Paulina Hernández
As a team, with the guidance from Dr. Annika Maya Rivero and M. E. Ana Paula García y Colomé
1 month 22 days
Role: Research, user research, results analysis and prototyping.

Jefy: chatbot

Jefy is a virtual assistant for older adults who shop while browsing on Amazon. It is always present when they need help.

With the guidance of Dr. Annika Maya Rivero, we explored different design proposals—either services or products—focused on older adults, as part of the Service Design class (CIDI-UNAM).
Services for older adults around the world usually focus on care and daily life, including specialized products. However, some services or products limit and block their integration into society and access to technology.

Problem

In Mexico, there are 17 million older adults, and 4 out of 6 need help with digital activities, such as online shopping. That’s why Jefy was created — to respond to this need and offer an opportunity for them to develop digital independence.

Goal

Provide different tutorials to help users learn and explore the activities available in the app.

Research: older adults

I worked in a group on a shared research process to speed up secondary research about older adults. Each small group was assigned a topic: statistics and trends; products and services; and social media.

Together with my team, I analyzed the data and divided it into facts, findings, and problems. From this analysis, we created our first “How might we…?” question, based on statistics and social media content to define the problem.

Target audience: older adults who receive support and have access to electronic devices.

How might we...?

How might we promote digital education for assisted older adults so they can carry out digital tasks independently

Formulation of “How might we…?” question. Photo own.

Problem definition

We interviewed a group of older adults between 60 and 81 years old. Based on the information collected, we classified them into sections according to the patterns they shared: device use, assistance, learning, interest, and experience. We defined their profile, goals, differentiators, media, and channels in order to create a second “How might we…?” question, which required building the user profile.
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“An older adult who received help from family members but did not live with them, and had basic knowledge of how to use a smartphone.”— User Profile

At first, the project focused on learning digital technology. However, we considered the recommendation of our mentors, since most people in our sample showed interest in doing daily activities on their smartphones.

How might we...?
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How might we develop a digital tool so that older adults who live alone can make online purchases independently?

User profile

Opportunity definition

What if...?
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If the user persona has a manual that is clear, simple, and useful for online shopping through an app they already know (WhatsApp), then they can check it every time they need help with a purchase — helping them feel confident and safe using this way of shopping.

To define the project opportunity, the team created a “What if…?” question that shows the user’s need in a hypothetical scenario. Based on this, we began researching online shopping habits among older adults, including trends and competitor analysis (both direct and indirect).I was involved in the research process and in studying similar products and services. My team also used the Crazy 8 activity to define the final design proposal.

Design proposal: Chatbot inside the Amazon app

As a result, the team proposed the development of a chatbot on the Amazon platform (web and app), since it is a popular application in society. Later, we created a usage sequence to understand how the older adult would interact with the chatbot.
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“A chatbot is a conversational application that helps with customer service. These computer programs analyze conversation patterns.”
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Prototype

We developed the layout of the chatbot on the web platform and part of the app to show how the proposal would work and how it would interact with older adults. I was involved in creating the prototype of both the web platform and the app, with the goal of providing a clear guide and offering a satisfying experience for our user.

Chatbot mockup on the Amazon platform

Design

We concluded that the chatbot should provide constant support for older adults. That’s why we placed the Jefy chatbot icon in the bottom-right corner to ensure ongoing communication. Jefy is designed to support both users who are just starting to use the app and those who are already familiar with it. It responds to their requests and offers the tutorials they need, depending on their questions.

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Paulina Hernández
paulina.hernandez.des@gmail.com