Our project, Roots and Riddles, aims to bridge the generation gap through a universal bonding activity, games! Our app allows users to play, and make their own games relating to the slang of their specific generation. Based on our analysis, many people feel disconnected in this specific area, and this app aims to rectify that. Users can connect with friends and family, and play each other's games, allowing them to connect through shared language understanding and humor. The user can navigate to 3 different games: crossword puzzles, trivia, and real or fake memes. As a society, we tend to bond more with our specific age group because of shared culture, such as slang and humor. Many people wish to gain connections with people outside of their generation, and by understanding these things, they can definitely make a step in that direction. Our prototype is made to be accessible, fun, and interactive!
We created a survey and asked people of different ages to complete it. Our respondents were 39.1% gen z, 34.8% gen x, and 26.1% boomers. We found that most respondents spend more time with people in their own age group (43.5%) or with friends and family members older than them (30.4%), but that they recently have had a meaningful interaction with people from a different age group (65.2%) and that most people would like to spend more time with people from a generation (47.9% agree, 39.1% slightly agree). Additionally, we found that 39.1% of respondents feel slightly misunderstood by other generations, while 30.4% responded that they slightly disagreed with this statement. This could suggest that people don’t feel strongly about how they are perceived by other generations, but that people could find value in spending more time with people outside of their age group. Nonetheless, they might need motivation to get themselves out of their social bubble. When asked about what they would like to learn about older generations, younger generations expressed interest in better understanding the older generation’s traditions, while older generations would like to understand younger people’s slang and humor. Moreover, we found that responders appreciate the wisdom and relationships from the older and younger generations, respectively. People responded that food (cooking and going out) was their preferred way to bond with their friends and family, followed by outdoor activities, movies and TV shows, and games. When asked about what people would like to share with older or younger generations than themselves, most people responded that they would like to travel or share travel experiences. And when asked about a moment when they found pop culture surprising or confusing, they responded with slang, language, humor, jokes, and memes.
Our focus for this specific prototype was to highlight accessibility features, and make the design affordable to any user, with any level of technological experience. Particularly, the older generations have less experience with complicated app designs, so they would not be likely to use the app if they saw it as confusing, or if it had low learnability. To do so, we utilized clear, discoverable clickable frames that lead to the other pages, with the ability to move back and forth easily and understandably. We decided that a clear theme was important to keep the users engaged and also draw attention to the elements that we wanted to highlight. To be more specific, we were attracted to the idea of a clearly laid out wall design, using interactive picture frames and icons hanging from a string on the ceiling, similar to a string of fairy lights. This helps the user clearly understand how to navigate between the different interfaces and also return back to the home page with no confusion. Bringing it back to the accessibility elements, we wanted to add an information/ question and answer section if the user needs any additional assistance, however that should not be necessary. If needed, the help button allows the user to directly interact with an AI chatbot to answer any questions. Another feature that allows the user to track their progress, standing, and overall analytics is in the profile icon featured at the top of the home page, taking them to the other interface. This decision is important because it will incentivize the user to do well and play more, to grow on the leaderboard and pass their friends, as well as understand how they are doing and their overall progress. The string of icons at the top of the home page remains consistent as you travel throughout the app, to ensure that you can navigate back, home, or wherever you need to be in an easy and fast manner. This provides the user with consistency, allowing them to feel comfortable and to increase the app's learnability. We also wanted the user to feel that they have contributions to make, because they do, and we wanted to highlight that. To do so, we included the option for them to make and utilize their own games, with their own slang, so that they can share these with the world and their own friends on the app. This also does a great job improving the app's overall information status as it is getting real time feedback and outside knowledge from its users. Lastly, our design decision that brings the app to a full circle is the ability to connect with friends and family of any generation, doing something that any age group is able to enjoy and learn from. Users can friend directly in the app without needing to utilize other platforms and further complicating usage. With these abilities, the large generation gap can hopefully be brought closer, as this design is specifically manufactured to include features that ANYONE can use!
We kept our reliance on AI to a minimum in our creative process, but we utilized Microsoft Copilot and Claude to generate filler images and icons during the high-fidelity prototyping stage. Another aspect of our process that was curated more carefully was the phrasing and formatting of our interview questions to avoid asking leading questions and bringing in assumptions that we might have had prior to our investigation. We ensured that our survey would get the most amount of relevant information while avoiding biased opinions and stereotyping about different generations. We started with more open-ended questions and then narrowed down to more specific user needs and wants. We also used it during the brainstorming stage to do reverse thinking so we could think about what could improve the bad ideas created from this. Additionally, we used it to sort through the open-ended questions in our survey and to condense and cluster data.
Built With
- canva
- claude
- clipchamp
- copilot
- figma
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