Pick a Google Product You Admire and Adapt It for Older Adult Users

Pick the Google product you like most and make the case for it. Then take that same product and improve it for elderly users: decide which older people you are designing for, what makes the product hard to use or less useful for them today, and what you would change. ### Clarifying Questions - Can I choose any Google product, including hardware such as Pixel phones or Nest devices, or should I stay with consumer apps and services? - What age range should "elderly" mean here, and should I cover older adults who are already comfortable with smartphones as well as those who are not? - Is the aim to bring more older adults onto the product, to help current older users get more out of it and feel safer, or both? - Should the changes live inside the main product for everyone, or may I propose a separate simplified mode or companion app? ### Part 1 — Choose your favorite and justify it Name one Google product, describe who uses it and what job it does for them, and explain what it does especially well compared with the alternatives. ```hint Choose with Part 2 in mind A product that older adults already rely on, or would clearly benefit from, gives you far more to improve in the next part than one they rarely touch. Ground your praise in what the product does for its users, not in your own habits. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - The product's main users and the core job it does for them. - Two or three specific strengths, each tied to why it matters to users. - A choice that sets up a meaningful improvement for older users. ### Part 2 — Improve it for older adults For the product you chose, pick the older users you will focus on, identify what gets in their way today, propose improvements, prioritize them, and explain how you would measure success. ```hint Older adults are not one segment Split older users by what actually changes how they use the product, such as confidence with technology, changes in vision, hearing or movement, and how involved family members are. Then design for one group. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A reasoned choice of older-user segment and a goal for the improvement. - Pain points rooted in age-related changes and life situations, not generic usability complaints. - Prioritized solutions with success metrics and guardrails. ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A clear thread from why the product is good to what it is missing for older users. - Segmentation of older adults, with one segment chosen and justified. - Improvements that support older users' independence rather than treating them as incapable. - Success metrics and guardrails covering safety, privacy and the experience of other users. - Risks such as extra complexity, stigma, and family features turning into surveillance. ### Follow-up Questions - One of your improvements lets a family member help. How do you protect the older user's privacy and autonomy while still letting the caregiver step in? - Older adults are underrepresented in usage data and less likely to answer in-app surveys. How would you research their needs? - Would you build these changes into the default experience or ship them as a separate simplified mode? What are the trade-offs?