In Good Company
In Good Company is a curated mixer service designed to bring older adults together. Providing an end-to-end event experience, In Good Company offers older adults the opportunity to connect in a more natural setting, through in-person group activities that allow adults to self-select for interest and physical activity level.
In Good Company addresses the challenges faced by single older adults (65+ years old) who struggle to find authentic connection using the online dating interventions of today, which have been designed for younger users.
Vital Statistics
Duration: Sep - Dec 2024
Team: Qi Guan, Eva Mo, Lauren Palazzi, Monty Preston, Rida Zeng
Key Contributions: User Research, Research Synthesis, Design Strategy, Prototyping, Copywriting, Project Management
Overview
The Problem
Dating in one's 60s, 70s, 80s+ is hard.
1. Older adults face declining social circles and gender imbalances, where single women outnumber single men 5:2.
2. An increasingly digital world and altered social norms post-COVID leave older adults at a loss for where to find connection.
3. When older daters reluctantly head to online platforms, they encounter profile architecture and algorithms (which are designed for younger user's preferences) that prevent them from finding authentic connection.
4. Age bias is highly present in the superficial world of online dating. Older adults have strong beliefs around "how old is too old" to date-- even while recognizing that their own mental and physical fitness levels don't match their biological ages.
How might we...
...foster authentic connections between older adults in offline settings through shared activities that challenge preconceived expectations?
The Solution
An end-to-end, curated mixers where older adults connect in-person around shared activities.
1. Challenge: Older adults don’t know where to meet people
👉 To address discovery, we designed an online platform to help older adults find events where mixers and dating activities take place entirely offline.
2. Challenge: Biological-age bias and ill-fitting algorithms
👉 Self-selective activities allow older adults to group themselves with other similarly-abled and like-minded individuals, choosing events based on activity level, location, and interest.
3. Challenge: Declining social circles & gender imbalances
👉 Events cater to singles interested in finding romantic partners, as well as those who are just looking for some pals to hangout with on a recurring basis.
Research
Secondary sources underscored the urgency of the problem. Primary sources allowed us to learn directly from older adults.
Building Context from Secondary Sources
To get an understanding of the problem space, we began by examining secondary sources including academic journals, news articles, existing services, and cultural artifacts (including documentaries and reality TV).
The population of older adults in the US will double to 88M by 2050.
Dating among older adults has entered the zeitgeist with spinoff shows like The Golden Bachelor and
Netflix's Later Daters.
Today, 22M older adults are single, but only 6% of them participate in online dating.
We examined our research learnings for trends and distilled our findings into a set of questions for further exploration, which we used as the structure for our Interview Discussion Guide.
Interviewing Our Users
We met with 6 participants aged 65 - 80 years old over 2 rounds of research via 8 1-hour Zoom interviews.
We sought men and women within the 65+ age group who were currently dating, or would like to date but were struggling to access dating interventions.
Recruiting within this population was a challenge; we posted in Facebook groups and put up flyers in community centers, but ultimately had to rely heavily on our own networks to reach these adults.
Insights
So what did our interviewees tell us?
A Yearn to Learn & Connect
The activities that older adults are interested in might surprise you. Older adults are excited about novel experiences and activities that offer deeper learning opportunities and support engaging conversation when interacting with new people.
So what? The right activity can provide the spark for a new relationship.
Offline & In Control
Older adults are not interested in another online dating service. They seek organic connection and dont want to deal with inbound messages, preferring more control over who gets their contact information.
So what? Digital intervention should be minimal, directing relationship building into offline settings.
A Spectrum of Loves
Older adults are seeking connection across a broad specturm of relationships, including romantic partners, companions, friendship and community.
So what? Solutions that bring singles together should foster a multitude of relationship types.
Turn Up The Volume
While women lament seeing the same men over and over again in their candidate pool, single men are outnumbered 5:2, meaning online dating provides them with an abundance of candidates.
So what? Solutions aiming to bring men and women together must include active recruiting strategies.
Accessible = Convenient
Accessibility considerations around activity type, event location, and transportation not only empower older daters with mobility issues or other impairments to enjoy events more fully, but they also add convenience and reduce friction for all users.
So what? Addressing mini and major pain points alike can be an opportunity to delight all users.
Ideation
We originally ideated around concepts ranging from a singles vetting service to wearables to a video chat platform, but we were most excited about... end-to-end, curated mixers where older adults connect in-person around shared activities.
This approach addresses three main challenges facing older adults in dating:
Challenge: Older adults don’t know where to meet people
1. In-person events foster authentic connection, while an events webpage and email newsletter makes discovery easy.
Challenge: Biological-age bias and ill-fitting algorithms
2. Self-Selective activities allow adults to group themselves with others of similar cognitive and physical age.
Challenge: Declining social circles & gender imbalances
3. Activities emphasize friendship and community in addition to romance.
User Testing
We shared initial prototypes and storyboards with our participants and they had some glowing feedback. Evelyn, 73, asked us, "When can this be real?"
They also didn't love a few things. Older adults don't want to be confronted with their age, so language must be carefully considered. Also, images are interpreted very literally, so being selective with illustrations is important for communicating what to expect at an event. Finally, offering this service as a membership model could reduce the number of new participants each time: a pay as you go model could encourage more people to try our events.
We took this feedback and incorporated into our updated designs:
Competition
You're probably thinking, this feels so obvious. Aren't people doing this already?
The answer is no. While there are piecemeal solutions for older daters, none bring it all together.
- Community centers like 125 Live are rebranding to shed outdated perceptions, offering activities like wine tastings and fitness classes. But their offerings are designed for anyone above the age of 18 and are limited to their physical spaces.
- Platforms like Meetup emphasize community building through interest-based events, but anyone can create groups. They lack a dedicated dating component and don’t consistently cater to older adults.
- And then there are online dating platforms like Match, Bumble, and eHarmony. These focus solely on romance, ignoring the need and opportunities for friendship and community building.
Differentiation
Here’s where we shine! Unlike existing options, our service bridges the gap:
- We intentionally provide both community-building and romance opportunities in one seamless experience.
- Unlike community centers limited by physical spaces, our inclusive events offer a variety of activities - stimulating, quiet, active, or low-energy - that we confirm to be tailored to different interests, personalities, and abilities.
- We also prioritize accessibility and convenience through thoughtful programming details, like easy phone sign-ups and optional ad-on for transportation.
Simply put: No one else addresses all of these needs in one service. We’re offering a unique solution that empowers older adults to connect, grow, and build meaningful relationships on their own terms.
Next Steps
There are still a number of elements that need to be considered.
1. We know that volume of participants and having newness in our attendee population will be crucial to success: given the challenges we faced recruiting for our interviews, we need to investigate how best to reach and activate our audience.
2. How we can integrate and leverage existing offerings on the market to help bring this idea to life? This might include partnering with retirement communities and existing clubs such as the AARP. We also need to explore economic and accessible transportation solutions available to older adults, such as MTA's Access-A-Ride and Uber's RidePass.
3. Safety: since older adults are often targeted by bad actors, we must develop create safety protocols to ensure the security of our participants.
