UChicago defines loneliness as:“a dissociation between what an individual wants or expects from a relationship, and what that individual experiences in that relationship”
Unraveling the Root Causes 🔍
Observing testimonials from research interviews on loneliness done by Sheridan College in the Layers of Loneliness research project.
"Feeling unwanted"
"Feeling like an outsider"
“Loneliness is unreciprocated search for help."
"There is no one to turn to."
Social Isolation: Causes of loneliness include, social isolation, co-dependency within relationships and social media.
According to a 2019 study, “22% of millenials say no friends, 27% no close friends, & 30% no best friends
(Ballard, Millennials are the Loneliest Generation)
Shyness: Millennials experiencing loneliness also cite being shy as a reason for their loneliness.
31% find it difficult to make friends, the number one reason cited being "I'm shy," followed by not feeling like they needed friends, and then not having hobbies or interests where they might meet friends
(Ballard, Millennials are the Loneliest Generation)
DEFINE
Which group has most importance and impact... 🧐
Ultimately, young adults had high importance due to increasing rates of loneliness and more feasible to create a digital solution for, as most Gen-z are digital natives.
Young adults & pre-pandemic loneliness.
loneliness is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in younger generations. 25% of adults between the ages of 18 and 27 reported having no close friends, while 22% reported having 0 friends
(Ballard, Millennials are the Loneliest Generation)
Increased loneliness in young adults post-pandemic.
Young adults [were] hit the hardest by the pandemic, [and experience] lingering effects post-pandemic
(Walsh, Young adults loneliness during pandemic)
2021 national survey of 950 Americans, “61 percent of those aged 18-25 reported high levels of loneliness.
(Walsh, Young adults loneliness during pandemic)
“If you look at other studies on the elderly, their rates of loneliness are high, but they don’t seem to be as high as they are for young people.” (Ballard, Millennials are the Loneliest Generation)
Young adults are lonelier than the elderly.
In the US, 79% of Gen Z reported sometimes or always feeling lonely, compared to only 41% of seniors, the demographic most often considered lonely.
DEFINE
Why are young adults so lonely? 🙇🏼
Young adults are at increased risk of developing chronic loneliness because there are so many transitions to face in this time (Bass, Statistics on Loneliness in Young Adults)
Mapping Young Adult Life Transitions (15-24)
DEFINE
The Competitor Space. 🤼
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DEFINE
The competition had FORCED connections. 🚫
A Lack of Purposeful Connections.
Although many solutions for loneliness focus on creating connections, our competitor analysis found that these connections were often superficial and did not lead to meaningful connections or community engagement, ultimately failing to build a sense of community for people who are new to a community and alleviate loneliness.
IDEATE
Group Ideation - who, what, wow 🤝🏽
Step one of our ideation was group brainstorming with another team, through this we were hoping to generate new ideas that:
1. Fit the RTI criteria
2. Helped our users
3. Had a “wow” factor, (stood out from competitors)
We presented the “who” and “What” to another group we collaborated with on this brainstorming.
Who – the users we are designing a solution for
What – Methods for easing loneliness from research
Empathize
Brainstorming for the “wow” ⛈
The team we worked with brainstormed the “wow”, creative solutions based off the methods for easing loneliness our team had found during the research process.
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We then used a feasibility, viability and desirability matrix to get the group to evaluate the ideas they had generated against RTI’s project goals.
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IDEATE
Top Solutions (Based on viability, feasibility, desirability) 🤩
Community Solution
Option 1: Connecting people with volunteer opportunities
Check-in Solution
Option 1: Daily prompt for self-care that guides the user through a meditation
Option 2: App for people who just moved to the city to connect with others who are new
Option: 2 Daily encouragement to take actions that increase sense of validation
Evaluating and Converging. 💥
We sketched two solutions that seemed the most viable to understand and evaluate.
Community Solution:
Option 1 Building community through volunteering for young adults in a new community
Check-In Solution:
Option 2 Reminders throughout the day to take actions that increase sense of validation.
Choosing a Direction
Based on the gap identified the Lack of Purposeful Connections, We carefully selected ideas that have the potential to address the gap and provide meaningful solutions that current approaches fail to meet.
Connecting people with volunteer opportunities.
The Gap Volunteering Fills. ⛽
Most of the solutions we saw focused on solving loneliness by making quick individual connections instead of larger long term community connections.
Volunteering allows people to be part of a community, and form strong bonds through achieving a shared goal.
Developing Our Solution! 🚀
Our volunteering app tackles loneliness by facilitating meaningful connections between users and their local community through volunteering opportunities.
Mapping Product Functionality
Before creating mockups of our solution we began by brainstorming features that would be useful to the user and created a site map to understand app functionality.
PROTOTYPE
Let's Sketch our Idea! 📝
Worked through a low-fidelity prototype version of the app to decide features and understand the flow.
Based on the Paper prototype the following insights were derived.
1. Users prefer volunteering opportunities visually represented on a map-based UI.
2. Users want to filter volunteering opportunities by type, location, and time commitment.
3. Users want to save and track their volunteering history within the app for a sense of community.
Perfecting Our Solution ✨
Refining our Solution.
At this point we had a mid stage level design and we decided to conduct a design review with 6 users.
We focused on commonly expressed sentiments in order to better iterate on our solution.
Test
Fixing what needed to be fixed! 🏗
1.
It was important to specify which tasks are included on each event page in order to get a better sense of “shared goal”.
2.
Improving content on event pages to enhance understanding of events without overwhelming users with information.
3.
Refining strong visual branding and simplifying cluttered layouts in the UI design.
Product Tour of Our Solution! 📲
