Jialu Qin

A trading app for elderly people

A colorful social life is essential for the physical and mental health of the retired elderly. However, due to various age-related health problems, they’re discouraged from participating in social activities, and stay at home. Loneliness can worsen their physical and mental health.

Nowadays, as technology gradually penetrates into people's daily lives, the elderly have become accustomed to socializing with mobile phones. But there are not many mobile applications on the market specifically designed for the elderly. Older people are often confused about complicated operations and inexplicable information.

In this thesis project I’ve designed a mobile application specifically for the elderly. It encourages the elderly to start social activities by exchanging items. The elderly can use their skills to make crafts and exchange them with products of interest.

Older people can discover their potential abilities and redefine their value through making. In the process of product exchange they’ll encourage to get out of the house, meet new friends, and start conversations.

Enjoy retirement with sunshine and friends instead of staying alone and watching TV at home.

The inspiration for this app design came from my grandmother. She likes playing cards and chatting with friends.

To make this mobile application more accessible to the elderly, it uses “card draws” as an interaction gesture and it replaces complex text input with more intuitive voice and video input.