Abhradeep Chakraborty
Elderly OS
Every day, over 15,000 Indians turn 60 and step into the senior citizen category. With advances in medical science, the average life expectancy will rise to 75.9 over the next three decades. The next 7 years will see India emerge as the most populous country in the world with the current senior citizen population of 130 million expected to reach nearly 300+ million, constituting 20 per cent of the population. Therefore, it is crucial that the tech adapts to its users more seamlessly.
Objective:
To develop an operating system tailor-made for older adults
Project Duration:
four weeks
Understanding the Problem
Although designers and design associations curate certain standards for ease of use of elderlies like the WCAG guidelines have been curated. However these only work for the web content and applications.
The Current OS is based in and around serving a basic CTA i.e. opening applications. These OS are designed keeping a very Idealistic Technophilic persona in mind.
Composition of Elderly Population in India
Understanding Aging & Technology (Gerone Framework)
Existing Products and Schemes for Elderlies
The technophillic persona used for developing various technologies in today's day and age does not work properly for any elderly person. Therefore, a series of interviews was conducted to develop a persona of the selected user group to futher narrow down the area of design intervention.
The Rightful Persona
Merged Daily Task Flow Study
Now, to design an OS for the elderly it is important to synthesize the different insights gathered from the studies conducted. It is also important to draw out an empathy map for the same. Designing for the elderly ensures a "universality" in terms of the function of a product.
Empathy Mapping
Design Requirements for Elderly OS
Anatomy and Style Guides
Final Solution
The older adult device has a specialized home screen similar to the one on the left, based on predictions made by the device it can showcase certain tasks and complete them in the application for the user. The above design system has been followed for the same for higher legibility of texts. Similarly, the colors make it easier to understand which tasks to do first. The OS predicts daily use patterns and reduces the steps needed to perform a task.
