Technological Literacy Project
UX Research | UX Design
The Project
This was a group project for my INFO 200 Intellectual Foundations of Informatics class at the University of Washington. I worked with four other students to design a solution to an information problem for an underrepresented group.
My Role
I recruited participants, led user research, and designed our final prototype.
Background
It’s no secret that technologies can reflect the biases of the people who create them. Designers’ work is informed by their own life experiences, but relying on a single perspective can result in products that are useful for people similar to us and less helpful for others. My team was asked to recognize and challenge our implicit biases by solving an information problem for an underrepresented group, one to which no group members belong.
At the time, I worked as a receptionist at a retirement community. Job description duties accounted for only a small portion of the work I actually did. Much of my time was spent getting to know each resident on a personal level, learning about their unique background and needs. I worked at night and on weekends when IT staff were away, so residents often came to me for tech help and advice on using different apps or online services.
I saw firsthand how many new technologies, while not expressly designed for older adults, have tremendous potential to help them. For example, services like Instacart and Amazon are extremely useful to the residents with limited mobility or sight who may have trouble shopping in person. While residents were generally interested in adopting technologies that could save time and make their lives a bit easier, most were reluctant to get started on their own and lacked confidence while using them. I noticed that many residents have similar concerns and encounter the same problems.
People over 65 are the fastest growing age demographic in the United States, but they are often overlooked by designers of digital products. Tiny touch targets, small text, cluttered content, low-contrast color palettes, jargony language, and other common features can pose problems for many older adults. Additionally, many technologies are designed for people to learn about them through trial and error which can exclude those who want more assistance, such as people with lower levels of technological literacy.
A Note on Inclusive Design
My team followed the principles of inclusive design, a methodology that aims to create products that are useable for as many people as possible by considering the full range of human diversity.
Seniors are often generalized as a homogenous population with a single set of needs and interests, but our participants were a diverse group and we recognized that their skills, needs, and levels of experience with technology varied widely. We strove to understand the many ways that our users approach adopting a new technology, discover ways that they are excluded by existing systems, and design an experience that users could engage with in a multiplicity of ways.
Research Process
We conducted generative ethnographic research at a retirement community in order to get deep understanding of how its residents feel and what they think about when they’re using computers and smartphones. We wanted to find the specific spots where they get caught up as well as where things go smoothly while learning about how these technologies fit into their lifestyles.
We visited seven participants in their homes and observed them while they showed us which devices they use and how they use them. We opened our interviews with a structured set of questions on the participants’ habits and then let their answers guide the discussion. We also asked participants about the tech-related topics and services they are interested in, and how they approach learning about new technologies. We were particularly interested in why and how they adopted new products. What where their main motivations for adopting a particular service? If they had questions about it or needed help, what would they do?
After reviewing our notes and interview transcripts, I created an affinity diagram to identify key patterns in our participants’ habits, learning processes, and challenges.
We learned a few key things:
All participants cited necessity and convenience as their main reasons for adopting new technologies. We observed that our interviewees view their devices in a purely utilitarian sense, as tools with a limited range of functionalities rather than as sources of self expression, entertainment, or exploration. Their learning process is motivated by reaching specific goals, often related to staying connected with friends and family.
Participants prefer being introduced to a new technology by getting a walkthrough from someone they know and most described feeling hesitant to jump right in or explore on their own. Security concerns and the fear of accidentally doing something “wrong” were the main factors discouraging them from exploring a device on their own.
When our participants encounter a problem, they are unlikely to turn to a search engine to get help on their own. They are aware that they can find instructions through online sources, but describe them as untrustworthy, confusing, or written with a more experienced audience in mind. They told us they want individualized support and prefer getting help by talking to someone.
Building off these insights, I created a mental model diagram to show our interviewees’ process for adopting a new technology. The top half of the diagram shows our participants’ thoughts, feelings, and actions throughout the process, while the bottom half shows my group’s brainstormed solutions, color coded by solution type.
This revealed a mismatch between our interviewees’ learning processes and the way most digital products are designed to be used.
Many apps, devices, etc. immerse new users right away. Users with a high level of technological literacy might be able to figure out language, symbols, interactions, etc. on their own, but these can be non-intuitive and intimidating to less experienced users.
The older adults we interviewed are reluctant to explore new tech on their own. They told us that they worried that they don’t understand what they’re doing and are often discouraged by the fear of doing something wrong. In order to ensure that they are being safe and using their device correctly, many wait to be introduced to new technologies by people close to them such as their kids. However, friends and family are not always available, and some interviewees feel uncomfortable asking younger people for help. They described wanting to feel knowledgable and empowered, and having to rely on others for tech help makes them feel anything but that. This can be a major barrier to adoption.
We found that our participants typically prefer guided learning, but many digital products are designed for a trial-and-error approach. Source: Microsoft Inclusive Design
Another inconsistency arises when there is an error or device malfunction. While digital natives might troubleshoot through experimentation or searching for the solution online, these are typically last resorts or avoided entirely by our participants due to a lack of confidence in their tech abilities or a distrust of unfamiliar online sources.
When our participants encounter a problem with a technology, they expect to flip to the relevant section in a physical copy of its instruction manual to get detailed guidance on what went wrong and how to fix it. These days, most new tech doesn’t come with a set of instructions. Feeling lost, our participants will turn to friends, family, or staff for help, but this approach rarely helps them understand the problem or fix it on their own if it happens again. Additionally, some of participants told us they worry about being bothersome when they frequently have to ask for help, making them feel discouraged.
Low Fidelity Prototyping
Ideation
Site map
Wireframes
We initially considered designing a new accessibility feature for a popular app or website, but our user research suggested that existing accessibility features are sufficient for our target population. Instead, the biggest problems they encounter are related to discovering new technologies and learning how to use them.
Given the residents’ broad range of interests and abilities, we decided to create a solution with multiple entry points and different ways of seeking help because we want users to be able to get the same experience by participating in different ways. For example, lectures can be attended in person for those who need an in-depth introduction or want the ability to get help in real time, or viewed online for people who are time-constrained, need a refresher, or would like to be able to adjust volume or get subtitles.
We felt that it was necessary for our final design to involve human interaction since we discovered that our participants’ social networks are crucial to their adoption of a new technology; people want to see what their friends are using and how they’re using it. Furthermore, our participants have a strong preference for learning from and with other people. We aim to remove the stigma associated with being a beginner by connecting residents with a community of people with similar goals and experience levels and experts who want to help.
Our overarching goal is to build the residents’ technological literacy through workshops and guides that focus on teaching specific skills (e.g., using a ride sharing app), as the skills acquired through using one product can be transferred to others. Over time, we believe that proficiency with a few apps or services can help the residents feel more comfortable, confident, and independent using new technologies.
Final Design
Our final design involves three components:
1. Weekly in-person classes where residents can learn about new topics, get help from experts, and connect with others who have similar interests.
2. Physical and digital user guides for popular topics and services featuring detailed instructions with large, high contrast fonts and clear illustrations.
3. A website (shown below) with lecture recordings, user guides, the topic list, meeting times, a search for relevant resources, and participant and instructor contact information.
Takeaways
Resist putting the solution before the problem. An app isn’t always the answer. Our research showed us that our initial understanding of the problem (and ideas for how to solve it) were flawed. We learned that our interviewees don’t want to use a separate system or feel like they are getting an oversimplified version of something better. Instead of designing a parallel product, we looked for ways to make older adults feel included in existing digital experiences.
Challenge your assumptions. My team and I took time to reflect on our own biases and consider how being digital natives might blind us to problems older adults encounter with new technologies. We strive for empathy, but none of us can possibly understand their experiences 100%. Knowing this, we brought a learner’s mindset to our research and embraced the diversity of perspectives offered by our participants’ 7+ decades of lived experience.
Learn about how your users learn. All new technologies require some adaptation or learning from their users. A user’s motivations, experience, and confidence level may all affect the approach they take to learning. Understanding this helped us offer users the right amount of guidance.