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Wider Circle
Role
Overview
We partnered with Wider Circle, a company partnered with insurance companies, that aims to improve member’s health through a local social support network. This is to encourage lonely middle-class older adults ages 65+ to spend time together and create deep, meaningful relationships in groups and community events.
The goal of this project is to create a service with more agencies where Wider Circle members can discover events based on their own interests to make deeper connections with other people.
UX Designer
Time
Aug - Dec 2022
(4 months)
Collaborators
Kate Weisgerber
Janna Johns
Chloe Choi
Claire O'Malley
Emaline Frey
Rob Witt
Zhonghui Guo
Method & Tool
Method: Comparative Analysis, Affinity Diagramming, Service Mapping, Prototyping, User Testing
Tool: Figma, Miro, Canva
Timeline
Design Process
01
Interview
Our process started with interviews involving a social gerontologist, an assisted living facility event coordinator, and older adults. The goal was to comprehend both user behaviors and the misconceptions various age groups hold about the older adults.
02
Research Synthesis
After conducting interviews and subreddit r/AskOldPeople research analysis, our team found the following misconceptions about the older adult population to inform our design decisions.
03
Comparative Analysis
Our goal with the comparative analysis was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of platforms similar to Wider Circle to assess pain points that could drive a new service design for Wider Circle.
04
Service Mapping
Service Map
This is a service map that is about what people do in the whole user process, including the Wider Circle member, the facilitators, the insurance company, and Wider Circle as a company.
We discovered some possible issues that may result in bad user experience or members leaving the program, they are listed below:
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Complex user process
After registration, a user must go through 6-8 weeks of onboarding. Only after this onboarding are they allowed to attend normal events.
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No customization
Only Wider Circle can match people to groups. Users cannot select the groups and events themselves. There aren’t many events and activities people can attend either.
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No feedback
Users cannot give their feedback to help Wider Cycle improve their services. There is not an easy way to collect users’ feedback currently.
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Facilitators work
Facilitators have too much work to do, one facilitator is responsible for hundreds of users so many facilitators quit due to burnout.
Design MVP Moving Forward
05
Design
For our design approach, these were the criteria we prioritized:
Wireframes
After creating and evaluating our individual designs, we refined them and drew the best aspects into a composite design, while also iterating on elements such as visual hierarchy. We also added a tag system, allowing facilitators to assign keywords to their events. These keywords help users narrow down events to customize their selection process.
Landing Page & Filters
Event Page
Next Steps
After we discussed and confirmed wireframe details with stakeholders, we proceeded to develop Hi-Fi prototypes for usability testing.
Hi-Fi Prototypes
Features
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Search Bar
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Text Size Slider
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Large Event Card
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Filterable Tags
Landing Page
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GPS
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Event Category
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Event Frequency
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Other options
Filter
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Map
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Activity Level
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Friend Activity
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RSVP
Event Page
06
Usability Testing
Our goals in testing were to evaluate our final designs against user behavior and gain four major insights:
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Identify how older people ages 65+ perceive the personalization of their experience when choosing an event
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Learn about how our user group interacts with the proposed UI given a task to select a specific event or button
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Identify what information is important to our users when deciding whether or not to attend an event
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Discover any areas of confusion within the interface design
For our method, we provide the user with a scenario and two tasks: having the user adjust their filters and add an event.
Results
Event Page (Before)
Liked
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Easy to read and understand how to use the site at a glance
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Just enough information presented to gain interest in the event without being overwhelming
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Feel comfortable navigating through pages
Improvements
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Confusion with how some of the tags were worded (i.e. BYOF)
Event Page (After)
Refinement
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Removed BYOF (Bring Your Own Food) tag
Filter (Before)
Liked
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Liked the filter option to explore events
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Finds GPS function helpful to narrow down events that are accessible
Improvements
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Since users mostly live in a large city, searching by the town in the filters would be confusing and could provide misleading results as to how far an event is from them
Filter (After)
Refinement
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Changed the GPS portion to be from an address, rather than just a city or zip code
Final Design
The following final designs showcase how Carl, an older Wider Circle user, would use the event website page after signing up with Wider Circle to customize his experience by selecting events. The bolded text is directly related to research insights that informed our design.
1) Landing Page
After signing up for Wider Circle, Carl has the opportunity to select an event of his choosing. Carl can choose to use the search bar or click on the filter button to narrow his search. Carl sees topics on large event card displays recommended for him based on his interest in learning about new topics such as technology. He also sees all events available. Carl has trouble with seeing so he can choose to adjust the font size by sliding the text size adjuster on the top right of the screen.
2) Filter
After clicking on the filter button, Carl sees that his results have already been filtered based on his current address under “your location”. He then can see his event categories which motivate him to attend events. Carl is interested in recurring events so he can meet friends regularly. He is also motivated by free food so he checks “food provided”. Carl then clicks on the “filter search results” button to update any changes to the event page search or collapses the filter bar by clicking the arrow on the top left of the filter panel.
3) Event Page
Carl is interested in getting exercise and clicks on the “hiking” event card. A more detailed view appears with the activity level of beginner, reassuring him that the hike won’t be rigorous. Carl sees the event time, date, and the facilitator name, who he can contact if needed. There is a map displaying the event location as well as a tag showing that the event is free. Carl then clicks the RSVP to add the event to his calendar and receive an email verification for the event.
07
Development
Recommendations for Wider Circle Moving Forward
The following design recommendations are encouraged to personalize the experience of event selection for Wider Circle users as a synthesis of our design and research.
Instead of a formal 4-6 week onboarding, encourage event attendance as a form of hands-on onboarding. This adjustment would save time for people and reduce member drop out.
The personalized event selection webpage is the first step towards enabling and empowering individuals to create their own events. Once members are comfortable posting and hosting their own events, facilitator burnout will be reduced (the current ratio is 1 hired facilitator to 500 members).
Design a digital onboarding walkthrough of the event page after an individual signs up with Wider Circle to increase member comfort.
Clarify the activity intensity for users on active events to reduce hesitancy from event attendees.
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