MyRyman – Helping Retirees Make the Most of Village Life

The design challenge for Ryman was to create richer experiences and enhance personal connection for their residents through new digital tools. With over 40 retirement villages across Australia and New Zealand, and a large proportion of Independent Residents with an average age of 80, it became clear that this demographic is underserved by technology. The solution needed to accommodate residents with cognitive decline and visual impairments, while ensuring that everyone felt comfortable and confident. The challenge was to create an inclusive solution that left no one feeling out of their depth or uncomfortable, providing an innovative digital experience for all.

The myRyman Resident App provides a solution for the challenge of creating a technology platform that is both accessible and user-friendly for seniors. Through 275+ hours of interviews, user testing, and co-design sessions with over 150 residents, the app was designed to be modern and flexible, elevating the resident experience while still accommodating varying accessibility needs. The app's design system is future-proofed, allowing for easy feature enhancements without significant changes to the user interface. The result is an engaging and easy-to-use app for all users, regardless of their tech literacy level.

The myRyman Resident App has had a significant impact on the Ryman community, enhancing the quality of life for residents in multiple ways. The app's accessibility and convenience have been widely acknowledged, with 71% of eligible residents currently using or having access to it in their household. It has exceeded expectations with a remarkable 74% customer satisfaction rating and an impressive 98% weekly active user rate. The app's sustainability features have brought about significant reductions in the environmental impact of paper information distribution. But more importantly, the app has enhanced residents' lives by promoting social connections and ensuring timely communication.

myRyman sets a new benchmark for innovation in digital design practice by addressing the challenge of creating an accessible and user-friendly technology platform specifically for older adults, including those with cognitive decline and vision impairment. While most apps strongly rely on familiarity with interfaces, learned behaviours and interaction pattern recognition gained from using other digital tools, this hasn’t been the case for the Resident App. Users often weren’t familiar with other apps; some only got a smart phone to use the Covid Tracer app, so this was all new to them. Everything was designed from the ground up, ensuring that we were speaking the users’ language and supporting their first forays into digital technology. The app is built to comply with AAA visual accessibility standards, but still be visually appealing. A major focus was placed on accessible interface design which included suitable font selection, optimised colour contrast, clear iconography and navigation patterns to ensure the app is beautiful and functional, an uncommon combination in accessible design.