ElderConnect

Connecting family members via the web.

GR1 - Project Proposal & Analysis

Who We Are

• Carrie Cai
• Yu Cheng
• Joey Rafidi

The Problem We're Solving

Central Problem Statement:  Elderly people find it difficult to use technology to connect with their younger family members.

For elderly members of society, the desire to connect with loved ones is critical, yet often unfulfilled due to the busy schedules of younger relatives and obstacles adopting modern technology for communication.

User Analysis

Note: Names of interviewees have been changed to preserve anonymity.

Grandparents

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1. Randy

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Randy is an 80-year-old retired physicist who now does research on 19th-century American history, an activity that keeps him busy despite having a flexible schedule. He lives with his wife (from a second marriage) and cat in Amherst, Massachusetts, and has three sons who all reside in other states. Randy started using email in the 1990’s for work reasons and now has numerous contacts saved in his Outlook account. He appreciates that auto-complete allows him to send emails by only entering the first few letters of the addressee’s name. To avoid sending to the wrong person due to auto-complete, Randy now remembers to glance at the addressee field twice before sending.

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• The holidays is a time when he knows for sure he will connect with children
• Chooses email over phone to avoid interrupting or alarming grandchildren amidst their busy schedules
• Appreciates auto-complete email functionality; does not need to remember email addresses
• Finding phone numbers is an indirect process: must first look at refrigerator/Outlook
• Does not use Skype much even though it is set up - uses only to see live action
• Uses email as a way of sharing interesting online news articles

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2. Susan

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Susan is a 70 year old woman with 8 grandchildren, two of which she helped raise on a daily basis. She currently lives with her daughter and son in law, but since they spend most of their time at work, most of her day is spent alone at the house. She calls her grandchildren from time to time, especially on the holidays, but she still has trouble connecting with them.

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• Wants to hear from grandchildren regularly
• Interested in accomplishments to congratulate them
• Would love to see their faces (video or picture)

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3. David

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David is a grandfather living in China. His grandson studies in a prestigious university in the United States, and rarely has any time to contact David. David’s daughter is living in Canada, and he chats with her almost once every two days over the phone, conversing about essentially everything, to stay close to each other. David rarely contacts his grandson except for urgent matters.

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• Typing in English is an obstacle for grandparents from other countries, particularly when the content includes internet lingo such as website urls.
• Elderly user often experiences difficulty reading small text.
• Older generation finds the simplicity of a phone call more attractive than the multiple steps necessary to set up Internet connection and video chat.
• We should not take for granted that the youngest group of users is familiar with computers.

Younger family members

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1. Tyler

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Tyler is an American-born Taiwanese completing his second-year of MBA at MIT. He calls his grandmother in Taiwan on her birthday once a year, usually after a reminder from his mother. To start the call, Tyler signs onto Skype and calls his grandmother’s international number. He uses Skype over other means (such as phone cards) for convenience and low cost; international Skype calls cost two cents per minute.

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• Uses Skype on his end for efficiency/cost reasons, but would find it more cumbersome to accommodate Skype on his grandmother’s end.
• Does not have much to converse about with his grandmother
• Feels that conversations tend to be short due to language barrier

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2. Nancy

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Nancy is a senior at Princeton, completing her thesis to graduate and go on for a computer science PhD. Naturally, she’s busy all the time, but she would like to keep in touch with her grandparents who have supported her her entire life. Unfortunately, she has run into some obstacles that prevent her from connecting with them more deeply.

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• Not a lot to talk about/forgets what she wants to tell them
• Doesn’t quite know what she can say that will interest her grandparents
• Language barriers often lead to miscommunication

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3. Rebecca

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Rebecca is a junior studying mathematics at MIT. She mostly uses phone to contact her grandmother (hereinafter referred to as Mom-mom, as per Rebecca’s preference). Occasionally she Skypes with Mom-mom and her mother at the same time, because her mom can get the computer set up. Usually Rebecca calls Mom-mom rather than vice versa because Mom-mom worries she might disturb Rebecca during class or sleep hours. Rebecca and Mom-mom talk on weekends mostly.
When Rebecca is at home, she sees Mom-mom all the time because they live close. So when she’s away she still wants to keep in touch with her. She said “We just catch up. There’s really no other purpose but to talk.”
Rebecca hopes that computers could be easier to use so that Mom-mom could use the computer without Rebecca’s mother’s help.

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• Not all kids are not-so-close to their grandparents. In this case Rebecca actively contacts her grandmother.
• In some cases there can be another family member to assist the elderly.
• Her grandmother worries that she might disturb Rebecca. There could be a better way to signal when she’s available.

Task Analysis

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1. Phone a younger family member

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Subtasks:

• Look up phone number
  • on refrigerator / post-it notes / notebooks (most likely)
  • in cell phone contacts
  • in computer address book
• Dial number

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• Particularly high use on holidays and birthdays
• From daily to once every few weeks, depending on the user

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2. Videochat with younger family member

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Subtasks: (current process is usually child-initiated)

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• Varies from once a week to once a year, depending on user.

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3. Email a younger family member

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Subtasks:

• Login
• Sending email:
  • type letters of addressee’s name
  • sometimes attach a picture
• Receiving email: scan inbox (and sometimes junk folder)

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• Varies from none to daily, depending on the user

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4. Contact a grandparent

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Subtasks:

• If via videochat:
  • help set up webcam / account if not already set up
  • tell grandparent/parent to sign in / prepare for the call
    • may involve first calling parent, then parent contacts grandparent
  • be told that grandparent is ready
  • call grandparent
• If via phone or email:
  • find person in contact list and call
  • type in grandparent name in email

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