Both sets of my grandparents are in their late 80s/early 90s, and until recently lived independently and quite far from other relatives or me. While they have since moved closer to family, they still don't want to hand over their independence by moving into assisted living or a retirement home, and who could blame them. Over the years, I have become more aware of the challenges they face to complete simple tasks, whether it is dusting or technology troubles.
While this is not an uncommon occurrence, it led me to think about how their local community could offer help. Leading me down the path of how to involve younger generations, like high school and college students, ultimately reinforced the overarching theme of this project: intergenerational connections.
The basic idea of intergenerational connections is centered around building relationships with people from a different age group than oneself. With this type of connection, people are actively taking the time to build connections in their communities with groups they might not have had much interaction with otherwise. In terms of this project, there is little to no overlap between people aged 18-23 and people aged 60+.
There are also social, political, and economic impacts that commonly create divides between generations. But by removing that precedent, it creates space for more inclusive practices to grow within local communities, as people look beyond to find that there is one common similarity. The skills and knowledge that individuals within each generation hold. Everyone has knowledge and skills that we can learn from one another. It doesn't matter how young or old you are; there is always something to be learned, especially when people have vastly different interests and expertise in specific subjects.
WWhen you think of everything that has happened in recent years, loneliness continues to be at the forefront, causing negative impacts for several generations. 1 in 3 adults has reported experiencing loneliness caused by decreased social interactions. The effects can greatly increase the risk of mental and physical health problems. By creating another resource for social interactions in communities, it works to diminish the loneliness epidemic.
is the nickname for the flower Coreopsis, known for its reliability due to a long blooming period and rich yellow-orange coloring.
Finalizing the name was the first step towards creating a solution, as it helped establish a theme to be carried over into other components of the project, especially with the logo designs.
Exploration was an important part of this project as I tried to figure out how I wanted to include the Coreopsis. With the variations, multiple concepts were tested: incorporating flower petals, introducing harder lines, sharper edges, and experimenting with more fluid and abstract designs. The process started with rough sketches of an abstract flower and ended with a refined, modular, abstract, and geometric logo design. In the logo icon, there is a nod to the diamond seen in the O's, to continue the harmony between the icon and type.
Through trials and errors, a polished version of the logo came together, supporting the original concepts and helping to convey the message of connections and building friendships, creating a strong visual foundation to build upon as the project expands and grows. The inspiration from the composition is captured once again in the logos with visual accessibility, as the plum pops against the golden orange.
Playing around with the modular design of the logo icon, I felt the branding could be developed further through the creation of a pattern. I wanted to design a pattern to act as an additional component that would be easily recognizable across all assets. The patterns felt like an important extension of the brand; it is another representation of the connections built and expanded upon by those who participate in the program.
Originally, I printed off copies of the "flower petals" to play around with different shapes and forms. Printing and cutting out the petals on paper was a personal preference, as I found it faster and easier to brainstorm when playing around with the structure. Quickly, working through what looked too busy, how could it be more playful, inviting, or simplified. Ultimately, the patterns were brought to life through Illustrator and polished into what you see below. To differentiate between the primary and secondary patterns, I pulled inspiration from the diamond shape in the middle of the "O", as seen in the logo, as a way to have set design components that could be utilized not only together in a pattern, but could stand alone to be used in a variety of ways in the designed assets.
Introducing guidelines will help to keep the branding consistent across all platforms and will be beneficial for partnerships down the line. The hope is that communities will partner with Golden Joy to host events in their town, at local businesses, restaurants, and community centers. The guidelines act as the dos and don'ts for the brand as it expands into multiple hands, walking through the logos, color palette, typography, patterns, and photography. The Brand Guidelines are relatively simple, keeping the language concise to prevent the partners from misusing the brand and its identity.
The events are focused on marketing to seniors, as they would be hosted by local businesses, cafes, restaurants, senior centers, and more. The goal is to create an environment for seniors to learn about Golden Joy and hear from others who have benefited from the program and from building intergenerational connections. Students are also welcome to join as a chance to meet their community members. During the event, brochures would be passed out to inform about the program and the steps to register at home. For those who do not have easy access to a computer, they would be able to register at the event.
Community events are an important aspect of Golden Joy because many people learn about events through word of mouth. As part of my research, I met with members of the 55+ Club in Papillion to fill out surveys. The club is a senior center where members can participate in social interactions and daily activities. Of the 12 participants, more than half learned about the 55+ Club through word of mouth from family and friends. Not to mention, 9 out of 12 participants highly value their community, which helped to inform this component of the program. By hosting face-to-face events, people are able to physically participate in local events and share their experiences with friends, inviting them to join as well.
Unlike the Community Meet & Greets, the Activity Fairs are specifically targeting high school and college students. The booth would be run by student ambassadors, wearing Golden Joy volunteer shirts. Participating in activity fairs gives other students the chance to hear firsthand experience from peers and the chance to sign up at the same time as their friends. To appeal to Gen Z and increase the number of sign-ups, students who register at the booth would receive a Golden Joy canvas tote bag.
During the research phase, I came across Generations Connect and connected with Anabelle Sanchez, a student at Michigan State University who is actively involved in the program. Similarly, Generations Connect is a volunteer program to help build intergenerational connections between college students and senior citizens in their community.
Both participants are required to fill out a form to note their interests, when they are available to meet, and how often they would like to meet.
RResulting in an email being sent out to inform both parties that they have been matched and to receive each other's contact information.
The program hosts social events as a way for students and seniors to meet in person, and provides the opportunity for seniors who may not know each other to meet as well.
Reaching out to Anabelle helped inform that there would need to be specific pages for each target user to navigate through. Specifically, when it came to registering for the program and what their dashboards will look like. The process of creating the user journey laid out each page that both users (yellow), the student volunteers (orange), and senior citizens (green) will interact with.
Both groups go through the same registration process, but the content on specific pages will vary. For the volunteers, the high school/college students, they will input what tasks they would like to help with, and they are the ones accepting the task requests made by the seniors. On the other hand, those who are in need of assistance will enter the tasks they like to help with, but will be notified when a volunteer accepts their request.
Outlining the Golden Joy website helped to acknowledge the process for visitors registering for the program and how they will communicate with each other. With one of the target audiences being senior citizens, I wanted to ensure the navigation was easy to understand with simple, concise headings to lead users to the call to action.
There are three pathways within the website. Located on the homepage, the registration is the first step towards creating intergenerational connections. During the registration, there is a task request where both volunteers enter the tasks they would like to help with, and seniors fill out the tasks they would like to receive help with. Once they have finished the registration process, there are steps outlining what to do next, prompting them to explore their dashboard. This is where they can view upcoming meetings, submit new tasks, create new matches, view messages within the browser, and edit their profile.
Explore the Golden Joy prototype, and see how the users can interact with the website.
Reflecting on current support for older generations, there is more work to be done by highlighting programs that reinforce the importance of giving back. Where a sense of community is established and provides a strong enough foundation for people to lean on one another, especially senior citizens. Relying on support from family members and friends is not always an option. Programs like Golden Joy can fill that gap and help older generations maintain their independence, working to reach the smallest communities, much like the one my grandparents are from, which has about 1,000 residents.
To work on a project of this scale has given me such valuable knowledge that only comes through trials and errors. The target audiences need to be kept at the forefront of any design project. Truly understanding the user became helpful when it came to decision-making. Keeping in mind what is most practical for users vs. what choices might hinder their navigation or interaction with the brand/project. Especially when trying to balance usability and creating an appealing design for two vastly different target audiences.
All of this started from a small idea that got ignited when I was driving back home from a week-long visit with my grandparents. In that moment, more than a year ago now, I started to process how they could get help from their community when family and friends aren't always around. It is truly insane how a quick thought based on a personal experience can snowball into a concrete concept that could be solved through design and transform into a full-fledged project. Opening the door to build intergenerational connections between two unlikely generations to create community service opportunities and help senior citizens maintain their independence.