AC students tackle senior isolation and loneliness with mobile application 

Posted on Thursday, April 13th, 2023

According to Statistics Canada, roughly 30 per cent of Canadian seniors are at risk of becoming socially isolated — a challenge that Algonquin College Mobile Application Design and Development students are hoping to address with their senior living application, Hello Dear, which will be unveiled at the April 14 RE/ACTION Showcase.

Hello Dear is a mobile application focused on connecting seniors with their loved ones and caregivers to reduce loneliness and isolation. The application offers key features such as a “Daily Checker” that will assess the user’s mental and physical wellness and offer entertaining and empowering suggestions to the user depending on their mood.

“A key focus of the app is accessibility,” said Vladymir Adam, project team lead. “We needed the app to be easy for seniors to use and engaging for them as well. So, we incorporated some specific features that helped with this.”

The team started out by conducting preliminary research to determine what features were most desirable to their demographic. Their research suggested that many seniors were eager to have social media incorporated into the app as they value connection with their friends and loved ones. Based on this data the team created a social media style connection feature called “My Circle” which allows users to connect with each other instantly while keeping their privacy and safety top of mind.

“My Circle is the inner most contacts in the (user’s) lives, whether it’s their caregivers, family or friends,” said Tibet Akyurekli, project development lead. “Users can share with their circle how they’re feeling that day; being able to connect with loved ones in a more intimate fashion is huge, especially if users are feeling down.”

The team is also keenly aware of the auditory and visual impairments faced by their target audience and have focused on making the app as accessible as possible. Project design lead Shirley Li explained how the team incorporated larger fonts and contrasting colours to accommodate auditory and visual challenges faced by their users.

“For the visual side, we focused on high contrast colors — making sure that they have at least a seven to one ratio of contrast,” said Li. “Our app also features a larger font size by default. And for the audio side, we have implemented a text-to-speech feature.”

Team lead, Adam, shares how beneficial it’s been to have diversity in ability among their group members; with six individuals of various backgrounds, they have leveraged each other’s skills to create a product that they are eager to present.

“Not all of us have the same level of skill in everything, so we need one another and have helped each other throughout the process,” said Adam.

Adam and his team are now hard at work preparing themselves for the Showcase and prepping their pitch to the judges — they are looking forward to sharing Hello Dear with the public at the April 14 RE/ACTION Showcase.

“We are excited to showcase our app, talk about all of the work we have completed throughout the semester and connect with potential employers,” said Adam.


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