Master's Projects
Coffee Klatch
As the baby boomer generation enters retirement, they increasingly wish to live independently within the comfort of their own homes longer than previous generations. With this in mind, my team applied the design thinking process to develop a product that could help them to achieve their goal.
Process
As the baby boomers continue ageing, they start having some issues such as mobility, mental decline and isolation, which makes it more difficult for them to continue living in their own homes.
To understand their needs and develop a product that could meet those needs, we applied Design Thinking, a creative problem-solving process with a human-centered approach.
Stanford d.school Design Thinking Process
Empathize
To better understand the user's needs and pain points, we performed more than 10 interviews with different stakeholders that included:
7 elderly folks and their relatives,
2 Directors of senior centers ,
3 stores that seniors commonly visit to fulfill their technology needs.
With the information collected, we defined the target user and created our Persona, which guided us throughout the Design Thinking process.
User needs
We also identified the most relevant insights and translated them into the user's needs. This information helped us to explore possible solutions during the brainstorming sessions.
Define
We identified three opportunity areas where we could innovate and design a product that could help elderly folks to continue living independently:
All Connected: addressing the isolation issues.
Smart Move: addressing the mobility issues.
Safe at Home: addressing the mental decline issues.
We reviewed once again the interview notes and the insights identified, and decided to continue developing the opportunity area #1 All Connected.
Ideate
As a team we performed brainstorming sessions that helped us to identify many different solutions that could address this issue.
We kept building on the 4 most promising ideas and performed a quick test with potential users to determine which idea should we select for further development.
The results showed that the "Smart Coffee Mug" concept was the most attractive idea to them.
Reviewing existing products
We also did a market research looking for products that already exist on the market and that could be considered direct competition for our product.
We purchased some of them and tested them with the objective to identified issues and pain points that we must solve when refining our product.
Prototype
Once we selected the idea, we performed additional brainstorming sessions that helped us to continue improving the concept and add more appropriate features. As a result, we came up with the concept "The Coffee Klatch" which has two components:
The Smart Coffee Warmer: a gadget that allows the users to easily connect and communicate with their loved ones while drinking coffee in their spare time.
The Coffee Klatch App: a social app that allows the users to share the most important moments from their past with people they care about the most.
Test
I lead the testing process, recruiting participants and visiting them at their home. I explained the concept and showed the prototypes developed, as well as asked a series of questions to understand their impressions and took notes of their feedback that I shared with the rest of the team.
During the testing we explore more insights regarding:
What features they liked the most and the least
How would they use the product
Where would they use the product
What design was more attractive to them (shape and color)
Willingness to purchase the product and price range
Feedback
"I wish I have had this product earlier in my life, it could have been a great way to stay connected with my mom"
KH
"I have a different mug for each person I know who lives in a faraway place. When I open my cupboard in the morning, I pick the mug for the person I want to have coffee with today "
AT
Video commercial
Smart Coffee Warmer
The Smart Coffee Warmer is a gadget that not only allows users to keep their drink warm, but also it allows them to stay connected with their loved ones by sending automatic notifications through the Coffee Klatch App indicating that the user is available for a conversation. It also provides information such as weather and recent notifications, playing out loud messages that people have sent to the user, as well as answering or making calls to users connected.
Coffee Klatch App
The Coffee Klatch app helps seniors to stay connected with their loved ones and avoid suffering from isolation. This app allows users to perform different activities such as:
Share their stories with the people they love
Explore other people's stories
Communicate with others via voice messages
Start a Coffee Klatch group with people that are available
Control the settings of the Smart Coffee Warmer
The app helps the users cherish all those important events in their lives and to pass down their memories to the next generations to come.
Risks
We also identified and evaluated some risk that could affect the development and commercialization of the product. These were categorized in the three following areas:
Design
Adding extra functionalities required could make it complicated for users that are less confident with technology
Will younger users want to connect with their grandparents memories?
Is the physical/digital bridge clear?
Technical
Selection of the materials and finishes impact customer experience
Concerns about universal connectivity to wireless networks (bluetooth vs. wifi)
Business
Definition of distribution channels
Medium complexity, product has a narrow profit margin MSRP higher than Customer is willing to pay
How to maintain market after the “aging boom” slows?
Next Steps
To continue developing our idea we identified some critical steps to be addressed in the short and medium term:
Finish testing including evaluation of colors, materials, and size
Integrate changes based on feedback
Develop the app
Define commercial production
Define the distribution channels
Develop the best marketing strategy for the user and the customer
Define final price
Launch website
© Efrain Rivera 2022