S-HOME: Designed for Older Novice Users

product owner | interaction design | wireframe | paper prototype | testing

Problem

Smartphones can be challenging for older novice users to use. It takes many steps to perform tasks, even common ones, and information is often buried or hidden.

Process

I worked with a local startup to design and productize an Android home screen replacement for older novice smartphone users.

My role: I led the UX design efforts, which included generating feature ideas and designing interactions based on my PhD research. My team included two software developers that produced the needed code, two executives from the startup that provided guidance, and a visual designer who joined later to improve the visual polish.

Design: Our design approach was to minimize steps needed to common tasks (and thus points for confusion) and make UI elements easier to see and interact with.

Evaluations: We ran several rounds of quick and focused evaluations of our latest designs. We created a variety of prototypes (e.g., paper, medium fidelity) to test and improve the design.

Outcome

We created a home screen app called S-Home, which was released on the Android App store in 2011.

First round of testing: paper prototypes.

This screen allows users to easily contact their favorite people, a key feature of any phone.

Users can also access favourite apps.

Common settings are shown together with larger icons. This tab used to be called "Dashboard" but was found to be confusing to users.

Descriptions provide guidance for adjusting settings.

We observed older adults not knowing whether they pressed hard enough. Our design offers optional visual feedback for each touch.

Further testing of the design.

Design improved based on testing results and work by visual designer.