The Prototype Design Of Home Gardening Assistant Application For The Elderly Based On User Experience

Nowadays,with the rapid iteration of digital information technology and the development of industry,various applications come online in people's daily life.There are a plenty of homogeneous products in the market,and consumers are no longer satisfied with content filling.Users not only focus on the updating of basic functions,but also pursue the sense of use.Therefore,designing details of users experience based on the principle of“user-centered design”is essential as well.On the other hand,after entering the 21^stcentury,the population aging has became a problem which the public have to pay attention to it.An increasing number of people are beginning to enter the stage of old age,and they are able to enjoy the life experience brought by the special characteristic“old age”.However,they have to face the inconvenience of daily life and the suffering of mental health caused by memory dcline and lack of social interaction.Hence,care design applications and products for specific elderly groups have gradually entered the public version of modern society and become an indispensable module in the future development trend of design.To design and develop applications and products for the elderly,it is necessary to customize schemes of functionality design,interface design and interaction design according to specific needs of the elderly groups.By doing so,it is able to achieve goals of the specific elderly users and enhance the user experience.Most importantly,it can provide effective assistance and thoughtful care for the elderly.The purpose of this project is to design an assistant application of home gardening for those people who like to do some gardening activities at home,and the design process is based on the user experience of specific elderly groups.The application provides three basic functions for users,which are the function of recording and viewing the information and story of plants growth process,the function of recording and checking the implementation status and operation date of the routine gardening activities,the social platform of sharing the photos and text of plants with others and adding new friends respectively.In addition,according to the characteristics and needs of the main user groups,it customizes schemes of interface design and interaction design for specific users in order to improve the user experience.The application can be easily understood and operated,and it is close to user-friendly.The design process of the user experience-based home gardening assistant application for old people is mainly divided into three modules,including background investigating,interaction prototyping and evaluation.Background investigating includes competitive products analysis and user research.Interation prototying includes conceptual model design,low-fidelity prototype design,medium-fidelity prototype design and high-fidelity prototype design.Each step in the interaction prototyping module needs to go through the process from designing an independent scheme,evaluating to iteration.According to the development and variation of the users'needs,the interaction prototyping module and evaluation module are processing at the same time.At current stage,the application has achieved the expected goals in functionality design,interface design and interaction design.It provides user with an user-friendly home gardening assistant application,which makes it easier for elderly users to enjoy the daily gardening time,and it also brings the positive influence to the mental health of the elderly.Moreover,the unresolved problems during the development process caused by the limitation of time and resourses will continue to update in the future.