Part 2: Brainstorming
Written by: Alexandra Wei
For our COGS 187A class, we were asked to come up with an app that would be catered towards individuals 50 or older. The older population have differing needs and experiences compared to our team of millennials, so a lot of work was needed to identify a problem and appropriate approach to an app for this population.
Research and Stories to Ten Problems, Ten Solutions
Before determining an app idea, our group first conducted online research, and looked to personal experiences to identify potential problems that the older population face. Our research led us to find a variety of potential problems ranging from isolation to a lack of exercise. Our team then helped each other further relate to these problems by sharing personal stories: my grandparents were dependent on family members to drive them to a mall or a park for daily exercise, Jason volunteered at a dance made for elderly people, Diana needed to write detailed instructions for her grandpa when he needed to take a flight on his own. These stories, along with our research, led us to expand our list to ten potential needs that we could tackle:
- Isolation/loneliness
- Health in terms of medication
- Memory
- Mobility/hearing/vision
- Health in terms of nutrition/exercise
- Entertainment
- Hobbies
- An ability to call for help
- Learning technology
From these problems, we came up with a list of ten solutions that could fit at least one of these needs, and we then voted as a group on the ideas we wanted to consider:
- Preventative medication, tracking health patterns
- Exercise app
- Nutrition tracker
- Recipe app
- App to find and talk to therapists
- Medication reminder
- Caretaker app
- Food/medicine delivery
- Virtual pets/plants
- Calendar app
After voting, our team stuck with the ideas of making a health tracking app of a virtual pet/plant app.
The Interviews
Our next step in narrowing down our app idea was to present our ideas to potential users, and see how viable these ideas could be.
Through reviewing our interviews, our group determined that creating a health-tracking app would be our most viable option, as the majority of the adults we interviewed were not interested in a virtual pet app, and would rather use the latter. These interviews were also important in highlighting key features that we should consider having in our app when story-boarding. Such app features included having phone reminders, voice command for users with visual or motor difficulties, and having a social aspect for the app to help a user’s family members be involved.
With the health-tracking app idea in mind, our team needed to do storyboarding and prototyping to further develop the app.
