RESEARCH AND INSIGHT

Limited space and opportunities

Ageism can lead us to see that many charities and community centers run community activities to address the loneliness of older people in the UK, while few activities or services help them build intimate relationships, given that 30% Of people aged 55+ in England were single. The content of the community activities, although intended to reach a wider group, ended up being mostly female because of the Gender differences on socializing, and causes gender separation.

Lack of emotional language

The invisible unfreedom is also reflected in their thoughts and expressions.

The divorce rate among those aged 55 or older has doubled since 2018 in the UK. And the reason is that many spouses find that their values and ambitions have changed over the years and opt for divorce in pursuit of personal happiness. But they are also afraid that the rules of dating have changed since they haven't been single for decades.

Compared to younger people, older people have fewer ways to meet and date, which are generally dancing , matchmaking groups and online dating.

Insufficient self-perception of value

“WE LIVE IN A CULTURE THAT DOES NOT VALUE BEING OLDER"

Older people or, as we can call them, “the mature group”, are not so popular in the dating market because of their age, as men are more interested in younger women as well as women are more interested in younger men. This impression means on the surface that people resist the state of growing old, but essentially it reflects the fact that they may not know what they want and are blindly seeking approval and vanity. And for their intimacy as well, they might not know what kind of intimate relationship they really want because it can be changed from younger (55-75) to older (over85) and they haven't got the chance to recognize that.

STRATEGY



When we talk about building 'meaningful mingle events', that’s where our strategy landed on and also a starting point.

If they communicate more freely and openly under the influence of a ‘particular social environment, and in the process, through deep but non-stereotypical interaction, build a perception and judgement of intimacy and self-worth, so that ultimately they build a perception and understanding of intimacy and the pursuit of self-happiness and satisfaction

FINAL OUTCOMES - THIS TIME

Spaces

For the physical spaces of the event, the event needs to be held in a more public and natural setting, such as a coffee shop, restaurant, bar, etc. 

For the semantic space I have also designed posters and a social dating code in the set to help people better understand the intimacy-related communication that can take place in the current environment.

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Interaction

The topic of intimacy can make older people feel uncomfortable, especially in the public environment, and we wanted them to be able to communicate in a freer and more natural way. Imagine the 'social king/queen' who is able to steer the conversation by asking natural questions and teasing others with a sense of humor. In a dating environment, any third party guidance would be awkward, so we abstracted the “social queen” character into a fun board game mode, using the cards as a vehicle to get the two parties into a more natural 'game' state and therefore more relaxed. Instead of simply answering questions, I designed a series of simple and fun interaction methods such as Bingo and Truth or Dare to enhance playfulness.

Self-awareness

When meaningful mingle events are established, the value of the platform based on this is not only the activities themselves, but also helping users to build their own self-worth perception and intimacy perception in the process. With the establishment evaluations, articles and resources, other club activities and review on self-awareness and intimacy, we can help them to think about the needs of both parties in relationship.

The evaluation is a series of Intimacy Needs Test questions based on positive psychological theory to help users better identify their needs. By answering questions “I feel more meaningful to me when I …” and choosing one scenario in two choices, we can see which kind of intimacy type they would prefer. After they finish this test, they receive a report which shows their intimacy type and expectation and get more suggestions on how they can cope with other types of people.

BUSINESS MODEL

Provide better access

Offline activities and online resources build this service system, so the key of the business model is how to find and integrate online and offline resources. We work with many different types of partners and provide them with better access to users.

Our platform combines these individual resources into one system through online event recruitment and offline events. Considering the source of customers and promotional channels, our service have free professional assessment and advice content online and offline event promotion to attract users to attend events. Through an annual subscription or one-off payment model, we could allow users to pay for 'social activities that are valuable to them'. If they are interested in the board games used in the interaction process, users can also buy and play them on the platform and use them to create their own communication model.

Currently, there are many websites that offer intimacy content in combination with counseling services, but no offline activities to help people connect, and there are many board games that explore intimacy for younger people, but they are always sold individually without targeted user segmentation.

For game creation teams and consulting services, we offer them the opportunity to reach users more directly, increase exposure and sales; for local community shops and other event organizers, this online platform allows them to reach their local people and even surrounding community and offer a tool kit for them to hold these mingle events.

Reducing gender segregation, improving offline experiences and increasing self-esteem

We build channels through the community, Facebook groups, local groups and partners

The platform also provides information on how to participate in social events organized by other partners and works with them to focus events in certain public areas (such as parks or studios) so that users can participate in different activities. This allows users to naturally meet and interact afterwards. We collaborated with local Singles United and talked with the organizer, Mihkar, who is interested in that and willing to help, so we held the activity and so many people were interested in that and they all enjoyed it.

Therefore, there is value in freedom, engaging, and self-perception.

The service creates free and open environment for community, engaging and meaningful socializing for single mature groups and the self-worth exploring process of personal intimacy needs for each individual.