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"How might facilitate social interaction between seniors living alone and their loved ones in order to help them stay connected and encouraged during the pandemic?"

The lack of social connection and brain stimulation is associated with higher risks of health problems like heart disease, dementia and even premature death, according to a recent report from the National Academy of Sciences.”  

The ‘New Normal’ for Many Older Adults – Bloomberg Citylab

Nearly 13.8 million Americans over the age of 65 — about one fourth of that population — live by themselves, according to 2017 estimates from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Surveys from organizations like AARP and Kaiser Family Foundation suggest that anywhere between 33% and 43% of all older adults in the U.S. experience loneliness either sometimes or frequently — and that was before public health officials instructed older people, and everyone else, to stay home.

Just What Older People Didn’t Need: More Isolation – NY Times

In order to get a better understanding of the problem, we conducted stakeholder and end user interviews with 7 individuals. We reached out to four seniors who living alone in age 68 to 84.

From the end user interviews, we discovered that seniors were struggling emotionally during quarantine and these problems were made worse because they were having difficulty connecting with their loved ones due to the hurdle of using technology.

End user interview transcripts

Overall through the research process, we realized that: Seniors prefer analog over new technology, wants to feel a sense of purpose through part-time and volunteering works, and that they are less willing to make big changes to their lifestyle.

Considering all these factors, we believed the calming, rewarding, and effortless experience of growing plants could be a great solution to solve the pain points of the target users. Providing a stimulating activity during quarantine that is effortless and easy to perform will help seniors to feel a sense of accomplishment.

After we came up with our main concept, we started to list the Wants&Needs of our target users and think about possible Features that will satisfy the Wants&Needs.

The seniors are our pot’s target users, and the app is designed specifically for the family members to connect with the seniors. The app tracks the plant status, connects people, and provides an entry to our plant-sharing system. And our pot mimics all of these experience and make these app function available for our senior users with sensors, screen display, and speaker.