Opportunity Area

The world’s population is aging. Globally, the population aged 65 and over is growing faster than all other age groups. According to data from World Population Prospects: the 2019 Revision, by 2050, one in six people in the world will be over age 65.

Older persons are increasingly seen as contributors to development, whose abilities to act for the betterment of themselves and their societies should be woven into policies and programmes at all levels. Yet, there are limited options or accessible platforms for them to share their thoughts, sentiments, wisdom, and experience.

From Seniors with Love

Rockafellas is a local community radio station dedicated to senior citizens that allows any senior citizen in the neighbourhood to self-upload their own 45 seconds content onto the network, every single time.

The platform aims to be the place where the elderly can express themselves creatively, to inspire each other, build a community, and support each other.

The Design Process

Rockafellas is a 4-day project developed during Beyond The Pocket Computer course. The project started with researching problem areas, where the team decided to focus on empowering the aging population. The radio prototype was built with a consideration of simplicity and ease of use, to make it easier for the elderly to use. The big knob and interactivity of the button resemble the old-time radio, something that might be nostalgic and familiar to them.

As the project was developed during the Covid-19's social distancing and isolation, due to the health consideration it was not recommended to involve any elderly in the video shooting or live interviews process. Therefore, the team was experimenting with the Face App, to transform themselves into the old version of themselves. The result was quite fascinating, and while it was possible to use the app to convert the video version of the images, it was quite a time-intensive and laborious process to do that. The one-day execution timeline given by the faculty forced the team to use the other way, hence the parallax animation method using just the photos was used to create the final video.