tell me about the last time you met someone who now plays a regular role in your life.
How do you stay in contact with your kids? How often? Tell me about the last time.
What kinds of social media do you currently use? Do you prefer web apps or phone apps? Why?

Interviews

With these questions, we conducted interviews on four “empty-nesters” who, coincidentally, were all females. We used our interviews to create the following empathy maps. A more detailed link to our observation notes can be found here.

Interview 1: Chao, Mother of Two

Chao is a mother of two daughters, both of whom live outside of their childhood home for school. Chao now lives with just her husband. She spends her time hanging out and trying new hobbies with her close friends, most of whom she met through her children’s parents and activities. Otherwise, she meets new people mostly through work or her friend’s friends. When it comes to contacting her children, she usually waits for them to text her first because she does not want to bother them.

This interview took place in Berkeley, CA, at a local coffee shop during lunch time (noon). Based on the interview, she needs a way to meet people who are not immediately in her network of friends, a way to contact her children without feeling ashamed, and a way to discover new hobbies she can partake in with her friends.

To summarize the empathy map, we can deduce that Chao says she spends more time at work now, has found new hobbies to do with her husband now that her kids are gone, and waits for her children to contact her. She thinks her schedule is freer with her kids out of the house, but that keeping in contact with her kids is dependent on their schedules. She uses WeChat, texting, and Find Friends a lot (all mobile devices) and meets most of her friends through work and other friends. She feels excited to find new hobbies, but cautions about interrupting her kids.

Interview 2: Susan, Mother of Two

Susan is a mother of two children who have moved out of the house. She enjoys dancing with her dance group in the park, and she is also currently learning graphic design and Photoshop. She began looking to dance after her youngest child left the house, which is where she meets many new friends. Otherwise, most of her closest friends are her children’s friend’s parents.

This interview took place in Berkeley, CA on 10/20 at 11:00 AM. Based on the interview, Susan needs a way to meet new people outside her immediate friend group, a way to learn new things easily (particularly technology), and a way to relieve her sadness when she feels lonely because her children are gone.

To summarize the empathy map, Susan says that she wishes her kids needed her more and called her more, yet that she also now has time to revisit past hobbies. She thinks she must make sacrifices for communication because her children are busy in college, and that it’s important for everyone in the family to do their jobs. She uses WeChat most often and meets new people through her hobbies, though she feels closer to her older friends. Susan feels excited to find hobbies and more relaxed now that her children are gone, especially since she can now focus on dance, but she also feels sad since her kids are busy (although she understands the need to not bother them).

Interview 3: Sissel, Mother of Three

Sissel is a 65-year-old mother who has two children who have left home and one who still lives with her and her husband.She stays in contact with children and have multiple interaction with them each week. She mainly uses snapchat and calling with the phone. She uses snapchat to share photos of what is going on at home and to be updated about what is going on in her children’s lives. After her children left, she found herself with more spare time to spend on her hobbies. Her hobbies include knitting, walking and singing in a choir. She often finds herself doing these hobbies with friends.

This interview took place in Berkeley, CA, at 10:00 PM. Based on the interview, Sissel needs a way to feel less empty even though her kid are gone, a way to share what she’s been doing, and a more immediate way to stay updated on her kids’ activities.

To summarize the empathy map, Sissel says she uses SnapChat a lot, has more free time than ever before, and tries to talk to her kids a couple times per week. Sissel thinks she uses her newfound time on hobbies and with her friends. Sissel sends photos throughout the week, calls her children one or more times per week, and goes out to concerts with friends. Sissel feels happy when she can talk to her kids, but empty because many people are now gone from the house.

Interview 4: Joy, Mother of Two

Joy is a mother of two daughters. After her daughters left for college, Joy and her husband moved to a new area, and she has been finding it difficult to meet new friends. Joy spends most of her days at home doing housework. With nobody to take care of, Joy has few opportunities to spend time with people, especially because her husband comes back relatively late. She says her life has become more simpler, especially because her friends live in a farther city.

This interview took place in Berkeley at 10:00 PM. Based on the interview, Joy needs a way to connect with friends who live far away, meet new friends in her area, and not feel so lonely while in the house.

To summarize the empathy map, Joy says that moving has had a large impact on her ability to meet friends, and combined with her children being away, there is a large part of her life taken away. She thinks life was simpler before, and she wants to meet people who share her interests. She meets with her older friends to chat, but also spends her alone time reading books. Joy feels as though many parts of her daily routine have disappeared and especially empty during lonely times of the day, like dinner.

Needfinding

Based on the following empathy maps, we noticed that one observation common to all mothers was difficulty meeting new friends, especially those outside their immediate networks (ie. friends of friends, friends of children’s parents, etc.) Specifically, Chao only meets new friends through work or friends of friends, Susan only meets new friends through her hobbies, Sissel only spends time with her current friends, and Joy has difficulty meeting new friends since she has just moved. Thus, we came up with the following HMW statement:

How may we enable “empty-nester” mothers to meet new friends outside of their immediate, localized networks?

Prototyping

Using this HMW statement, we moved onto the prototyping phase. We chose to make four prototypes, each fulfilling one of the four following categories: Most Rational, Most Likely to Work, Most likely to Delight, and Dark Horse.

Most Rational: Moms Teach Other Moms

With Moms Teach Other Moms, the user first logs in to the app with their username and password, which (for the sake of the prototype) we assume has already been made. The user then is shown the start page which is the page for finding a new group from which she can learn something new. From there the user can search or scroll through the groups. The user has to click the group he/she wants to join to get more information about it, and to get to the sign up page. The user then confirms that he/she really wants to sign up.

This prototype aimed to answer the question, “What would it look like for a mom to find and sign up for a teaching group?”

Here are the initial low-fidelity sketches of the app:

Here is a link to the Figma prototype.

As seen in Sissel’s interview,

1. Users need an easy way to find new people outside of their regular circle. Moms Teach Other Moms will make new groups easily available, where users can meet many new people learning something new.

2. Users need something to fill the gap that their kids left. The gap can be filled with new hobbies through using Moms Teach Other Moms.

3. Users need to not feel lonely at home. Moms Teach Other Moms encourages the user to go out, or to invite new people into the house. By hosting a learning session at home, the loneliness might be lessened.

Most Likely to Succeed: Mom-Unity, an app that connects its users with volunteering activities

With Mom-Unity, the user first enters in preliminary information, including their name and zip code. The zip code helps filter down results based on location. Next, the user enters in specific interests. This also helps filter down results so that the final volunteering opportunities meet the user’s interests. Finally, the user enters in days during the week that they are most free. Based on this information, the app returns a list of volunteering opportunities that the user may scroll through, look closely at, and finally, sign up for.

This prototype aimed to answer the question, “What would the process look like as the user moves through the pipeline of seeking a volunteer opportunity to receiving a volunteer opportunity?”

Here are the initial low-fidelity sketches of the app:

Here is a link to the Figma prototype.

As seen in Joy and Sissel’s empathy maps,

Both felt lonely because their children were gone. Thus, Mom-Unity encourages users to meet new people through volunteerism.
Both interviewees felt lonely in their homes. Thus, Mom-Unity gives its users motivation to leave their homes for good.
Both interviewees felt that their roles and responsibilities were “gone” now that their children were out of the house. Thus, Mom-Unity utilizes this need to “mother” other people by allowing its users to “mother” those they are volunteering for.

Most Likely to Delight: Eye-Contact, Gamified Communications for Mothers and Children

Both of the users (mom and child) have an electric photo frame with a camera on it. If the other user looks at that photo (detected by the camera) for 5 seconds, the face on the screen starts to blink. Then if the user looks at the photo for 5 seconds, too, they can begin FaceTime-ing using the screen.

This prototype aimed to answer the question, “How could the connection between children and mothers be more gamified?”

Here are some initial low-fidelity sketches of the app:

Here is a link to the Figma prototype.

As seen in Chao and Susan’s interviews,

The user needs to feel like less of a burden when contacting her children. Eye-Contact allows for both children and mothers to feel more sure of their free time.
The user needs to have more intentional conversation with her children. Eye-Contact allows for this by pulling back the “digital curtain” and forcing users to converse with each other face-to-face.
The user needs less technical expertise, as some moms have difficulty working with technology. Eye-Contact is relatively hands-off.

Dark Horse: Yelp for Moms

Think Yelp, but for moms! The user will open up the website on computer and have the option to create a new mom by clicking on the button “Add a Mom”. A user also has an option to search for a mom with a particular keyword or a particular expertise, like cooking. They also have the option of searching in a particular location. For add a new mom, the user will need to fill out some basic information like name, bio, location, email, etc. There is also a guidelines list for the user to look at and reference for their convenience. Once the mom is created, we are redirected to a mom show page, where we can see a picture and basic information. In addition to location information, the user can also see a search option. Finally, the user will see a bunch of reviews. There they can make a review for the mom they are looking at, where they will see a create review form.

This prototype aimed to answer the question, “What will the typical workflow of a user look like?”

Here are some initial low-fidelity sketches of the website:

Here is a link to the Figma prototype.

As seen in Joy’s interview,

The user needs a way to easily meet new neighbors. YelpMom will allow users to easily find other moms and become friends because there is a location filter. It will be easily accessible on the internet.
The user needs to find a way to fill a void in her life now that her kids are away. They can use this website to find another mom to learn from/teach. It can be a great way to spend time together and refill that void with time with friends.
The user wants to meet people like her with similar interests. They can use this site to find and filter by expertise as well as keyword. That way they find similar activities and interests to do together.

User Testing: Mom-Unity

We then moved on to performing several user tests on Mom-Unity, the app that connects mothers with volunteering opportunities. We performed three different types of user tests. Links to all of our usability test plans can be found here.

Filling out a Form

In our first user test, we aimed to answer the question

What is the best way to provide a survey of questions to a user so that she feels more prone to completing the “pipeline?”

We did this by testing the original version of the app that presented the survey in a series of steps along with another version that presented the survey as one step on one screen. We presented the original version to two interviewees and the new version to one other interviewee. One interviewee was someone we interviewed in our needfinding stages, and the other interviewees were friends of the former interviewee. We asked each interviewee to simply fill out the form (writing the answers down on paper due to the limitations of the Figma prototype). These tests were conducted via videochat, with one group member facilitating the interview by asking the following questions during/after the interviewees used the prototype (also included are some noteworthy answers):

What would you change?

“[About the original version] There is no previous button. Maybe some recommended interests?”
“[About the new version] There is a lot of information on one page, a bit overwhelming.”

2. What is one thing you enjoyed about the process of filling out this form?

“[About the original version] It was sectioned off very well. I enjoyed seeing my progress on the top.”
“[About the new version] I enjoyed being able to see all the things I needed to complete.”

3. What is one thing that frustrated you about the process of filling out this form?

“[About the original version] I wish the progress bar also had the names of the pages associated with each circle.”
“[About the new version] There were too many questions on one page. Scrolling wasn’t very convenient.”

It seemed like, when going through a journey for a form, it is important for interviewees to be able to stick with a sign up form and actually begin using the product. Many interviewees noted that the multi-step form was “sectioned off very well” and they enjoyed “seeing [their] progress on the top”. However, there were certain components and details like color scheme, calendar selection, and more information on form progression that were preferred.

For the long form, the benefit was being able to see all the steps at once, but this ended up being a bit overwhelming for the interviewee. The interviewee stated that she would not be inclined to finish the form and use the product due to the overwhelming amount of work needed to be done before even beginning to use the product.

Our top three takeaways from this user test were:

There are too many questions on one page, making it into a multi step form helps a lot.
Users enjoy seeing progression in a form and enjoy being aware of the amount of steps left.
Users enjoy traditional components like “Calendar Select” more over list view date selection.

“Foot-in-the-Door”

In our second user test, we aimed to answer the question

What happens when we ask the user to make a choice prior to providing logistical information?

This was suggested by Professor Salehi. We tested this by creating an alternate version where the user is first given a list of volunteering opportunities to choose from, then a list of availability dates that may be different depending on which volunteering opportunity the user chose. We presented this new version to one interviewee (Sissel, who we also interviewed for needfinding). This interview was conducted over Skype, with one group member facilitating the test by asking questions. We asked them to first select the most compelling choice on the screen before confirming whether or not they were available for the volunteering opportunity based on the times on the next screen. We then asked the following questions (along with noteworthy answers):

You chose [INSERT INTERVIEWEE’S CHOICE]. If you were forced to choose [OTHER CHOICE], how would you feel?

“[After choosing arts and crafts] It’s fine if I had to choose the other one. I like being around elderly people.”

2. What’s one thing you enjoyed about the signup process?

“I liked that it was very simple to navigate.”

3. What would you do if you weren’t available for any of the time slots provided?

“I would have tried the other event that was to help the elderly.”

4. How would you feel about starting over?

“I would feel a bit irritated, but it wasn’t that many pages to go though.”

5. How likely would you be to cancel your current appointment to attend this volunteering event?

“If it were a one time thing, I would have done the volunteering. Depends if the volunteering is dependent on me.”

It seemed like choosing the activity before the interviewee knew if she could go or not makes it so that she was more invested and wanting to do it. This comes with the positive side because the interviewee expressed willingness to drop other plans to attend, but this may have been because the other volunteering event was still interesting to her. This showed that it is still important to provide opportunities that are relevant to the interviewee (as opposed to random ones). However, the interviewee also noted that she would have been willing to go back to the selection process again. Since our form wasn’t too long, meaning there weren’t too many pages to go through, the interviewee didn’t have to much of a problem with it.

Our top three takeaways from this user test were:

The interviewee was willing to switch tasks, even after settling on a choice, as long as they were interesting to her.
If the interviewee wanted to do the volunteering event more than the other scheduled appointment, she would have sacrificed her initial appointment for it.
Since there wasn’t too much logistical information before the interviewee found out the times that were available, she didn’t care too much if she had to restart.

No Choices Given

In our third user test, we aimed to answer the question

What happens when we do not give users a choice in their results?

We tested this by creating an alternate version where, after completing the form, the user is automatically given a single volunteering opportunity. She may either “retry” for another randomized option (still tailored to her needs) or sign up for the option given to her. We performed this user test on one interviewee (Joy, who was also an interviewee in our needfinding). The interview was conducted by one group member over videochat, where the following questions (with noteworthy answers) were asked:

How long would you continue tapping ‘retry’ if you didn’t get a result you wanted?

“About two times.”

2. [IF THEY DID NOT TAP RETRY] Why didn’t you tap retry?

“Because the results were fitting to me.”

3. What if your results looked like this instead [SHOW ORIGINAL VERSION]?

“I would like this more. But it’s a lot of text to read.”

It seemed that the interviewee did not feel like she needed to tap “retry” because the outputted choice was already well-tailored to her needs. In any other case, she may have tapped retry. However, when shown the original version with a list of choices, the interviewee was more receptive. Nevertheless, she mentioned that the wordiness of the screen was still very intimidating and detracted from her experience of the app. She explained that her eyesight was not too great, and that too many words on a screen made her eyes hurt.

Our top three takeaways from this user test were:

The interviewee was more comfortable making a choice than if given a singular result.
The choices would be even more well-received if they were less wordy.
The number of times the interviewee tapped retry was dependent on how relevant the initial choice was to her interests.

Heuristic Evaluation: Yelp for Moms

In addition to user tests, we also performed a heuristic evaluation on our Dark Horse prototype, Yelp for Moms. The combined results of each group member’s individual evaluation can be found below, categorized by screen. They include the relevant heuristic as well as severity level.

Home Screen

[H4 Consistency and Standards] The boldness of the text doesn’t really help distinguish titles, subtitles, etc. [S1]
[H4 Consistency and Standards] Header is bigger than the sign in/sign up buttons [S1]
[H8 Aesthetic and Minimalist Design] Unequal padding in navigation bar [S1]
[H8 Aesthetic and Minimalist Design] The search box is very poorly colored, change the color scheme [S1]
[H10 Help and Documentation] There is no way to find help documentation [S2]

New Mom

[H5 Error Prevention] No prevention of incorrect values. Nothing indicating what is required [S2]
[H8 Aesthetic and Minimalist Design] There is A LOT of text. Find a way to make this look better and be less overwhelming [S1]

Mom Show Page

[H4 Consistency and Standards] Rating does not match “star” system used previously [S3].
[H4 Consistency and Standards] Search is in a location inconsistent with industry standards [S3]
[H8 Aesthetic and Minimalist Design] The buttons are also hard to see, maybe different color scheme. Try to make all headers consistent. [S1]

Review a Mom

[H4 Consistency and Standards] The search area disappears on this screen [S2]
[H4 Consistency and Standards] These text boxes do not have example text (unlike the other ones) [S2]
[H5 Error Prevention] Change star rating to click number of stars instead of type a number, could prompt a bad input with number typing [S3]
[H6 Recognition rather than Recall] User must remember which mom they are reviewing [S3]
[H8 Aesthetic and Minimalist Design] Form is very clean, but the right hand side guidelines have a lot of text. Let’s make these into different sections. [S2]
[H10 Help and Documentation] The general guidelines is in a paragraph format rather than a bulleted format, making it difficult to digest [S3]