Wider Circle is a company that helps older adults socialize. I had conducted research and helped ideate a solution for how to improve their current service. My team had also created a UI to show the solution.

What is Wider Circle?
My team and I were partnered with Wider Circle, a company that works with insurance companies to create a local social network for older adults. This is in the hopes that the older adults will create deep, meaningful relationships with others at the events hosted by Wider Circle.

What was the problem?
After doing research and interviews on older adults, ages 60+, we had found that older adults want to experience intercultural and intergenerational exchanges, they were not as closed in which is a misconception we found. They also happened to be quite tech savvy and active. We had also looked into how the Wider Circle works for all staff. Members would be notified via flyer, email, or phone call, on what events are coming up, then the facilitators would be at these events, checking in members and running the event. We were informed that the facilitators who run events for the older people can be working with up to 500 members each.

What have we suggested to improve the user experience with Wider Circle?
We had found that users had very little agency when it came to the events being hosted in this company, as well as facilitators facing burnout due to overwhelming amounts of members to oversee. We decided to add a new UI to the website that would allow for older adults to see what events are going on, and choosing which events they would like to attend. They would be able to see all information listed out, which other friends are attending, and be able to RSVP. Facilitators would be able to see how many members are going and would host which event they like. This UI would be solving both of the problems we were focusing on.

What were my contributions?
I had conducted secondary research to help our group understand the user group better and help us understand what the misconceptions happened to be about older people. I had done mutiple sketches and lo-fis and mid-fis on Figma for the new UI we wanted to implement. I created a journey map and helped analyze the findings to discover design opportunities. I facilitated multiple meetings with a teammate and our sponsor where we shared our progress and asked questions. I also conducted an interview with my grandmother.