Support Systems | Accessibility | Social Impact

Pocket Pad

How might we facilitate interactions between adults and their aging parents to build stronger support systems?

The Challenge

Adults and their aging parents struggle to maintain meaningful emotional connections despite wanting to stay close, especially when family bonds aren't naturally strong. Busy schedules and technological barriers create friction in daily communication, leading to gradual emotional distance between family members.

My Role & Impact

I independently designed the prototype for the iPhone widget extension, from low to high fidelity, enhancing the overall usability and contributing components to the design system.

IOS Widget & Hardware Device

Passion Project

Contribution

User Research

Ideation & Storyboarding

Wireframing

Prototyping

Usability Testing

Motion Design

Designers

Yuri Kawada

Gily Yu

Yit Chung

Yechan Choi

Tools

FigJam

Figma

Timeline

10 weeks

Solution

A hardware-software integrated communication product designed for both adults and their aging parents, allowing users to interact in a personal way, fostering closer connections.

Discover

Synthesizing our research findings

We narrowed our broad problem scope through secondary research, surveys, and user interviews to ensure potential market direction.

Explore the research

Uncovering pain points through research

Adults struggle to balance time constraints and making meaningful connections, leading to guilt and unfulfilling interactions.

Aging parents and adults yearn for closeness, but parents hesitate to be burdensome and adults have difficulty to initiate conversations.

Digital communication falls short in replacing shared physical experiences which impacts daily moments and important life events.

The differences in communication styles create friction, which makes consistent communication difficult.

Define

Understanding our users: Adults, Aging Parents & their needs

The Overwhelmed Daughter

Amy, 35

As Amy grows older, she cherishes her family but feels guilty that she's not spending enough time with her mom and struggles to maintain consistent communication due to busy work schedules.

The Digital Newcomer

Agnes, 78

Agnes longs for deeper connections with her daughter, Amy but hesitates to burden her during their monthly visits. Her unfamiliarity with technology and fear of being burdensome creates a communication barrier and leaving important conversations unsaid.

Develop

Establishing our design goals

Deriving from our research, we set characteristics and requirements that our solution could provide for adults and their parents before diving into our ideation and sketching phase.

Parents

Accommodate varying levels of tech comfort and physical capabilities

Provide gentle guidance without feeling overwhelming

Seamless interactions even with limited technical skills

Shared Goals

Foster authentic conversations that don't feel forced or scheduled

Familiar interaction patterns to minimize learning curve

Allow for asymmetric communication patterns (different time zone & frequency)

Adults

Fit into existing daily routines without adding cognitive load

Allow meaningful connection opportunities in brief and manageable moments

Work within existing device ecosystem (no new apps to download or manage)

⚡ Key Takeaway

Setting clear design goals kept us focused on creating genuine moments of connection. Looking back, we learned that 'effortless' meant different things to different users - future research could better define these varying interpretations.

Develop

Ideation and Sketching

Our team of 4 conducted an ideation session, sketching and evaluating concepts against our core design goals: effortless interaction, personalization, and genuine connection.

Through anonymous voting, we assessed 3 key concepts:

🎥 Warm Watchparties

A remote control allowing live reactions during shared TV viewing, like sending confetti effects. While personalized, it wasn't low effort or genuine.

🍽️ Feeling Plate

A smart surface converting daily actions (like placing keys) into automated family messages. Although it was effortless, it lacked personalization and authenticity.

✏️ Pocket Pad

A pocket-sized device for handwritten notes to loved ones. This met our goals of being effortless, personalized, and genuine. This concept was selected for development.

Develop

Key features in the Pocket Pad

We highlighted the Pocket Pad’s key features for both aging parents and tech-savvy adults, focusing on simplicity and accessibility.

Pocket Pad for Parents

Messaging and Photo-taking

Accessible Design

Pocket Pad for Parents

Messaging and Photo-taking

Accessible Design

Pocket Pad for Parents

Messaging and Photo-taking

Accessible Design

Shared Features

Handwritten Message

Prompt Cards

Pocket Pen Notification

Shared Features

Handwritten Message

Prompt Cards

Pocket Pen Notification

Shared Features

Handwritten Message

Prompt Cards

Pocket Pen Notification

Pocket Pad for Adult

Pocket Pad Widget on iPhone

Pocket Pad for Adult

Pocket Pad Widget on iPhone

Pocket Pad for Adult

Pocket Pad Widget on iPhone

⚡ Key Takeaway

Speaking with both user groups taught us that 'staying connected' meant different things to different generations. In future iterations, we'd like to explore how these preferences evolve as tech-savvy adults become aging parents themselves.

Develop

Visualizing our user experience

The user flow combines 3 user flows we made before iterating and creating the final design.

Design

Usability Testing our Low-Fidelity

Users were confused about the “Send to” screen, which only appeared after writing a message. Adults also expressed challenges managing an additional device alongside their phones due to their busy lives.

How might we better streamline the Pocket Pad to minimize confusion and integrate seamlessly into the busy lives of adults?

⚡ Key Takeaway

Early testing revealed that our assumptions about emoji importance were incorrect. Users valued personal expression over preset reactions. If given more time, we’d like to see this idea better implemented, and measure if the feature could be retooled to empathize better with users.

Design

Usability Testing from Mid-fidelity to High-Fidelity

To integrate Pocket Pad into the lives of adults, we designed a dual-interface solution: a physical device for parents focused on accessibility and an iPhone app extension for tech-savvy adults. Testing with 2 parents and 3 adults guided our refinements for high-fidelity prototype.

The Pocket Pad Device on Parent

Sending a Personal Photo

We noticed that the personalized emoji feature was not favored by the users due to it being high effort and low satisfaction, so the design was refreshed to utilize default iOS emojis with a library already familiar with users.

See Before & After

The Pocket Pad Device on Parent

Sending a Thoughtful Note

Usability testing with parents revealed confusion and difficulty on initial startup and the prompts screen. We’ve addressed these issues by adding hints and instructions throughout the design and making the prompt cards more visually accessible.

See Before & After

The Pocket Pad on iPhone for Adults

Sending a Personal Photo

Testing revealed mixed feedback on emojis but strong user preference for prompts across both parent and child groups. We maintained consistent prompt dialogue in both interfaces to align with this user response.

See Before & After

The Pocket Pad on iPhone for Adults

Sending a Thoughtful Note

Usability testing revealed users struggled with navigation clarity - particularly differentiating between photo and notes sections on the home screen. We improved interface legibility by adding contextual hints and streamlining the design to create clear user pathways.

See Before & After

⚡ Key Takeaway

We discovered that physical interaction created stronger emotional connections than digital features alone. Future iterations could explore more tactile elements and haptic feedback.

Design

Hardware and Technical Specifications

In thinking about the physical Pocket Pad device, we have also 3D modeled our device in real dimensions.

Design Item 1: Phone Case

The phone case design integrates a secure pen holder, preventing loss while maintaining a slim, seamless profile.

Design Item 2: Pen

The pen features a specialized crevice fitting the Pocket Pad and a circular tip for easy removal. When messages arrive, the tip glows as a notification.

Design Item 3: Pocket Pad

The Pocket Pad combines Kindle and iPhone design elements with durable materials. Its sticky-note dimensions and steel hinge enable portability while supporting core features.

Design

Pocket Pad Design Sytem

Retrospective

Impact & Takeaways

Through this 10-week journey, we learned that meaningful family connection isn't just about technological innovation, but about creating genuine moments of interaction. Our initial assumptions about feature complexity were challenged, revealing that simple, tactile interactions often fostered stronger emotional connections than purely digital solutions. User testing showed us that while both generations valued staying connected, their interpretations of 'meaningful communication' varied significantly.

Looking ahead, we see opportunities to expand the Pocket Pad's capabilities through enhanced tactile feedback, home integration options, and features for tech-savvy users while maintaining its core simplicity. Most importantly, we discovered that bridging generational gaps in family communication requires balancing physical and digital interactions in ways that feel natural and meaningful to all users.