Kaiser Permanente

Life Experienced

Kaiser Permanente

Life Experienced

Client

Kaiser Permanente

My role

Lead Product Designer

Responsibilities

Lead team & end-to-end design process

Methods

Design Research

Rapid Prototyping

User Interviews

User Personas

Information Architecture

Wireframes

Journey Maps

Design Principles

Tools

Figma

Miro

Sketching

01 I Overview

Combatting social isolation

in older adults

Combatting social isolation in older adults

Many older adults suffer from loneliness and isolation, made even worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. My team partnered with Kaiser Permanente to help them connect with their peers.


Life Experienced is a place where older adults can go to find virtual and local events, video & newsletter content for people like them.


I led my team in the design and implementation of several new features. and coached them in UX research, rapid prototyping, synthesis, ideation, design and implementation.


I established the first formal end-to-end design process at the organization.

Many older adults suffer from loneliness and isolation, made even worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. My team partnered with Kaiser Permanente to help them connect with their peers.


Life Experienced is a place where older adults can go to find virtual and local events, video & newsletter content for people like them.


I led my team in the design and implementation of several new features. and coached them in UX research, rapid prototyping, synthesis, ideation, design and implementation.


I established the first formal end-to-end design process at the organization.

02 I Problem & solution space

02 I Problem & solution space

Problem

  • Many older adults suffer from loneliness & isolation. Covid-19 made this even worse.

  • Older adults need an online resource that helps them connect with other seniors.

Goal

  • Combat social isolation by providing a way for older adults to connect with each other, improve their relationships & quality of life.

  • Life Experienced needs more features to expand it’s impact.

  • Accessibility needs improvement and is particularly important for this audience.

Solution

  • Search for virtual and local events

  • Video library with content from older influencers

  • Newsletter blog showcasing content from LE's very successful newsletter

  • Google Events search tutorial that helps older adults learn a new tool & expands the events LE can connect them with

Outcomes

  • Successful launch of Video Library, Newsletter Library, and Google Search Integration

  • Increase in newsletter sign ups

  • Improved accessibility

03 I Nurturing a growing team

03 I Nurturing a growing team

The Design team at The Public Good Projects was small and relatively new. I was tasked with establishing the organization’s first formal end-to-end design process and coaching the team on how to implement it.


I helped the team grow in knowledge & execution of deliverables & processes

Journey Maps

UI Design

User Interviews

User Personas

Design Frameworks

Accessibility

With my mentorship, the PGP team added new methods & tools to its tool belt.


With my mentorship,

the PGP team added new methods & tools to its tool belt.

Design Research

Rapid Prototyping

Hand Sketching

Design Principles

Affinity Maps

Card sorting

04 I End-to-end Design Process + Rapid Prototyping

Establishing our agency's design procedures

With nothing in place before, I wanted to establish a design process that fit PGP’s

unique needs and rapid timelines. I chose to integrate Rapid Prototyping into the

more traditional Design Thinking framework.

Using the Rapid Prototyping method

Began testing with an MVP right away


Received valuable feedback from users early & often throughout the entire design process


Kept pace with tight timelines





Prototyping methods included: paper, Miro, FigJam, Zoom & Hi-fidelity Figma prototypes

05 I Research & Insights

We got to know older adults

& their unique needs

Including older adults in the process was important to us. We held user interviews and prototyping sessions with them frequently.


We also used secondary research, surveys, competitive analysis, affinity mapping, analytics and data coding.

Key Learnings

Older adults go mobile

A majority of older adults primarily access

the web via mobile.

Social media use varies

Some older adults enjoy social media,

but many interviewees rejected the idea or only used it for messaging.

Accessibility is key

As we age, we often need more assistance

with vision, hearing, physical, mental and

other impairments. People often have

more than one impairments.

Tech skills span all levels

Some seniors are tech novices, some

are power users, and some are in-between. Design so that all levels can enjoy.

Orientation & wayfinding

It’s okay to hold their hand. Clear signifiers,

directions, and simple layouts help older

adults reach their goals.

06 I Synthesis

Good ideas come from

good frameworks

We gained so much valuable understanding of older adults, their connection with others, and their relationship to technology.

How do we make sense of it?

By using design frameworks like user personas, journey maps and design principles, we gained even deeper insights that we could make actionable in our designs.

07 I Design

Our values stand with

older adults

We created design principles that guide our product values and that we

can always refer back to while designing to make sure we stay on target.


These principles help us give Life Experienced users the best

experience possible.

Design Principles

Approachable

Design to be inclusive to a varied range of

technical expertise, physical & cognitive abilities.

Connected

By understanding and representing the unique needs

of older adults, we can connect with their individual

needs and then connect them with each other.

Clear

Signifiers, labels, controls, and directions are

prominent. They hold a user’s hand and make

primary actions explicit.

Accessibility &

design considerations

Our bodies change as we get older. That changes the ways we can use and access

technology, too.

Compounding Impairments

Seniors often suffer from more than one impairment

ex. both poor vision and poor motor control. Ths

It’s important to keep this in mind when meeting

their accessibility needs.

Larger touch points

Buttons and swipe targets should be larger for this audience on mobile.

Increase font size, slightly

Fonts should be increased, but not too much.

Too large of font decreases readability. It also

makes the site more difficult to comprehend

and navigate.

Simplicity & consistency

Simple, uncluttered layouts are easier to comprehend

and navigate. Keep layout, navigation, and interactive

elements consistent across pages and screens.

Learning & retention

Provide training videos, animations or illustrations

to show user show to use the product, such as

control techniques and gestures on mobile.

Shipped designs

Lo-fi wireframe

Mid-fi wireframe

High fidelity wireframe

Drew Van Diest

Design

Client

Kaiser Permanente

My role

Lead Product Designer

Responsibilities

Lead team

End-to-end design process

Methods

Design Research

Rapid Prototyping

User Interviews

User Personas

Information Architecture

Wireframes

Journey Maps

Design Principles

Tools

Figma

Miro

Sketching

04 I End-to-end Design Process + Rapid Prototyping

Establishing our agency's design procedures

With nothing in place before, I wanted to establish a design process that fit PGP’s unique needs and rapid timelines. I chose to integrate Rapid Prototyping into the more traditional Design Thinking framework.

How we used the Rapid Prototyping method

We began testing with an MVP right away and

received valuable feedback from users early &

often throughout the entire design process.


Test. Reiterate. Test. Reiterate. Repeat. Repeat.


This also helped us keep pace with tight timelines.


Prototyping methods included: paper, Miro, FigJam, Zoom & Hi-fidelity Figma prototypes.

05 I Research & Insights

We got to know older adults

& their unique needs

Including older adults in the process was important to us. We held user interviews and prototyping sessions with them frequently.


We also used secondary research, surveys, competitive analysis, affinity mapping, analytics and data coding.

Key Learnings

Older adults go mobile

A majority of older adults primarily access

the web via mobile.

Social media use varies

Some older adults enjoy social media,

but many interviewees rejected the idea or only used it for messaging.

Accessibility is key

As we age, we often need more assistance

with vision, hearing, physical, mental and

other impairments. People often have

more than one impairments.

Tech skills span all levels

Some seniors are tech novices, some

are power users, and some are in-between. Design so that all levels can enjoy.

Orientation & wayfinding

It’s okay to hold their hand. Clear signifiers,

directions, and simple layouts help older

adults reach their goals.

06 I Synthesis

Good ideas

come from

good frameworks

We gained so much valuable understanding of older adults, their connection with others, and their relationship to technology.

How do we make sense of it?

By using design frameworks like user personas, journey maps and design principles, we gained even deeper insights that we could make actionable in our designs.

07 I Design

Our values stand with

older adults

We created design principles that guide our product values and that we

can always refer back to while designing to make sure we stay on target.


These principles help us give Life Experienced users the best

experience possible.

Design Principles

Approachable

Design to be inclusive to a varied range of

technical expertise, physical & cognitive abilities.

Connected

By understanding and representing the unique needs

of older adults, we can connect with their individual

needs and then connect them with each other.

Clear

Signifiers, labels, controls, and directions are

prominent. They hold a user’s hand and make

primary actions explicit.

Accessibility &

design considerations

Our bodies change as we get older. That changes the ways we can use and access technology, too.

Compounding Impairments

Seniors often suffer from more than one impairment

ex. both poor vision and poor motor control. Ths

It’s important to keep this in mind when meeting

their accessibility needs.

Larger touch points

Buttons and swipe targets should be larger for this audience on mobile.

Increase font size, slightly

Fonts should be increased, but not too much.

Too large of font decreases readability. It also

makes the site more difficult to comprehend

and navigate.

Simplicity & consistency

Simple, uncluttered layouts are easier to comprehend

and navigate. Keep layout, navigation, and interactive

elements consistent across pages and screens.

Learning & retention

Provide training videos, animations or illustrations

to show user show to use the product, such as

control techniques and gestures on mobile.

Shipped designs

Lo-fi wireframe

Mid-fi wireframe

Hi-fi mockup

Lo-fi wireframe

Mid-fi wireframe

Hi-fi mockup

01 I Overview

Combatting social isolation in
older adults

Many older adults suffer from loneliness and isolation, made even worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. My team partnered with Kaiser Permanente to help them connect with their peers.

Life Experienced is a place where older adults can go to find virtual and local events, video & newsletter content for people like them.

I led my team in the design and implementation of several new features. and coached them in UX research, rapid prototyping, synthesis, ideation, design and implementation.


I established the first formal end-to-end design process

at the organization.

02 I Problem & solution space

Problem

  • Many older adults suffer from loneliness & isolation. Covid-19 made this even worse.


  • Older adults need an online resource that helps them connect with other seniors.

Goal

  • Combat social isolation by providing a way for older adults to connect with each other, improve their relationships & quality of life.


  • Life Experienced needs more features to expand it’s impact.


  • Accessibility needs improvement and is particularly important for this audience.

Solution

  • Search for virtual and local events


  • Video library with content from older influencers


  • Newsletter blog showcasing content from LE's very successful newsletter


  • Google Events search tutorial that helps older adults learn a new tool & expands the events LE can connect them with

Outcomes

  • Successful launch of Video Library, Newsletter Library, and Google Search Integration


  • Increase in newsletter sign ups


  • Improved accessibility

03 I Nurturing a growing team

The Design team at The Public Good Projects was small and relatively new. I was tasked with establishing the organization’s first formal end-to-end design process and coaching the team on how to implement it.

I helped the team

grow in knowledge

& execution

of deliverables

& processes

Journey Maps

Journey Maps

UI Design

UI Design

User Interviews

User Interviews

User Personas

User Personas

Design Frameworks

Design Frameworks

Accessibility

Accessibility

With my mentorship,

the PGP team

added new methods & tools

to its tool belt.


Design Research

Design Research

Rapid Prototyping

Rapid Prototyping

Hand Sketching

Hand Sketching

Design Principles

Design Principles

Affinity Maps

Affinity Maps

Card sorting

Card sorting

Key Learnings

Older adults go mobile

A majority of older adults primarily access

the web via mobile.

Social media use varies

Some older adults enjoy social media,

but many interviewees rejected the idea or only used it for messaging.

Accessibility is key

As we age, we often need more assistance with vision, hearing, physical, mental and other impairments. People often have

more than one impairments.

Tech skills span all levels

Some seniors are tech novices, some

are power users, and some are in-between. Design so that all levels can enjoy.

Orientation & wayfinding

It’s okay to hold their hand. Clear signifiers, directions, and simple layouts help older adults reach their goals.

05 I Research & Insights

We got to know older adults &
their unique needs

Including older adults in the process was important to us. We held user interviews and prototyping sessions with them frequently.

We also used secondary research, surveys, competitive analysis, affinity mapping, analytics and data coding.

04 I End to-end Design Process + Rapid Prototyping

Establishing our agency's design procedures

With nothing in place before, I wanted to establish a design process that fit PGP’svunique needs and rapid timelines.

I chose to integrate Rapid Prototyping into the more traditional Design Thinking framework.

The Rapid Prototyping method

Began testing with an MVP right away


Received valuable feedback from users

early & often throughout the entire design

process


Kept pace with tight timelines

Prototyping methods included: paper, Miro, FigJam, Zoom

& Hi-fidelity Figma prototypes

We gained so much valuable understanding of older adults, their connection with others, and their relationship to technology. How do we make sense of it?

By using design frameworks like user personas, journey maps and design principles, we gained even deeper insights that we could make actionable in our designs.

Good ideas come from good frameworks

06 I Synthesis

07 I Design

Our values stand with older adults

We created design principles that guide our product values and that we can always refer back to while designing to make sure we stay on target.

These principles help us give Life Experienced users the best experience possible.

Design Principles

Approachable

Design to be inclusive to a varied range of technical expertise, physical &

cognitive abilities.

Connected

By understanding and representing the unique needs of older adults, we can connect with their individual needs and then connect them with each other.

Clear

Signifiers, labels, controls, and directions are prominent. They hold a user’s hand and make primary actions explicit.

Accessibility &
design considerations

Our bodies change as we get older. That changes the ways we can use and access technology, too.

Compounding Impairments

Seniors often suffer from more than one impairment ex. both poor vision and poor motor control. It’s important to keep this in mind when meeting their accessibility needs.

Larger touch points

Buttons and swipe targets should be larger for this audience on mobile.

Increase font size, slightly

Fonts should be increased, but not too much. Too large of font decreases readability. It also makes the site more difficult to comprehend and navigate.

Simplicity & consistency

Simple, uncluttered layouts are easier to comprehend and navigate. Keep layout, navigation, and interactive elements consistent across pages and screens.

Learning & retention

Provide training videos, animations or illustrations to show user show to use the product, such as control techniques and gestures on mobile.

Shipped designs

Drew Van Diest

Design

Drew Van Diest

Design

Drew Van Diest

Design

Drew Van Diest

Design

Client

Kaiser Permanente

My role

Lead Product Designer

Responsibilities

Lead team & end-to-end design process

Methods

Design Research

Rapid Prototyping

User Interviews

User Personas

Information Architecture

Wireframes

Journey Maps

Design Principles

Tools

Figma

Miro

Sketching