Enhancing Austin's Aging Ecosystem
Back To Projects
Developing Strategies and Recommendations to enhance Austin’s Age-Friendly Plan and initiatives.
Project Details
Date - January to April 2024 (4 months)
Topic - Austin Age-Friendly Ecosystem
Skills applied - Human-centred design Research tools and Methods, Data collection and Synthesis, Ideation, Service Design, Prototyping.
Team - Atchayaa Krishnan, Sahana Prabhu, Marilyn Nwora, Evelyn Syau
Client - Dell Med and The city of Austin
Institution - M.A in Design Focused on Health, The University of Texas at Austin
My Role
Expereince Designer & Design Strategist
- Recruitment
- Conducted Interviews with stakeholders
- Synthesis & Insights
- Empathy mapping
- Ideation & Brainstorming
- Facilitated Intercept activity (150 participants)
- Concept Validation with users
- Experience Principles
- Visual Design
- Design Strategies
- Next steps and Implementation
My Learnings
- Time management: Meeting deadlines is crucial in client projects. Knowing how to prioritize tasks, manage time effectively, and deliver quality work on schedule.
- Adaptability: Clients' needs and preferences can change throughout a project. Having the ability to be flexible and willing to adapt their designs and approaches accordingly is a big learning.
- Storytelling: I learnt to articulate design ideas clearly and persuasively while presenting the concepts and designs to clients and stakeholders.
Project Overview
“Austin is a city known for its creativity, energy, and vibrancy and now also has the nation’s second fastest-growing population of people 65 and older.
This demographic shift poses unique challenges and opportunities.”
- Former mayor Steve Adler
.jpeg)
Two maps showing Austin's median age by census tract. On the left is the map for 2010 and on the right is the map for 2020. While many parts of West Austin have higher median ages in both 2010 and 2020, the 2020 data show East Austin is also aging, with most census tracts having a median age in the 30s, closer to the city's overall median age of 33.0
Chosen Two Key Domains Of Austin Age-Friendly Action Plan
.jpeg)
01
The goal of Domain 4: Social Participation is to combat sadness and isolation in the older adult community by providing accessible, affordable and fun social activities.
02
The goal of Domain 5: Respect and Social
Inclusion is to provide ways for the young and old to learn from one another, honor what each has to offer and, at the same time, feel good about themselves.
“Approximately 25% of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated.”
“People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments.”
- 2020 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Click Here
Research Methods
Insights
Ideation
Concept Building
Strategies & Recommendations
Research Goal
Find ways to make Austin city more accessible and inclusive for older adults by promoting intergenerational connections, celebrating their wisdom and talents, and encouraging social engagement and mental well-being.
Research Methods
1. Intercept Activity
Location: UT Campus
Our team achieved tremendous success by providing 140 participants with sticky notes to answer 5 questions about their mental model and perspectives on aging. This approach helped us gain valuable insights, and we are thrilled with the results.
5 Intercept questions:
1. At what age do you consider yourself to be old?
2. What advice would you give yourself at that age?
3. What are your perceptions of older adults?
4. How would you describe your interactions with them?
5. To improve the social well-being of olderadults, Austin could...
2.Interviews
Our Interviewees
1. Older Generation:(4)
These individuals represent the fastest-growing group in Austin. Their experiences and input are crucial towards enhancing the aging ecosystem in Austin.
2. Sandwich Generation:(5)
These individuals are working adults responsible for the care of their aging parents. They have multiple touchpoints where they interact with both the younger and older generations.
3. Younger Generation:(3)
These individuals generally display respect for elders though comment on the awkwardness of interactions. They are another key stakeholder in leveraging intergenerational connections to enhance Austin’s aging ecosystem.
4. Subject Matter experts and Existing Programs: (3)
These are knowledgeable experts within Austin’s aging ecosystem. They are crucial in understanding how far Austin has come and what still needs to be done.
Younger Generation
"Older adults pass down a lot of historical experiences and I find cute to hang out with them!"
Sndwhich Generation
“We push the elderly generation
off the side because we are
thinking about other things
happening in our lives; they
aren’t in the workforce”
Older Generation
"When I retire. I might take classes just for fun of it and I would love to learn different languages."
Data Synthesis
We carefully gathered data through interviews and intercepts, and then synthesized patterns to analysis and final insights.
Empathy Mapping:I did the Empathy mapping as a tool to understand the perspectives and emotions of different generations when interacting with each other. This tool has revealed that there is a mutually beneficial relationship between the older and younger generations, where both can learn from each other through intergenerational social connections. Additionally, it has been discovered that loneliness and the need for social connection are common among all generations
Insights
01
Older Austinites are more likely to feel lonely and isolated due to shrinking social circles, feelings of social exclusion, along with practical barriers such as transportation.
Social & Structural Barriers
02
Austin has services for older adults, but the city fails to consolidate these resources in a way to promotes trustworthiness, usage, and visibility.
Lack of Trust and Centralised Resources
03
The need for social connection transcends generations, highlighting its universal importance for both younger and older adults.
Need for Social Connection
04
Intentional and reciprocal activities are necessary to counteract loneliness in older adults and nurture social connections.
Need for Intentionality & Reciprocity
Supporting Quotes
Ideation
Evaluative &
Strategic
Aims to evaluate Austin’s aging ecosystem and Age Friendly Plan via quantitative (number of programs,
attendance, implementation) and qualitative (experiences, awareness, value added) metrics
System
level
Addresses systemic factors that prevent accessibility to existing programs (e.g. lack of resource
consolidation and transportation barriers)
Ground
Level
Offers ground-level solutions to enhance age-friendliness, counteract social isolation/loneliness, and
promote intergenerational connection
Our team developed concepts at three different levels, and after consulting with our clients, we proceeded with the System level concept: Enhancing Austin Hub services for older adults.
Performance & Evaluation
Designing a more specific, yet standardized framework/performance metric dashboard for measuring success (both quantitative and qualitative) and evaluating the efficacy of existing programs that promote social inclusion for older adults.
Value Proposition
Promotes efficacy and longevity of programs to better serve the needs of older adults; helps drive decisions on resource allocation and funding.
How are End-Users Finding the Existing Site?
On Trustworthiness
“Information is available everywhere. Older adults have trouble figuring out who to trust and where to go for safe, accurate, and helpful information.”
On
Usability
“The city’s website is not user friendly In any form or fashion for those who are seeking services or recreation.”
On
Visibility
“I’ve never heard of Austin having an aging services hub for older adults like myself.”
Insights to Experience Principles of the site
Social &Structural Barriers
Accessible
Need for Intentionality
Person - Centered
Need for Social Connection
Lack of Trust & Centralization
Community Building
Trustworty & Intuitive
System Level Concept Framework
Older Adults of Austin
Opportunities and Resources for Social Connection
Bridging the Gap
Co Designing with End Users
We validate our concepts by creating low-fidelity prototypes and co-designing website content and pages with our end-users. The process involves allowing the end-user to drag in the desired contents and paste them into the layout on the homepage. This helps us ensure that the website meets the users' needs and preferences.
Concept Mock-up
Implementation Plan
Next Steps
-
Collaborate with our clients to share findings with the Commission on Aging
-
Bridge partnerships with Dell Medical School and City of Austin to endorse or disseminate website