Khyaal (which translates to care in English) is an app specially designed for the elderly citizens of India. It was voted as Google Play India's Best App for good in 2022.
With over 1 Million downloads, Khyaal provides features like bill payments, travel tours, wellness events amongst others for the holistic care and development of the aged. Apart from senior citizens themselves, their children too can use this app to ensure the safety and well-being of their parents.
I, along with one other student from NIFT Mumbai, was responsible for conducting user interviews with the target users aged 55 and above under the guidance of a NIFT Mumbai professor, Dr. Pallavi Rani.
FINDING THE PURPOSE PT.1
Uncovering some facts.
To really connect with the purpose of this app, I decided to dig deep and research on some of the pain points that the elderly in India were facing.
I performed a literature survey with 5 research papers published by non-profit organizations dedicated to helping disadvantaged elderly of India.
DID YOU KNOW?
Among India's current population of 1.44 Billion, approximately 153 million citizens are aged 60 and above and the number is expected to reach 347 million by 2050.
- ACCORDING TO INDIA.UNPFA.ORG AS OF DECEMBER 2023
SOME KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS
-
Ability of the aged to cope with the constantly changing social environment has decreased over time.
-
Rise in nuclear family setups has led to emotional, financial and physical insecurity among older adults.
-
Elders who suffer from even moderate dementia are limited in their capacity to make independent choices.
FINDING THE PURPOSE PT.2
Where does Khyaal come into picture?
Tackling loneliness
Community events like bingo nights, group exercise events are organized by the Khyaal team.
Intellectual stimulation
Khyaal organizes information courses on different topics like financial planning among others.
Khyaal was founded in 2020 amidst the pandemic to address the issue of loneliness for the ever increasing elderly population.
It is a community for seniors across India to interact with one another and to engage themselves in interactive games and sessions.
On-demand assistance
Immediate medical attention for those living alone.
Close monitoring
Children can use this app for their aged parents in case they are not staying close by and keep track.
A LITTLE HOMEWORK
In-app navigation
Below is the flow of the app if a senior citizen is using the app for themselves ( age selected is >55).
If the age selected is below 55 years, the application displays features that cater more to the children /guardians of the elderly for e.g., gifting the Khyaal membership to a beloved elder.
.jpg)
GOOGLE PLAY REVIEWS
Additionally I gathered user reviews from the Google Play platform to understand the problems that are faced by the existing user base.
THE BIG DAY
Outlining the tasks.
Understanding the emotional response of the users while using the app
1.
Noting down the errors made during navigation
2.
Measuring the frequency of assistance required
3.
Checking the effectiveness of the Khyaal Club (a premium version of the app)
4.
Here's me with a user who plans to use the app for her aged mother
A participant sharing her experience of the app with Dr. Rani
POST THE INTERVIEWS
Doing the usability study.
Post the interviews, the two of us (Dr. Rani and myself) set up a call on Google Meet to categorize various reviews received on a FigJam board.
.png)
.png)
.png)
Learnings
The findings of our interviews were shared with the Khyaal team by Dr. Rani and were well-received. Throughout the four hours that I interacted with the participants I absorbed the following takeaways:
Patience is the key
Elderly often get flustered by exposure to complex technology either leaving them frustrated or demotivated to try out anything that is developed for supporting their health. In this case, I made sure to be calm throughout the process and maintained a friendly tone that was instrumental in not making the participants feel overwhelmed.
Something to remember by
It is our job as designers to make the participants feel valued for their time and, if not any monetary compensation, provide them with refreshments or any personalized token of gratitude to make them feel appreciated. We provided them with some cute Khyaal app pop-sockets for their phones.
Building a comfortable environment.
In my case, the participants needed repeated assistance in order to understand the flow. For this, it was necessary to make them comfortable sometimes by switching in between languages(English, Hindi and Marathi) as they understood the purpose better if explained to them in their medium of communication.
From collaborating on a cool project to discussing the next big thing happening in design, all you need to do is drop me a line.