Indigenous knowledge has been fading over time. Traditions and stories risk being lost without being passed to future generations.
Creating an Indigenous storytelling XR App
Solution:
We created Sacred Roots — an experience designed to connect Indigenous elders' wisdom with young minds, preserving cultural heritage through sharing stories and tutorials.
Role: The UX researcher on XR and Content Designer on a team of 4 who was responsible for conducting research on VR compatibility and creating low-fi wireframes and user flows based off my research.
Industry: Social Networking
Created:
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50+ paper wireframes
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A 3D environment lobby
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3 functional prototypes
Duration: 4 months
Key Results
19.5
million indigenous seniors could be saved from social isolation and loneliness.
14
insights were collected through 5 users tests, making our product evolve.
17
screens were created for indigenous people who live in separate households now have an app to keep them more connected.
Problem Statement:
"How might we help Indigenous seniors use technology to share cultural knowledge, reduce loneliness, and preserve traditions?"
Target surveys
A majority of indigenous seniors are lonely and need technology.
In order to figure out what system we needed to develop in order help American Indian Alaskan Native seniors (AIAN), we needed to collect insights through multiple surveys.
These were the key findings we found based off our survey:
85% of AIAN elders face severe loneliness, resulting in increased health concerns.
67% of people between 12-44 have older family members that need technological assistance.
78% of AIAN individuals live off-reservation, resulting in greater use of digital communication methods.
Interviews
The older generation MUST stay connected to the new generation.
We interviewed 5 individuals that were in contact with indigenous seniors and got these 3 key insights from them:
Seniors often need help with accessibility, confusing language, and fear making a mistake.
Younger generations are reconnecting with traditions through interactions with elders.
“Every generation can provide some kind of knowledge to one another.”
We also went to a Native American Student Association meeting on September 9, 2024, and learned an important detail that we must consider for our app.
It is important to try and connect the youth with their tribal affiliations because:
AIAN cultures emphasize community involvement.
Secondary research
Our solution must be respectful and accessible for their well being.
Next, we needed to get more info on seniors on what factors we could take into consideration to make a better experience.
We looked into 4 things: Senior Gerontology, Senior Loneliness, Virtual Reality, and Senior Technological Accessibility.
Senior Gerontology:
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Avoid terms that suggest helplessness.
Senior Technological Accessibility
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Design technology with older users in mind, such as larger buttons and simplified interfaces, can make a big difference. Design for forgiveness.
Virtual Reality:
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VR has proven to be an effective tool to help address loneliness and improve mental and physical well-being in older adults.
Senior Loneliness:
Contributes to:
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A 50% increase in dementia.
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A 29% increase in heart attacks.
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A 32% increase in the risk of stroke.
Elders who are socially connected:
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Live longer
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Have less health problems
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Can have some protection from mental health issues such as dementia and Alzheimer’s
Personas
We identified two main user groups that could benefit from our product.
We also developed empathy maps to identify their wants and needs, while giving each of them unique scenarios that serve as their motivation for using the app.
Sarah Brave Woman (67)
Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota
She has taken the role of a Winyan, a revered elder of her community who works with the greater tribal woman to help the tribe flourish and grow.
Scenario: Sarah struggles to connect with her family.
Wants:
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To pass on her recipes to the next generation
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Easy way to stay connected with her family living in Dallas
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To use an app properly, even when her arthritis flares up
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A community of like-minded elders to learn and connect with
Frustrations:
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Feels ashamed about not knowing all that she should about her culture
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Misses her family (grandson especially) and wants to connect more
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Struggles to stay involved in her community
Fred Little Turtle (11)
Plano, Texas
His grandmother, Sarah, lives on the Rosebud Reservation, so he doesn’t get to see her as often as he wants to.
Scenario: Fred wants to learn more about his culture.
Wants:
While in school, Fred’s classmate says something inaccurate about his culture. He decides to reach out to his grandmother to learn more about their culture so that he knows how to react next time he is faced with misinformation.
Frustrations:
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Wishes he saw more of his own culture in school.
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Often upset he can’t visit his grandmother.
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Quits quickly when he isn’t interested or things get too hard.
Defining Solutions:
According to the Stanford Research Institute, VR has proven to be an effective tool to help address loneliness and improve mental and physical health in older adults.
Major Takeaways
Design for forgiveness.
Mistakes happen – especially with new, confusing technology. Making sure our solution can reroute or solve any problems is central to success.
Frame communication.
Any feature we have should become “transparent” and bring conversation to the forefront. People should feel like they are speaking in person.
Remember culture.
The basis of our project is sharing cultural knowledge with others. Bearing culture and traditions in mind helps us design for the right people.
System Maps
We visualized 4 core aspects of what our product could leverage.
Based off our major takeaways, we designed a system map to understand the core aspects we needed to have in our product. We want Community, Technology, Collaboration, and Preservation.
Community:
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We want to give our users access to resources like libraries and Tribal Community Centers in order to learn more about their culture.
Technology:
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We want to leverage AR/VR headsets and gamify our product in order to boost engagement and support elder health.
Preservation:
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In order to preserve their culture, we developed features like storytelling, tutorial building, history games, etc.
Collaboration:
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We want to collaborate with research and software teams to make our product culturally inclusive and accessible for all.
Design
We had 3 designs focuses: Communication, VR interactions and an Accessible design system.
We developed 50+ low-fi wireframes, a XR Information architecture web to design how the VR/XR aspect would work, and developed branding elements that fits the theme of Indigenous culture. This was done in order to construct the interactive features we wanted in our product.
Challenges
We had to modify the AR/VR function and abandon gamification.
Problem:
We wanted to build out a functional prototype that highlights the use of VR, but creating a full functional prototype using a 3D environment and developing unique learning games with the time we had was not feasible.
Solution:
We instead focused on building out one feature in 3D: The home screen. So, I rendered a 3D environment that demonstrated how the user could use the app in a VR area.
VR hub:
I used a 3D software called Bezi in order to create a med fidelity player hub prototype to simulate what the player logs onto when wanting to explore the different features.
Finalizing a lobby with 3 functions:
We decided to make a 3D lobby screen when the users complete the onboarding process.
Usability Testing
4 users ran into issues, so we made changes to the final product.
We tested the wireframes with 4 participants; two were student and two were working professionals. We gave them the task of creating a story and afterwards asked certain questions like "What parts of the app were confusing or difficult to use?"
Here are the key insights:
"I like the news portion but want to be able to incorporate a personalization of news sources."
"I like the landing/home page and different things to look at (recent activity, news, etc.)"
"I didn’t understand clicking through the news stories." (no previous experience with instagram stories)
Word of the day portion did not take her to correct area.
Final Designs
Our final screens highlight the app aspect of our platform. Users would be able choose their own AI companion, craft their own tutorials to share with others, and create/share their own stories.
1. Fred can personalize his experience and select an AI companion!
"I can learn about things I like from people in my tribe! Cool!"
When Fred is tailoring his experience to his own needs and wants, he is able to select things he is interested in while personalizing his experience by selecting an AI companion that represents his tribe's spirit guardian.
Doing this allows Fred and other users to customize their experience before entering the app. This helps keep him entertained for as he gets to customize a more interactive experience.
Our Onboarding experience helps Fred set up his account:
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2. Sarah can make and share tutorials EASIER!
"Now I can send family recipes to my grandson and friends!"
With the "Tutorial" feature, Sarah would be directed to the type of tutorial she wants to make.
As she begins to make more video tutorials for her family and community, she eventually builds a fanbase and gets monetized for her videos. This builds revenue for her as well as the app.
Our tutorial feature helps record, edit, and post:
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3. Sarah can also share Native Legends!
"Wow, I can share family stories and legends with my community!"
With the "Storytelling" feature, Sarah would be able to craft unique stories and share it with her community.
As she begins to make more stories for her family and community, she eventually builds a fanbase and gets comments on her stories. This boosts the app's overall engagement, keeping users on.
Our blog feature combines, text visuals and ambience to craft the perfect story:
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Refletion
Next Steps
The next steps would be to flesh out the VR aspect in greater depth. We explored and developed most of the features we hypothesized but not all. If this product was launched, we would love to track the user engagement in order to find ways to improve the current experience.
Key Takeaways and challenges
With such a massive goal and through the many features that were ideated, I found myself being overwhelmed with the struggle of making sure that our targeted demographic of seniors we are able to use the app and not assuming they knew certain things.
I overcame this internal struggle by making sure to do specific research on senior gerontology, which led me to developing the accessibility screen that lets people customize their settings as soon as possible.