For the Google x Design @ Columbia UX Challenge, my team and I were asked to consider how generative AI might be made more accessible to elderly users. I was personally excited by this prompt because it made me think about how to distill the complexities and possibilities of generative AI into a simple and intuitive interface, accessible by users of all ages and technical backgrounds.

We conducted 5 interviews with Google users aged 65+ and asked them about their experiences using technology products. We were particularly interested in which Google products they used most frequently, and how much they knew about generative AI and Google’s Gemini.

It’s nearly impossible to use the Internet without opening a New Tab in Google Search, making it the most visited page in the world, and the most commonly used Google product among the elderly users we interviewed. For these reasons, we decided that Google Search would be the perfect place to introduce Gemini to a broader audience. Google Search is also the home of Autofill, which was one of the features that elderly users expressed the most enthusiasm for.