My Final Bachelor Project focuses on the challenge of phone scams affecting older adults. At this stage, I am deliberately not committing to a specific solution type. The outcome may be preventative, educational, technical, or a combination of these. What matters most is that the direction emerges from a deep understanding of users, stakeholders, and context, rather than from assumptions about what should be built.

This approach reflects my professional identity as a designer who values clarity over novelty, long-term impact over quick fixes, and empowerment over restriction. Through my FBP, I aim to further develop my competencies across the expertise areas in a way that strengthens my ability to design inclusive, realistic, and scalable interventions in complex contexts.

Competency Development Through My FBP

User & Society

During this project, I want to deepen my ability to design for inclusion in situations involving vulnerability, fear, and power imbalance. Phone scams are not only a technical problem, but also a social and psychological one. Older adults may feel shame, loss of confidence, or anxiety around technology, which can influence how they engage with preventative measures.

Rather than assuming that protection should mean restriction, I aim to explore how design can support understanding, confidence, and autonomy. This may involve educational approaches, decision support, changes in behaviour or awareness, or systemic interventions involving relatives or services. I will focus on understanding how older adults currently perceive risk, seek reassurance, and maintain independence, and how design can support these processes without undermining agency.

Business & Entrepreneurship

To move closer to my vision of impact at scale, I want to strengthen how I consider reach, adoption, and sustainability early in the design process. Regardless of whether the outcome is a product, service, or educational intervention, its effectiveness depends on how it reaches people and fits into existing structures.

During my FBP, I will therefore treat distribution, incentives, and stakeholder roles as design inputs rather than post-hoc considerations. This includes exploring who would introduce or recommend such an intervention, who might fund or support it, and what motivations different stakeholders have to engage. By doing this early, I aim to avoid developing concepts that are meaningful in isolation but unrealistic in practice.

Technology & Realisation

Rather than assuming a technology-driven outcome, I want to develop my ability to use technology selectively and responsibly. If the project direction turns out to be educational or service-oriented, this expertise area may be expressed through how learning is delivered, how participation is facilitated, or how impact is evaluated.

If technology does play a role, my focus will be on using it as an enabler rather than as a central feature. I aim to explore appropriate levels of automation, support, and transparency, and to prototype interactions in a way that allows testing of real behaviour and understanding, even when technical systems are simulated. This reflects my desire to design interventions that are trustworthy, explainable, and respectful of users’ capabilities.

Maths, Data & Computing

A key area of growth for me is becoming more confident in making and justifying decisions under uncertainty. During my FBP, I want to strengthen how I use qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate directions, compare concepts, and decide what to pursue further.

This includes defining what “success” means for different types of interventions, such as increased confidence, improved awareness, reduced engagement with scams, or clearer decision-making. I aim to use data not to prove that a concept is perfect, but to understand its limitations and inform iteration. This will help me move forward more decisively while remaining reflective and evidence-based.

Creativity & Aesthetics

In this project, creativity and aesthetics will be closely tied to trust, tone, and clarity. Whether the outcome is a digital tool, a service, or an educational experience, how information is presented will strongly influence how safe, credible, and respectful it feels.

I want to further develop my ability to use visual and interaction design to reduce anxiety, support comprehension, and communicate seriousness without fear-mongering. This includes language, pacing, hierarchy, and affordances. My goal is to create interactions that feel calm, dignified, and empowering, rather than overwhelming or patronising.

SMART Goals for My FBP

1) Build a grounded understanding of the problem space

• Specific: Explore phone scams from the perspectives of older adults, relatives, and professionals involved in prevention or support.

• Measurable: Conduct at least 7 interviews across 3 stakeholder groups and synthesise findings into clear opportunity areas.

• Achievable: Combination of remote interviews, community outreach, and expert conversations.

• Relevant: Ensures the project direction emerges from lived experience rather than assumptions.

• Time-bound: Completed by the end of the early research phase.

Evidence: interview guides, insight synthesis, opportunity framing, problem statement(s).

2) Explore and compare multiple intervention directions

• Specific: Develop and evaluate at least three distinct concept directions (e.g. educational, preventative, systemic, or technical).

• Measurable: For each concept, document expected impact, risks, stakeholders, and assumptions.

• Achievable: Low-fidelity concepts, storyboards, or scenarios.

• Relevant: Prevents early fixation and supports responsible decision-making.

• Time-bound: Completed by mid-project.

Evidence: concept overviews, comparison matrix, decision rationale.

3) Prototype and test the most promising direction

• Specific: Create a prototype or experience that allows realistic testing of the chosen intervention.

• Measurable: Conduct two rounds of user testing with at least 5 participants per round, focusing on understanding, confidence, and perceived autonomy.

• Achievable: Fidelity matched to the concept (educational, service, or technical).

• Relevant: Grounds design decisions in observed behaviour and feedback.

• Time-bound: Completed before final iteration phase.

Evidence: test plans, metrics or reflection criteria, iteration documentation.

4) Integrate reach and feasibility into design decisions

• Specific: Identify how the concept could realistically reach older adults and be supported over time.

• Measurable: Produce one stakeholder map, one delivery or adoption scenario, and a short feasibility reflection.

• Achievable: Desktop research and stakeholder input.

• Relevant: Aligns the project with my vision of scalable, real-world impact.

• Time-bound: Completed alongside concept refinement.

Evidence: diagrams, assumptions list, trade-off discussion.

5) Strengthen decisiveness through explicit reflection

• Specific: Actively document key design decisions and moments of uncertainty.

• Measurable: Maintain a decision log with at least 10 entries, each linking evidence to a choice made.

• Achievable: Short weekly entries.

• Relevant: Directly addresses my personal development goal of becoming more decisive.

• Time-bound: Maintained throughout the FBP.

Evidence: decision log excerpts, reflective summary.