BananaTalk

The Project

BananaTalk is a game messaging app that promotes intergenerational communication.

The Problem

More than 60% of american feel lonely; that's more than 200 million people.

Low intergenerational solitude leads to loneliness that has tremendous negative health impacts.

The Idea

How might we foster high intergenerational solidarity by reimagining intergenerational communication?

Intergenrational Family Solidarity refers to feeling of closeness between family members.

This case study approaches solidarity from two aspects:

1. Structural Solidarity: factors such as geographical location can impact solidarity
2. Associational Solidarity: Shared activities and time spent together.

Part 1

Understanding Users through User Interviews

In order to find out intergenerational communication and user needs, I conducted 5 user interviews.
To gain a broad understanding across cultures, my participants ranged:

• Between 19 to 84 years old
• Has transnational relationships across either Asia, Africa, and the Americas
• From all 3 generations

Key user insights

I noticed some common themes and patterns among user interviews.

User Personas

Based on the user interviews, I constructed 3 user personas, one representing each generation and the culture I interviewed. I ultimately focsued on Grandma because her needs reflect associational and structural solidarity.

Designing for a Persona

Janelle Huang

76 yrs old | Taipei, Taiwan | Retired Grandma

Bio

76 year old woman who needs to stay connected to family because she feels lonely due to travel restructionns caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.

Goal

• Keep in touch with children living in Taipei
• Spend time with grandchildren living in America
• Share more of Taiwanese culture with younger generations

Pain Points

• Doesn't want to feel like a burden to her children/grandchildren
• Lacks incentive to reach out to family members.
• Lacks conversation topics and shared activities

Part 2

Problem definition & ideation

At this stage it was time to re-define my goal and narrow down its scope based on the insights I gained from users.

Problem statement

Elderly family members living far from childrens need a sustainable way to keep in touch without feeling like a burden.

Defining Core Goals

Based on Shu-Chin’s goals and needs, the app should:

Boost emotional intimacy

• Allow her to keep in contact with family members
• Store information so that it's organized and easy to access

Create room for deeper conversations

• Allow conversations around deeper topics
• Share ones values and culture

Increase time spent together

• Have more shared activities

How the game works

The game intergrates interactive components to the board game Bananagram.

1. Each players are given 12 tiles to make words
2. For each word made, aquestion associated with the word would be asked and both sides can see the answer
3. For each questions answered, the ripeness bar will increase
4. Users can choose to continue the conversation in the chat function

Early sketches

I started by sketching some user flows and early wireframe ideas.

User flow

I sketched out a user flow to visualize how my core features would work together. It turns out a lot more complicated than I thought...which was exiciting!

Part 3

Wireframing, protoyping, testing, and more

In my Low-Fi prototyping stage, I explored ways to combine UX structure of an app with equal emphasis on gaming and messaging feature.

Low-fidelity wireframes

I designed some wireframes that focused on Janelle's goals and would allow her to:

1. Sign up and create profile
2. Add friends and family from contact
3. Play bananagram with friends and family
4. Ask and answer questions associated with each word
5. Continue conversation in chat feature

Exploring Gamified UI Components

HMW intergrate game and messaging app UI?

Here's the star of the process... since game UX and Messaging App UX differs drastically, I explored ways to include fun widgets while maintaining credible system so users would want to use it as a messaging app.

Here are Level Bar and Ripeness Bar. Ripeness bar tracks overall progress while level bar breaks down progress into smaller increments.

Style guide

I kept the colors welcoming and chose a readable font. Illustrations (modified but not created by me) add some delightful touches to a simple UI.

Component library

Simple UI with gamified elements such as progress bars will create a safe space to encourage user exploration while maintaining user exploration.

The final designs

All of these elements finally come together in the final designs. Users can search by location to create a new trip and start planning.

Conclusion

Next Steps

• Usability testing: I did not have time to carry out user testing in this exercise. Ideally, I have liked to incorporate feedback from users on the designs through usability testing at various stages of the design process.
• Design in-person game version
• Find team to develop app!

My Learnings

• I gained valuable experiences designing and game and messenger app combined.
• I learned how to design for the elderly and articulate synthesize key user needs across diverse user demographics.
• Ultimately, I had a lot of joy creating something I see could benefit my life and would continue to explore UX for elderly users.