IT BUDDY

Older adults struggle to exist independently in a world that requires basic knowledge of everyday technology. Our team designed an app that this age group could comfortably use to build their digital literacy & confidence at their own pace.

Over six weeks, the team conducted a competitor analysis, user interviews, and iterative prototyping (low, mid, and high fidelity) using user feedback and usability testing. Moving forward, we intend to create a functional version of the app using ChatGPT API, explore alternative tech support methods and implement additional learning features.

Type of project: End-to-end app

Role(s): UX Researcher, UX Designer

Industry: Ed Tech

Tools: Figma, Framer

March 2025 - June 2025

As part of a five-member team, I contributed throughout every stage of this process. Specifically, my responsibilities included: helping to develop interview & testing protocols, recruiting & conducting for both interviews & user testing and designing the Settings/Language page. I also contributed to the brainstorm, literature review and designing other prototype pages.

Context

Goal

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The Current issue

Older adults often struggle with technology that is essential for everyday tasks such as paying bills, communication and accessing medical information. 

As academic studies have found, there is a strong positive correlation between digital literacy and social exclusion. Life after the year 2020 suddenly went digital due to the pandemic. Many older adults struggled to keep up, feeling frustrated by the lack of independence.

One study highlighted that many older adults actually ARE eager to learn, however, the shortage of proper resources often prevents them from improving their digital literacy.

Our team wanted to design an approachable learning tool that the demographic could confidently turn to for any technology question.

If IT Buddy is successful, older adults will be able to:

  • Successfully navigate & troubleshoot personal technology independently

  • Feel less frustration with modern technology

  • Gradually increase their digital literacy and confidence

Learn

Competitor Analysis

Looking over other apps, there was a gap for an app that could gradually increase digital literacy and provide tech support without requiring a paid subscription, complicated language or a basic level of technology knowledge.

Initial Interviews

The team interviewed 6 individuals over the age of 55 about their comfort level and common issues with technology.

We discovered:

  • Participants did not “explore” technology and try to solve issues on their own because of their strong fear of “messing something up”

  • Without help, difficult tasks often resulted in abandoning the task.

  • “Technology language” was often too complicated for the user to understand

  • Participants struggled to understand abstract concepts (authentication, cloud storage, etc)

  • Some participants were wary of AI. They did not understand it and how it worked.

When peers were asked about the best learning strategies, demonstration and step by step guidance were most commonly suggested.

To improve digital literacy, participants believed that patience, practice, and a combination of text and image based examples would lead to highest rates of digital literacy improvement. 

Many reported their need to help their relatives with the same topic repetedly. This highlighted the struggle for older adults to retain information

Responses from the class activity pushed us to focus on clear visuals, language understood by all and tutorials that could be revisited.

Class Survey

Evaluate

Three main barriers arose after the first interviews and class activity:

language confusion, fear of failure, and frustration

This is what the decided was essential for IT Buddy to accomplish to overcome these barriers:

  • Step-by-step guidance

  • Plain language

  • No skill-level assumption

  • Confidence building

  • Learn tech concepts & have them stick

  • IT assistance on-demand

  • In-depth explanation of AI and how it works

  • Accesible to everyone

Apply

Prototypes

The team designed a low-fidelity prototype

Low fidelity pages included:

Welcome pages, How-to pages, Question History pages, Chat example pages

The team continued to work on the prototype and produced a mid-fidelity prototype. Screenshots are shown below:

From lofi to hifi, these were the changes & features changed/added:

-Images, styles & assets added.

-Wording made simpler, focused on using less text.

-Added Tips and Tricks to Home Page.

-Added Speech option.

-Video responses added show how to fix problems.

-“Language type” option added to settings.

-“Did this answer your question or do you need additional assistance” button added.

Usability Testing

User Testing participants had 4 tasks to work through for  the testing phase:

  • Start: Iphone app library, End: IT Buddy Home Screen.

    Success: Navigate through first-time user flow without errors or assistance

  • Start: IT Buddy Homescreen

    Scenario: “Ask the app to help you create a folder on Windows”

    Success: Submit questions and understand the responses given by app

  • Start: IT Buddy home screen

    Scenario: “Change the tone of the responses from IT Buddy”

    Success: Locate and adjust language settings within the app

  • Start: Windows/Mac desktop

    Scenario: “Walk through the steps from Task 2 to create a new folder on your desktop”

    Success: Creation of a folder on their own Windows/ Mac desktop

Every task was followed by a series of questions gauging difficulty, usefulness, etc

Refine

Usability test results were promising:

  • Most users successfully completed the first 3 tasks successfully with a ASQ score above 4

  • The final task was more challenging with an average ASQ score of 3.4 and one incomplete

  • The overall SUS score was 82, making the app usable & well-received

Based on these test results, the app is approachable, supportive & effective! Woohoo!

Future work on IT Buddy

Create a functional version using Chat GPT API

Goal: Improve test scores

Visual Redesign

Goal: Improve the look of colors, buttons, fonts, etc. Make brand look welcoming and clean

Improve Learning Features

Goal: Add/change current features to improve and simplify learning. Add quizzes, daily or weekly excercises. Include a glossary of terms. optional class mode.

Alternative support options

Goal: Provide additional support that might help astressed older adult. Add “?” button for clarification to chat bot response. Tech support via phone call.

Our initial goals with IT Buddy were to reduce frustration with technology, enable older adults to navigate technology independently and increase digital literacy.

Although the current prototype does not have the ability to take these goals on, usability testing for IT buddy suggests there is a solid baseline to start with. The app is approachable, supportive and effective.

We look forward to improving IT Buddy further!