01 . Overview
"Hello! I'm your Buddy Light"
Loneliness and social isolation significantly increase the risk to mental and physical health, which is a problem strongly resonated with my team, with older family members or loved ones living overseas where we cannot provide constant companionship. Therefore, we explored the relationship between loneliness and the absence of connection, and designed a solution leveraging AI to provide emotional support.
We created Buddy Light, a personal companion to encourage older adults to express their inner thoughts and feelings to reduce emotional isolation.
02 . User research
Understand loneliness in elders through user research
As loneliness in seniors was a broad topic, we set up three research questions to explore the context:
1) What are the defining traits of older adults who face the greatest challenges with loneliness?
2) What are the core emotional drivers of loneliness among older adults?
3) What types of social, emotional, or environmental interactions do older adults find most fulfilling in alleviating loneliness?
secondary research
6 extreme user interviews
132 online survey responses
Findings 1: Root causes of loneliness are…
Findings 2: Seniors most negatively affected by loneliness are…
Findings 3: Most needed & helpful interactions for seniors to alleviate loneliness are…
Based on our research findings, we created the following primary persona, and revised our design question.
03 . ideation
Explore and sketch initial ideas
Physical Connection Board
Physical space to foster casual in-person interactions.
Interactive Memory Board
A digital board that displays stories and photos shared by seniors from the local community. Similar to social media in physical form, users can react to contents shared on the board to connect with the sharer.
The Buddy Box
A service that provides personalized box containing local event invitations, small gifts, curated event information, grocery coupons, and resources for seniors. The box may also include personal outreach from other seniors or volunteers to form connection.
Emotional Isolation refers to a state where an individual feels disconnected from others on an emotional level, even if they are surrounded by people. This realization reframed our design focus - instead of primarily facilitating external relationships, we pivoted toward addressing the internal barriers seniors face when trying to connect.
04 . design solution
Simple phrases like “How are you?” can make a positive difference
After another round of sketching and ideation, we decided to go forward with creating a personal companion that always listens and responds.
Physcial Device
Some older adults have lower technical proficiency, so our goal is to make our design as accessible as possible. We wanted to go with a physical device that is easy to interact with, is familiar, and takes minimal space. We decided with a lamp as lamps are functional and can easily integrate into familiar environment. Warm lights are also associated with a sense of comfort.
Routine Wellness Check-in
A lonely user may lack the motivation to share their thoughts proactively, so our solution will initiate the check-in with them routinely.
On-Demand Comfort
We want to provide support for the user whenever they need it.
Easy to setup and customizable
We wanted to keep the interaction as simple as possible. The user flow here showed the steps involved in setup.
05 . prototyping
Create Prototypes and Conduct Usability Tests
We developed low-fi prototypes including a companion app for setting up the device, a physical lamp, and a GPT agent.
We conducted two tests with non-senior users to gather feedback on voice interaction, the setup process, and the overall experience.
Usability Goal
User Experience Goal
06 . final design
Buddy Light will check-in with user routinely, or whenever the user touches the lamp.
Easy wireless device setup using app
Set up preferences using voice chat
