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Role: Design Thinking, Need Finding, Enthographic Market Research

Client: Aetna

Summary: Aetna Senior Care Solutions was looking for ideas for family caregiving apps to reduce the caregiver burden.

Design Challenge:  Design a mobile solution for seniors thats is:

a) Addictive for Seniors to use, and

b) Meets the two following needs:

• Keeps them safe:
  1. Aging seniors often fear for personal safety (being alone, break-­‐ins), as well as health emergencies (falls, sudden heart attacks). One of the most popular out-­‐of-­‐pocket purchases that a senior or their family caregiver will make is a PERS (Personal Emergency Response System). We also know that patients listen when we tell them that there is a medical alert, such as a drug incompatibility, or an abnormal test result. However, there isn’t a direct-­‐to-­‐consumer way for a senior to get these alerts outside of being contacted by their insurance company (that is, IF their carrier has this technology).

• Allows them to communicate with the outside world:
  1. Seniors often struggle with communications, because their cognitive speed is slowing overall and is slower relative to a technology-­‐based world that is communicating and moving faster than the Senior ever did even when they were young.
     1. In the family setting, they struggle with the newer technologies that their children and grandchildren are using (email, text, Facebook, etc.). In a clinical setting, they struggle with asking questions (out of embarrassment/not knowing what to ask), retaining instructions or medical terminology, and using more recent communication channels with their clinicians. Using their PHR (personal health record) and sending results/information between entities (e.g. doctor to pharmacy) are examples.
     2. Many Seniors of this generation have very limited tech skills. Even if they know how to at least type an email, it might be too painful (arthritis), tedious (difficult to think of what to say), or simply unfamiliar for them.

•   Warms their hearts (Advanced Ask):

  1. Depression runs rampant in the senior population. Their social world is shrinking, leaving them feeling isolated, irrelevant, and lonely. The Senior’s family commonly is their most important resource for protecting them from depression, and has been shown to be a critical factor in better health outcomes. In addition to communication differences between the Senior and the younger generations of their family, the family struggles with what to say to their Senior loved one since the Senior’s world is often viewed as repetitive and typically mundane. Providers, too, need to be connected to the Senior in a way that is respectful of their limited time, but that supports the rapport and relationship between the Senior, their family, and the providers.

     CHALLENGE ASK: Use your design to facilitate the family connections through shared interests, drawing out each generation. Architect social cues/norms that will help promote family interconnectivity and collaboration. Make this heart stimulation a beneficial addiction.