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Redesigning a civic app to bridge the gap between elderly citizens in Madrid and volunteers — reducing digital barriers, loneliness, and friction in a service that matters.
Undesired loneliness among people over 65 is one of the most pressing social challenges in Madrid. The city's existing "Madrid te Acompaña" app connects elderly residents with volunteers for daily activities, medical appointments, and social interaction — but its current interface creates barriers instead of removing them: small typography, hard-to-see buttons, confusing navigation, and a fundamental uncertainty about when and how to reach a volunteer.
"¿Cómo podríamos mejorar la interacción entre voluntarios y personas mayores de 65 años, mediante la aplicación, sin que su uso les resulte complejo?"HMW Question — Madrid te Acompaña, 2025
A complete accessibility-first redesign of the app, grounded in real field research with users over 65. The new experience prioritises extreme legibility, large touch targets, simplified navigation, and multiple contact modalities — ensuring the technology adapts to the user, not the other way around.
The redesign introduces interest-based volunteer matching, a streamlined appointment flow, group activity booking, and a transparent communication system — transforming the app from a help-request tool into a genuine platform for connection and community belonging.
Research combined a citizen survey targeting elderly users, Maslow's hierarchy applied to digital accessibility needs, benchmarking of comparable services, and a collaborative affinity mapping session across the full team.
Designed to understand communication habits, technology barriers, and usability needs of seniors receiving volunteer support. Key findings: despite daily phone use, the barrier is interface design — not tech rejection. Users want large buttons, large text, and clarity about when to contact their volunteer.
Applied to the 65+ context to identify critical design priorities. Security and belonging are the two most urgent levels for this user group: they need to feel safe using the app (not fear making mistakes) and connected to a broader community. Esteem needs follow — recognition that their time and requests matter.
Compared Madrid te Acompaña against Papa Pals (US), Fundación Amigos de los Mayores, and Decide Madrid. Key insight: most comparable services are offline, institutional, or non-digital. Papa Pals demonstrates that a simple, human platform can successfully scale volunteer-senior connections without replacing human warmth.
The barrier is fear of making mistakes, not rejection of technology. Seniors need clear, direct interfaces that guide without jargon.
Most users communicate by phone. A single-tap call must be the primary action — multi-step flows create anxiety and abandonment.
100% of users didn't know when to contact their volunteer. Availability must be visible from the home screen.
High contrast, large text by default. Small letters were the #1 barrier — bold typography is a structural requirement.
56px minimum buttons with generous spacing — tolerates imprecise taps from users with reduced dexterity.
Linear, predictable navigation. No hidden menus. Every screen answers: what am I doing here, what's next?
Call, video, text, voice — ordered by familiarity, not technological complexity.
"Las personas mayores de Madrid sienten inseguridad al utilizar aplicaciones digitales porque temen equivocarse o no comprender los pasos. Necesitan interfaces que comuniquen de forma clara, directa y humana, evitando símbolos confusos."Core Insight — Madrid te Acompaña Research, 2025
A collaborative six-member team process — each member contributing individual research, wireframes, and flows that were then synthesised into a unified, tested product.
Survey targeting 65+ users on communication habits, technology comfort, and desired app features. Complemented by user diaries revealing the emotional texture of everyday loneliness.
Collaborative FigJam session where each team member brought findings. Key insights: fear of error outweighs tech rejection; the volunteer availability gap is a primary friction point.
Seven personas created across four elderly users and three volunteers. Selected María Luisa Ortega as the primary persona — concentrating the core needs and tech behaviours of the target group.
Each team member individually designed a key screen proposal: onboarding, home, volunteer list, video call, appointment booking, and activity selection. This divergent phase surfaced 6 different interaction approaches to the same problem before converging on the best elements.
Individual flows merged into a single validated flow: Onboarding → Profile selection → Interest personalisation → Home → Volunteer selection → Contact (call/video/message) → Appointment scheduling → Experience rating. Volunteer route runs in parallel with its own registration and availability settings.
Screen-by-screen wireframes built per team member, then unified into a navigable Figma prototype. Designed around four accessibility principles: large text, big buttons, single-task screens, and explicit state feedback at every action. Registration split across multiple short screens to avoid cognitive overload.
Real users tested the prototype in their natural environments — streets, community centres, homes. Participants: Andrés (69, Madrid), María del Carmen (66, Madrid), Enrique (69, Barcelona), Javier (78, Toledo), Carlos (77), Pedro (46 — volunteer). Each completed a specific task scenario evaluated against Nielsen's Heuristics.
Tasks evaluated: registration, interest personalisation, group activity booking, volunteer selection, appointment scheduling, session close. All 6 users completed their assigned tasks without critical errors, blocks, or external assistance. María del Carmen's session close took 15 seconds — she said "Ha sido facilito."
Three key improvements surfaced: (1) feedback icons needed visible selected states before the "submit" action; (2) the "remember login" checkbox needed a deselect option; (3) a "view booked activities" screen was added to the group plans flow. All other flows confirmed as stable and ready for the next iteration phase.
The visual system for Madrid te Acompaña is built around trust, warmth, and radical accessibility. DM Sans as the brand typeface, a high-contrast primary palette, a 4-column mobile-first grid, and large-scale touch components — every decision is grounded in the real needs of users over 65.
Brand typeface — flat corners, high legibility, projects reliability and warmth. Only Regular (400) and Bold (700) weights used across all screens.
Designed exclusively for mobile. Consistent column rhythm across all screens, with generous touch zones and breathing room.
Clean, recognisable icon set. Used at 24px for maximum legibility at a glance — essential for users with vision difficulties.
Large primary buttons (56px), medium (48px), small (40px). Generous touch targets that tolerate imprecise taps from users with reduced dexterity.
Validated through field usability testing with real users over 65, conducted across Madrid, Toledo, and Barcelona.
"Ha sido facilito."María del Carmen, 66 años, Madrid — usability test participant after completing the session close flow
The barrier isn't rejection of technology — it's unusable design. Large text, visible buttons, and single-task screens remove the fear of making mistakes. When those elements are in place, users over 65 can navigate complex flows confidently and independently.
Icons need clear selected states before any submit action — users must see confirmation that their input was registered before moving forward. One test participant selected a feedback face but saw no visual change, creating uncertainty about whether the tap had worked.
Splitting registration across multiple short screens — each with a single task — dramatically reduced cognitive load and errors. Users who finished registration said they felt "in control" and didn't experience the confusion typical of long, scrollable forms.
