TIMELINE
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BUDGET &
Kickstarting a funding campaign on GoGetFunding
App Prototype: $292.57
Facebook Advertising:
Contingency for business:
Leftover:
What Went Well
Funds raised that were sufficient to cover our costs.
What Did Not Went Well
Minimum attempt applying for fundings due to fear of rejection
MARKETING STRATEGY
Marketing Objective : To create brand awareness & source for pilot testers
Word of Mouth
Managed to connect with
Agape Christian Centre for our event
Increased our reach from 37 to 4,083
through paid advertising.
Garnering organisations for validation & community mapping
LIAISON
Organisations for
Community Mapping
Lion Befrienders
FeiYue Family Services Centre
Touch Community
Organisations for
Validation
SG-Assist
Project Cakap Cakap
South East Community Development Centre
(SE CDC)
PRODUCTION
IDEATION STAGE
Based on our research, we found that online friendships are usually built around 3 factors:
Proximity
This isn’t really an issue as online friends are always in close proximity;
they’re a text away.
Shared Activities
Researchers found that gamers play games as a way to reinforce social ties.
Games help build social ties and enhance social support.
Life Events
People are drawn to other individuals that have a similar story to theirs or experiences that intrigue us.
As the target users for the application are seniors, we needed to come up with an elderly-centric design such that it will be easy for them to use such as making the buttons and fonts bigger.
After brief research and brainstorming session on how the product should look like,
this was the very first prototype we came up with.
PROTOTYPE 1
PITFALL
Excessive Features
The application provides updates on COVID-19, engaging solo activities for the elderly as well as 2 games for seniors that can be easily found online. These features do not serve our application’s purpose.
Complicating Process for Users
The Chats are an essential part of facilitating the befriending process between users, but it was tough
to locate under the Settings function.
Making the application more straightforward on our goal to encourage making friends
1. Removed the homepage and the games.
2. To make it prominent for users to see the chats, the chat section was made to be one of the tabs in the navigational panel.
PROTOTYPE 2
1. Removed password for the login process & selection of hobbies in the Profile Set-Up
2. Stuck with the hobby filtering option under the Socialise tab instead.
PROTOTYPE 3
1. Removed the hobby filtering option because the function would only be useful if there was a huge pool of users.
2. Thus, we changed the hobby filtering option to 3 open-ended questions about the user’s hobbies in the Profile Set-Up.
VIEWING OF DIFFERENT PROFILE
FRIEND LIST/CHAT LIST
LIVE MESSENGING
SENDING FRIEND REQUEST
CONFIRMED FEATURES
CAROUSELL
UPWORK
Quotation ranges from $2,000 to $4,000
After a few negotiations, we thankfully found our freelancer on Upwork, Ankit Kapoor,
who was willing to do it for a total of SGD 292.57 (we added additional features later).
THE SEARCH OF APP DEVELOPER
While we liaised with Ankit to help us create the application, there were still some changes to be made to the application due to time constraints - we had to remove:
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Video calls
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Voice messages
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Sending of images
We also stick to using one language, English, for the application as we did not have translators and Ankit won’t be able to do everything up in time.
CREATION OF APPLICATION
PILOT TESTING 1
Discovering elderly's opinions on UI/UX
Due to COVID-19 restriction guidelines, we had to conduct pilot-testing online via Zoom.
We also decided to conduct pilot testing individually so that we had more time to understand the seniors' feedback and ensure they feel comfortable sharing their concerns with regards to the application.
During the pilot testing, one of the seniors faced difficulties connecting the Zoom audio
Thus, we had to switch to WhatsApp video call to conduct the pilot testing.
We started recruiting seniors for our pilot testing through Facebook marketing and word of mouth.
As we had contact with Agape Christian Centre, they were willing to allocate 15 mins for us to share our project with the members during their seniors session.
Eventually, we managed to garner 9 elderly to be our pilot-testers.
GARNERING SENIORS
PILOT-TESTING EXECUTION
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED
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Check the elderly's digital literacy on Zoom & prepare collaterals on
how to use Zoom for the seniors before pilot-testing.
APPLICATION FEEDBACK
"I like that the colours are okay and that it is good for elderly to see, application is easy to navigate."
- Mdm Cho (alias)
" Signing up process is good, and the colours are comfortable for the eye. However, the wording on the application could be bigger, and the chat font size would be better if its bold or bigger. "
- Mdm Wee (alias)
"Font header can be read without a reading glass, pop up size is good, and pages are can be read easily. Icons should be slightly bigger."
- Mr Tan (alias)
PILOT TESTING 2
To see if our application improve seniors' social connectedness & well-being via comparison of their Social Connectedness Survey done before and after the pilot-testing
PILOT-TESTING ORIENTATION BRIEFING
We did a Trial Run the day before to prepare us, make the required changes to ensure our actual run will run smoothly.
Our actual briefing ran smoothly and we were able to explain to the testers how to download and use our application.
BEFORE PILOT TESTING
Created WhatsApp group as a platform to provide updates and instructions for the users, such as instructions for zoom and details of briefing.
Trial Run
Actual Run
At the end of the 3 days of pilot testing, there were actually other seniors that have not downloaded the application. So we decided to extend our pilot testing.
PILOT TESTING PERIOD
Some of the seniors faced difficulties in creating their accounts. We had to liaise with them one to one and helped them troubleshoot.
AFTER PILOT TESTING
We scheduled a 1 to 1 feedback session with them to help us know what can be improved for the application and understand how the experience was like for the seniors.
APPLICATION FEEDBACK
" I see the possibility for good friendship to start by those with the same hobbies, when the pool gets bigger there will be compatible matches. Then it will really addresses those who need more social interaction."
- Mdm Tan (alias)
" Chatting with people of the same passion, it helps me to relieve my stress and frustration."
- Mdm Lee (alias)
" I like that it is a platform that you can make friends, it is good to make new friends. Yes if I can use the application longer, I will feel better as I will be able to make more new friends."
- Mdm Lim (alias)
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED
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Increased the period of the pilot testing to a few weeks so that we could have more accurate date on the effectiveness of the application
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To be more proactive in reminding seniors as they tend to forget about their schedule and what they have to do
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To have a buffer time for seniors when planning the pilot testing as seniors might not be familiar with technology
ZOOM EVENT
Celebrating New Year with the Golden Age
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Celebrating New Year with the Golden Age is a zoom CSR event conducted in Chinese that digitally involves seniors through a series of fun, interactive and competitive games.
To add on a competitive element, each elderly will be given one point for every correct guess. The elderly who emerges 1st will receive a $20 Capita voucher as the prize.
Date: 8 January 2021, Friday
Time: 2pm - 3pm
Target No: 10 elderly
EVENT DESCRIPTION
EVENT ACTIVITIES
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GUESS THE OBJECT
GUESS THE PRICE
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Elderly have to guess the objects based on the zoomed in pictures shown in the slides.
The elderly that guess the object correctly win.
Elderly have to guess the price of the products shown in the slides.
First elderly to raise their hand will get the chance to guess.
The elderly that guess the closest price win.
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The event’s trial run was held one day before the actual event (7th January) to test the process and look out for potential failure factors & rectify them.
There were only three hosts for the event as we did not want to confuse the elderly and overwhelm them. The remaining members acted as guest participants to observe & provide feedback on improving the event execution.
Feedback from Trial Run:
- Ensure the hosts can see all participants on the screen to engage them
- Be clear and provide step-by-step instructions on how they can answer & participate.
- Emphasise that they need to physically raise hand to answer & it has to been seen on the screen.
- Count to 3 when getting participants to raise hands
TRIAL RUN
FEEDBACK FROM ELDERLY
“Commendable effort and very brave that you considered the elderly in a digital project
because elderly are less aware of the digital age.”
- Mdm Ang (alias)
“The “Guess the Price” game helps to encourage elderly to go search up market prices
in NTUC/online and therefore making them more active and aware”
- Mdm Ong (alias)
“Good rapport between the hosts as their strengths & weaknesses complement each other”
- Mdm Lee (alias)
“Have exciting challenges, I want to be connected with young people so I can feel young also”
- Mdm Yeo (alias)
“As we are part of the church and we are the planning committee for the seniors, this has definitely
helped me have more confidence to do this more often after this event.”
- Mdm Tan (alias)
“Maybe if we organise any future events, we can get you all to be guest hosts!”
- Mdm Goh
WHAT
WENT
WELL
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Majority of the elderly were participative, cooperative and eager to play.
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Hosts were able to handle unexpected challenges and quick-thinking.
For example, when the wrong price is being indicated, we were able to play it off as a trick
question to further engage the elderly.
WHAT
DID NOT
WENT WELL
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One elderly didn’t know how to turn on her camera & due to time constraint, we had to move on & exclude her from the activities. As a result, she could only watch the entire process but was unable to participate.
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What could be done better is to speak to her from time-to-time during the event and try to involve her in the games or conversations. We could also send them video footage or e-poster to teach them how to enter the Zoom meeting call and navigate Zoom.
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Additionally, we should also buffer some time (15-20 minutes) to teach elderly the basic navigating tools (leave room/turn on camera/mute) should they face any technical issues.
WHAT WE LEARNT
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35.7% (5 out of 14) elderly mention that they will join if their close friends invite them.
This suggests that they are still wary of befriending elderly & safe interaction on the internet is very important.
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Elderly are falling behind in terms of technology knowledge.
For example, they require more help and time from people to teach them how to use a new digital application, set-up a digital device, access internet connections and more.
We need to provide training to hone their digital literacy skills, not to be left behind in society.