Scenarios: Shopping for Goods with Major Singh

Carroll (2000) states that scenarios are a great usability assessment tool to support the design of a system. This subsequent blog outlines a hypothetical scenario of a user interacting with the trolley device in its intended Supermarket environment.

In the UK there are 4 main supermarket stores, Tescos, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons. All 4 have a similar layout consisting of isles, deli counters and checkouts. Isles are designed to grant shoppers enough space to ensure a smooth shopping experience, but at busy times isles can become congested with shoppers and out of control trolleys.

Major Singh’s – A typical Shopping Scenario

Major Singh walks into the supermarket, his back arched slightly forward and walking with a limp, his knees momentarily buckling under the weight of his giant torso….. the ex army veterans body has taken its toll, especially after his well publicised ‘torturing’ incident that occurred in the late 70s by militant group lead by the notorious Jack Baber from Major Singh’s time in the Indian army. Being an old fashioned independent person, Major does his own weekly shopping without fail.

It’s a Sunday, and Major Singh is doing his weekly shop, the supermarket it busy, the hustle and bustle of the supermarket reminds Major Singh of Jalandur, his home town back in India, a woman shoots past in a traditional metal trolley, Major Singh can hear those ominous beeps from the checkout…. he looks round, and sees the checkouts full to the brim with people purchasing their goods…. Major Singh mutters to himself “hai hai, pend di yaaar”, he wipes his face, winds up his moustache and goes and gets his new computerised shopping trolley.

Major Singh then prepares to add his shopping list to the trolley device via the user friendly simplistically intuitive computerised touch screen pad on the trolley. Major Singh is standing stationary in the middle of the entrance entering his shopping list, as people brush past him to get into the store…. if only there was a small area where he could spend 5 minutes declaring his shopping list. Major Singh swipes the trolley device with his personal shopping card which stores all of his medical conditions, dietary requirements and shopping patterns.

Major Singh adds the essentials into his shopping list; he uses the interface to add bread, milk, meat and whiskey. The device then computes a complex algorithm and provides major Singh with the most efficient route round the supermarket to collect his desired products. This saves Major Singh a lot of time, hassle and reduces the stress on his body instead of walking back and forth down isles.

As Major Singh goes, as Dale would say, “wild in the isles”, following the route provided to him by the trolley, he picks up his bottle of whiskey and places it into his trolley. The computerised device starts to flash and shows a warning message to Major Singh, it explains that the high levels of sugar content in the Whiskey is not suitable for Major Singh as he suffers from Type 2 diabetes. Major Singh subsequently removes the bottle out of the trolley and replaces it back onto the shelf; the product is automatically taken off the products list on the device.

Scenarios: Purchasing Goods with Tony

The Scenario that I am going to explain is the user paying for all their goods. What I am going to demonstrate is:
- The type of environments that this system is usually used in.
- The technology that will be used
- The various processes that will happen to purchase items (see the image on the left)
- Why this is benificial to the target audience (old people)

The Types of Environments
Imagine a busy supermarket, your local Sainsbury's, Tesco's or Asda. Shoppers in every ilse rushing around buying their weekly shop. With some of the larger stores on average having 30 isles, shelving above head height stocked to the brim with goods, loads of busy shelf replenisment staff, and the worst is yet you come! You finally finish shopping for the week and you head of to the nearest check out to find the queue is like the M25.

The Technology that will be used
One of the latest pieces of technology to hit the market is RFID, RFID is a small silicon chip that can store information about items, so not great for databases but great for things that could be found at your local super market shelf, Mars Bars, Cheerios, Bread... etc...etc (for more information click here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6389581.stm ) So in essence you could store the bar code on this RFID chip and therefore remove the barcode, but then I can hear you say, why would you want to remove the bar code with this chips that cost more? Well simple, our idea encorparates the technological advances of RFID to remove the worst part of the shopping experience, the queing at the tills.

RFID readers are directional, which means that if we line the trolley with a couple of RFID readers facing intowards the trolley then any item that is put in the trolley can automatically be calculated removing the need for people having to queue to get their items paid for.

The Processes
In this example I will use one of our personas, Tony. So as Tony is doing his usual trip to his local Sainsbury's in his usual italian pin stripped shopping suit. He starts to throw in all the ingredients into his trolley that he needs for mama's secret recipe which he is planning on cooking later on tonight.

All the items that he has put into his trolley have RFID tags, so as he places them in his trolley the readers read the information of the item, and sends it to the trolley device which shows on screen the price and the nutrional information. Once Tony has finished his shopping trip he walks over the checkout and instead of tilling up he just walks past the tilling sensors that will automatically charge him through his store card. This means that he doesn't have to wait, it's like walking through an X-ray machine.

So... recapping quickly using bullet points:
- Tony adds an item to the trolley
- The trolley RFID readers pick up this new item, relays the information to the trolley device showing information on screen
- Tony finishes his shopping trip and walk through the tilling isle (without queuing)
- At this point the Trolley device has sent the information to the store charging/EPOS system that has taken the payment with the use of information of the store card that was placed into the trolley device.

Why is this Beneficial to Old People
Well as we know old people aren't the nimblest or quickest people in a supermarket. Firstly this technology means that - They don't have to worry about having to take the items out of the trolley
- Having to place items on the conveyor belt
- Bagging the items really quickly
- Hunting around for their card to pay for the goods
- Placing the bags back into the trolley.

Missing out these steps removes the need for physical strains for old people when shopping.

Paper Design and Interface of Device

Here is just a brief idea of what I think the device should look like. I will produce a clearer version in my next post when I finally get Visio. Its in the design process at the moment, I'll get the measurements etc in the next post.
For a start I have designed the menus, here is a step by step approach in using the device menus:

step 1 - there is start screen saying "Please Insert Store Card"

step 2 - once inserted the device displays the persons name from the store card and asks "Confirm" or "Cancel"

step 3 - once confirmed we have the main image right of us- it will also have the person name on there somewhere

step 4 - when the person wants to search, they touch the search button (touch screen) then a new menu pops up with a big simple keyboard on screen and the search field, the person types in whatever they look for and press return

step 5 - results are displayed and recommendations, then when the person clicks on a certain food, the info section changes accordingly - gives the price etc

step 6 - then they press the add button to add it to shopping list

step 7 - any updates/changes to shopping list will be noted by having different background colors depending on what was changed, so if new item added, it will highlight it green for a bit

step 8 - the person can press "begin route" then this produces an updated route and begins the direction giving - you might be thinking where are there directions on the screen? they will be at the forefront of the menu, making the back menu slightly transparent and giving a more stronger color to directions and instructions it provides - so imagine seeing a red arrow pointing forward and below it "6 meters"

step 9 - if the person see's another item they want on the shelf, they simply press stop on the screen and drop the item in the trolley, the rfid trolley readers scan the product and automatically add it to shopping list and total price....

step -10 the person can then press begin route again, which recalculates any changes and continues as step 8

step 11 - once the person has finsihed shopping, they can walk through the checkouts which will uatomatically ask the person to confirm the goods they have brought and the amount the have to pay, so "Pay" ->> "Confirm Amount" ->>>>"Thank you for shopping at ...."

step 12 - person then removes their shopping and leaves the trolley and device in-store

Modifications to our final Idea

After taking all the criticisms into account we decided to add and remove a few functionalities to our idea. This was all discussed in our team meeting yesterday.

We have decided to present our idea in a diagram so it is easier to digest.


Summary of key features

• The recommendations device can be used to scan products and return a list of recommendations and recipes depending on user preferences and medical conditions.
• The device can also be used to search for products and the device will act like a 'Satnav' and guide the user around the store to these products in the most efficient way.
• The trolley will be very light because it will electrically powered making it easy to push
• A store card with personal details, bank details, medical conditions will be swiped into the device.
• The device will be linked to an online server which will carry out the transaction as the user drops the products into the trolley

Criticisms

We have identifed the technology we would like to develop for the elderly.

However there are a few criticisms that we would like to to answer and modify our idea accordingly...

1. Why not encourage the elderly to use online shopping?
2. Moving the trolley outside? What if the person wants to get home on the bus?
3. Would this trolley work in smaller supermarkets?
4. When the trolley is moving by itself, it limits the amount of freedom the user has.
   For example, the user might make an impulse purchase, as he/she picks up a product the trolley may have disappeared into the distance..
   

Our view to these criticisms...

1. We all know of the growing popularity of online shopping, however a lot of people are still are hesitant to provide credit card details due to security scares.
   
   Furthermore, we recognised in our brainstorms that elderly people like to remain independent. Online shopping does not allow this. Our technology would allow the elderly to shop for themselves
   
   
2. After careful thought and deliberation we have decided to remove the 'Trolley outside' feature from our idea.
   We have removed this idea because the scope of the initial idea was too wide and we would like to concentrate on the functionality inside the store.
   
   
3. The supermarkets will decide whether the trolley is applicable in their branch.
   
   
4. After analysing automatic trolley feature we have decided to implement a motored engine that powers the trolley. This means that the elderly person will only need to push the trolley slightly and the engine will power the wheels.
   This technology has already been implemented in electronic pallet trucks in cash and carries.
   (http://www.howardhandling.co.uk/products.php?PageId=4)
   Electronic pallet trucks are very expensive, the average cost being £1800 for 1400kilos. Obviously we don't need such a high capacity - the trolley will need to handle 20kg max.
   

Final Idea: The Ultimate Shopping Experience

After our meating earlier on today, we decided on our final idea:

We have come to a consensus that we should concatenate two of our most prominent ideas:
The Supermarket recipe advisor and The Motion Sensor Trolley
(Please see the previous posts to why the elderly would find these technologies useful)

By merging these ideas, our technology will offer the ultimate shopping experience for elderly people. The issues our technology will deal with is the difficulties elderly people suffer from when shopping, which are:

• Walking around the supermarket during busy times,
• Forgetting shopping lists (Poor memory)
• They find it difficult to find items for diets that are dictated by illnesses/medical conditions
• Getting lost in the shop
• Having to walk back and forth around the store for multiple items (Inefficient)
• People with poor eyesight are unable to read products and ingredients
• Elderly people get tired when waiting in long queues

Here is our proposed technology to solve the problems we identified:

• Supermarket recipe advisor - a device that will recommend recipes depending on what product is scanned into the device. The device will recommend products depending on:
• Persons health issues
• Recommend certain foods depending on medical conditions. eg Cod liver oil for arthritis
• All of the users information will be on the persons store card. eg. Health information, Shopping habits
• The device will have a budget advisor and offer cheaper products - good for penny saving pensioners.
• This device will be detachable from the trolley
  
• Motion Sensor Trolley - The trolley will have two functions, inside the store and outside.
• Inside the Store -
• The trolley will automatically navigate the person around the store depending on their shopping. This could be done using a Dijkstras algorithm which calculates the shortest route.
• The trolley will navigate the user depending on the type of products the recipe advisor/shopping lists includes.
• For example, If the user wanted to purchase Milk and Bananas, the trolley will guide the user to the Milk first because it is a heavier product. We will implement this because if Bananas were put in the trolley first, they would be damaged by heavier items such as Milk bottles.
• The trolley will have motion sensors to ensure it does not collide with anything in the store. eg. People, Shelves, Other trolleys etc. This could be done using 'Collision Theory'
• There will be a pause/stop button on the trolley. This can be used if the person finds an item that is not on the shopping list and wants to add it to the trolley.
  
• Outside the Store -
• The trolley will be controlled by motion sensors installed in the users shoes.
• We will NOT implement the supermarket sensors in the outside environment because there are an unlimited amount of obstacles.
• The trolley will be designed to deal with the external environment. For example:
• Durable wheels
• Active suspension and hydraulics to deal with pavements
• A trolley cover to protect the shopping from rain
• Intelligent Store Card
• Along with user information, the card will have bank/debit details. It will connect to an online server that deals with the transactions.
• This will eliminate the need for waiting in queues
• The recipe advisor device screen will have a running total of costs
• The trolley will scan the product prices as it is dropped into the trolley
• When an item is taken out, it will be taken off the shopping list
• The final payment will be made once the user walks out of the supermarket, a sensor will automatically take a payment for the shopping.

Supermarkets today are a mess.

"I went into Safebury's, I took a look around and realised that God left this place a long time ago" - Biling Di Caprio

I couldn't be more pleased with this idea

More Info on Use Cases

Hi guys,
Just in case you need some extra help on building use cases and looking at the task analysis method, here are some useful websites - let me know if you find any better. Tah!

http://www.gatherspace.com/static/use_case_example.html#1
http://www.cs.bgsu.edu/drhutch/classes/324/lec05.html

Interface Usability for Old People

During one of our sessions we wanted to discuss the need for creating a visual application which would be appreciated by the elder user. We came up with the following points that needed to be considered:

• Present larger targets.
• Clear confirmation of target capture – large visual changes
• Should NOT have a double click feature
• Relevant graphics only – no animation
• Give location of current page
• Steer clear of scrollbars
• Avoid blue and green tones

Here are some of the resources which aided our discussion:

http://blog.fawny.org/2005/11/12/elder/
http://www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/~jag76/hci_workshop06/proposal.pdf

Idea: Shopping Advisor

So to take this whole thing a step further I have come up with an idea, and I've decided to use Mrs Singh (Major Singh's wife) as a user to help me describe the idea.

As we have heard Major Singh loves his Meat, curries and chapattis, however Mrs Singh's recipes don't involve the healthiest of ingredients let alone giving Major Singh a balanced diet, adding further to Major Singh's diabetic and high cholestorol health problem. To solve this problem there is a piece of technology that could be used to ensure that Mrs Singh provides Major Singh with a diet that is not only tasty but healthy, in essence it's a shopping advisor. This touch screen device sits on the trolley and will give the choice of allowing it's user to choose healthier options.

So what does Mrs Singh have to do? Well it's really simple Mrs Singh swipes her store card in the trolley device which will then log her into the system, it will know what she has bought in the past and all her shopping habits. If it's the first time that Mrs Singh is using it, it will ask a few questions in regards to any allery suffers and health issues that need to be considered when giving her choices. In this case Major Singh's cholestrol and sugar intake are the main concern. Once this is done Mrs Singh floats around the shop floor in her usual manner and picks up the same foods that she would normally, if she scans in these products it will give her information about the product such as the usual callories, fats, sugars, etc etc. It will also display extra information that sometimes is not available on the packets due to their size, a common example is Major Singh's eldest son, Randeep, is a great fan of Kit Kat, Mrs Singh scans in the Kit Kat chocolate to find that Randeep should really cut down on his intake of 46 packets a day, it also allows Nestle to give a description of what the chocolate tastes like, in this case the information on screen states:

"Kit Kat, neighbours escaped from their padded cell? Pet Chi Wow Wow eating kitchen knives? House on fire? Compiler errors? New job as Ronald MacDonald getting you down? Whatever the occassion, have a break, have a Kit Kat. This delicious chocolate bar is the fix that will get you through the day, the four slices of waffer covered in milk chocolate and the love of Nestle workers that goes into making this simple formula, is a chocolate suitable for all, even your granny!"

On entering the fresh poultry isle Mrs Singh picks up a chicken and scans it in, on screen flashes the usual options as mentioned but also a recipe option that allows Mrs Singh to choose recommended recipes that she could cook for Major Singh. She touches this button to find an array of recipes available, the shopping advisor was clever enough to take into account that Major Singh health problems and filters the search to show recipes with little or no sugar and fat. Mrs Singh decided that as it is her anniversary tomorrow, it would be a great idea if she had a romantic meal with just Major Singh. After scrolling through the various recipes she selected the chicken curry. The shopping advisor asks her the following questions, How many people is this meal for? Knowing that Major Singh was crowned the "1969 Chicken and Chappati Champ" she said 4 people.

The shopping advisor then tells her all the ingredients that she needs and what isle she can find it instore. She then whizzes through all the isle that contain the ingredients and ticks of all the items on screen as she picks them up, thankfully the system has made sure that everything is in stock before recommending her the item. She then pays for the items and goes home.
Once at home she prints logs into the store web site and prints of her recipe ready for Major Singh's special meal.

Idea: Bringing High-Tec to the Old Age

After having a discussion with my enlightened group members on my initial shopping trolley idea ;-) ….

Here’s a more adventurous approach to the concept, not sure how technologically feasible it is though.

Ok so you can imagine a pensioner with a remote control in their hands following the trolley or some other moving mechanism slightly in front of them carrying their shopping (check out my image above) (like a kid with his remote control car)

….using a remote control will be tricky for them as their senses and reactions are very slow, so they might cause damage to other pedestrians and possibly motorists depending on how crazy they get with remote...again if you can imagine …

So after Jats idea…. installing a small micro-sensor chip in the old persons shoe, jacket, a card in their purse/wallet or even installed into their actual body…. this chip would then correspond to a sensor placed on the moving trolley, which will react to movements of the old person, so whenever they STOP…. the machine STOPS next to them, when they go LEFT, the machine moves LEFT and so on.

I think this idea maybe for the wealthy in its early production…if it ever makes it… someone like Tony would possibly go for it unless he gets his shopping delivered the old bugger!
But when the technology is more standardised then I guess someone like Maureen or Mr Singh can start thinking of getting one.

Here’s a link to something that’s already been developed - http://www.physorg.com/news10706.html

Idea: New Generation of Laptop!!

I don’t like to brag, but my physique compares that of Arnold Schwarzenegger the former Mr Universe. With muscles bulging from every limb, I find menial everyday tasks such as driving a tractor and picking spinach from the farm exceedingly straightforward to achieve. However, carrying my laptop for a mile puts great strain on my shoulders, back, hip, knees and ankles. If a middle aged man, in the peak of physical fitness struggles, it is inevitable that an elderly person will struggle even more and would be detrimental to their body and joints.

I consequently decided to hold a focus group at my granddads social centre, which have weekly computer sessions to improve their awareness with the computers and the internet. All the members of the focus group were not very computer literate, but knew how to perform basic web browsing tasks. They all acknowledged the invaluable use of the internet, but also stated that even though small and light laptops were available on the market, they would not purchase one because of a range of issues.

The focus group brought forward the need for a lightweight laptop, but which had a sufficiently sizeable screen for elderly individuals with poor eyesight so that they would not have to strain their eyes, and a keyboard sufficiently large enough so that people with arthritis would not hit more than 1 button at once. This results in a paradox, a laptop with a large keyboard and screen, yet small so that it is easily transportable.

After a discussion and brainstorming event within the group, the overall consensus came to an idea of a compact laptop mirroring the size of a standard mobile phone. The small device would have the capabilities of a projectable keyboard, which is already widely available on the market, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/dot_life/2326077.stm. The device would also incorporate a projectable screen, the advancements into such a small projector would be a debatable issue to whether it is currently technological viable.

Idea: Modify The Brain!

“…I mean Phinder, could you dial your uncle’s telephone number” (translated from Punjabi).
Before the “…I mean Phinder”, my grandmother mentioned the names of my 4 other cousins.

Our ability to recall what we’ve ‘recorded’ in our memory generally deteriorates during the body’s natural ageing process.

My proposal (not to be tested on my gran – I prefer keeping her brain active by playing connect-4, teaching her Portuguese and how to send emails to her sons at work) stick a chip in their brain!

It may sound like a wacky idea from a James Bond movie but something similar has been implemented already. I read an article a little while ago about a man was paralysed after a knife attack. He was unable to move any of limbs from the neck down. A chip was inserted into his brain that was connected and able to control an artificial limb.
During tests, he was successfully able to move the artificial limb, not with full accuracy, but I think even this basic movement is rather impressive.

So this is what we do…
The area of the brain that is activated when we want to store an ‘object’ in our memory, we insert a chip. This chip activates a photo camera that is placed, lets say, in a necklace (for comical purposes, I will imagine it is placed in between the eyes). Whenever the chip detects some signal in a particular area of the brain, it takes a photo. So when Gran, is at the supermarket, and forgets whether or not there were Murray Mints in the drawer at home, she simply recalls what she saw on her mobile phone!

Here’s a CNN report that discusses some technology used to help paralysed patients:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/04/10/cybernetics.profile/

Idea: Speed Granny!

A speed accelerator for elderly motorists.

I know we all get frustrated when driving behind a slow driver. It can be a very annoying experience.

The majority of the time, the culprits of slow driving are elderly motorists. It is very common for older drivers to drive at 20mph in 30mph zone or even 30mph in 60mph zone. The reasons behind slow driving is because elderly drivers become more pre-cautious in their old age. Also diminishing senses (eyesight, hearing, touch) have a big impact on their driving skills

An idea we discussed in our brainstorm was a speed accelerator for elderly motorists.

Cars owned by elderly people would be installed with devices that control the speed of the vehicle.

The device would have 'Satnav' functionality, so the road that the vehicle is travelling on can be established. Using this knowledge, the device can establish what the speed limit is on this road.

So if the car is travelling at 20mph in a 40 mph zone, the device will increase the speed to meet the limit.

Obviously, the device will have to be user friendly, it can not just execute an instant acceleration without warning the driver! This could catch the driver by surprise and they could lose control of the vehicle.

The device could use a friendly voice that will:

1. Warn a driver if he/she is driving too slow
2. Inform driver that the device will gently increase the speed

The only thing that I am unsure of is whether 'Satnav' devices know what the speed limits are on different roads.

I welcome any suggestions on this idea, so we can develop it further :-)

Idea: The Shopping Trip

Heres a little idea of mine…not any one else’s (wink wink Jag)

What do old people like doing the most or what do you see them doing alot?

No not sleeping, not chasing young asbo kids down the street – then again I've seen the latter…

They actually like getting out of the house and going shopping…..not to the bull ring to buy some Prada but for groceries at the local market….well from my experience that’s been the case....whenever I used to go with my mom to the local market as a kid I would always see old people struggling to get their shopping home.

I did see some however who were OK in one sense, the disabled few, who had small motor cars, not sure what they call them…to go home in with their shopping.

So what if we got the older generation who walked home, to use a remote controlled trolley carrying their bags, don’t know how it would look, probably funny, there maybe issues with weak fingers, I guess you would have to make a user friendly remote control - which seems to be the whole idea of this module.

ps. i asked Maureen to smile for the camera but she wasnt havin any of it!

Technology Brainstorm

Here is the list of initial ideas from our brainstorm

• Remote Control Shopping Trolley
• Laptop with Keyboard and Screen Projection
• Short term memory improvement device
• Supermarket Recipe Advisor
• Speed Accelerator for elderly motorists

Persona: Maureen

Maureen is 65 years old and lives alone in a 2 bedroom terraced house. Her husband, a war veteran, passed away 4 years ago. She keeps a photo of him in a polished silver frame next to the clock in the sitting room.Her health is stable for her age. She can walk up the stairs within 90 seconds and the only medication she takes is to control the random twitching of her fingers on the left hand.

She wakes up in the morning and puts on her slippers that have been carefully placed, as she does every night before bed, to the right of her bed. After washing her face and positioning her teeth, she heads into the kitchen. She carries out the ‘eat breakfast’ routine, finding her cutlery perfectly aligned, in the exact same spot they have been for the last 5 years.

She leaves her sanctuary and enters the world; a mess, constantly changing, not as it was in the ‘good old days’. On her way to the supermarket, she walks through the park, for she knows she won’t be able to on the way back with her grocery.

Her 2 grandchildren tell her about www. sainsburys to you. com, but the thought of it is too overwhelming. “The security issues, learning how to use a computer, maintaining a computer, buying a computer with my pension, oh and the eyesight!”. Besides Maureen, likes to see exactly what she’s buying to ensure the quality.

Persona: Tony

Name: Tony Gandolfini

Occupation: Retired, former CEO

Age: 60

Tony is a 60 year old retiree; he recently retired as CEO from “The Pamily Corp”. The company brought Tony all the things he always wanted; money, fast cars, fast women, meat and whiskey. However the stress and conflicts of the cutthroat and competitive nature of the job took its toll on Tony, he suffered from regular panic attacks and subsequently regularly met with Dr Satnam Melfi who was his psychiatrist. Tony contemplated retiring many times, but every time he tried to get out, they pulled him back in!


Tony’s wife passed away after a freak accident with a Horse! Ever since, Tony has changed his ways, leaving his previous work and responsibilities behind and devoting his life to religion. He left behind his MEAT eating and Alcohol guzzling ways and is now a strict vegan.


Tony has 2 kids, Mobbdeep and Van HelSingh, both have been well educated and live in New York with successful jobs, leaving Tony on his own in his mansion in New Jersey. Tony feels ever increasingly lonely, but his new found faith in religion has enlightened him.


Cooking and meeting with his friends are Tony’s main hobbies to keep active. He enjoys his food, being of Italian descent he is very adamant on fresh organic foods. Tony regularly gets his friends Silvio, Paulie and Chrissy round for a meal, some pro evo and some friendly banter.


After years of not looking after himself, Tony is overweight; his newly found love for Bhangra is difficult for him, as his knees cannot take the pressure of his fat ass. Tony enjoys spending far too much time sitting in front of his plasma screen TV on his lazy boy, watching pointless programs that he downloads off his laptop, which he constantly uses to go on Facebook and poke people. Consequently his back, hip and knees are weak, and he has RSI as he spends for to long on his laptop. His love for all the latest technological advancements with LCD screens has seen his already poor eyesight deteriorate even more.

Persona: Major Singh

Major Singh


Age: 69
Occupation: Retired, Ex-Military
Marital Status: Married



Major Singh is a ex-military general from the Indian Army. He retired in the late 80's and migrated to the UK from the Punjab with his wife and 6 children. Major learnt English very quickly but he still uses Punjabi as his primary language.

Major lives in Birmingham with his wife Landpreet and youngest son Randeep who is on the dole and spends his days looking after his parents. Major's other children have all graduated as doctors, lawyers and engineers. They are all married and living their own lives, but always make time to visit their parents.

Jeff is one of Major's son's who recently graduated from Birmingham University after studying Computer Science. Jeff is always keeping his Father abreast of the latest technology. He recently gave Major the newest mobile phone and a mp3 player with Major's favourite Bhangra songs. Major gets very excited by new technologies and recognises the benefits of IT.

Major appreciates the finer things in life, such as drinking whiskey and eating meat. However, this lifestyle has taken its toll on his health. Major now suffers from diabetes and high cholestoral which has forced him to change his diet. However, this diet change has proved to be a difficult task due to Major's huge appetite for his wife's Punjabi dishes which are renound for being rich with butter. There are healthy Punjabi foods available but Major's wife is yet to be introduced to such recipes.

Although Major is getting older, he is still very active which is due to his days in the army and his earlier profession as a Kabaddi player (Punjabi wrestler). Major keeps himself busy by teaching Kabaddi to youths at the local community centre and organising tournaments.

Personas and age group brainstorm

Hi Guys,

Here are the characteristics we identified about elderly people from our brainstorm...

• Short term memory
• Inpatient
• Scared of change
• Lonely
• Unwilling to embrace new technology
• More susceptible to illnesses
• Have to be self reliant
• Poorer senses - eyesight, hearing, touch

Here are the persona's we thought of from our brainstorming session earlier today...

Maureen - An OAP that is very hesitant to embrace technology.
Major Singh - A proud punjabi who loves his food and drink.
Tony - A health conscious retiree.