Lazos: Connecting Generations

Lazos connects students with retired professionals in the same field. It aims to ease students’ anxiety about entering the workforce and help retired professionals regain a sense of purpose and social connection, addressing concerns about isolation in later life.

How might we connect two generations with different needs, routines, and expectations through a meaningful mentorship experience?

Students have academic knowledge but limited access to real-world professional experience. Retired professionals have valuable knowledge they want to keep sharing.

I saw an opportunity to turn these two needs into one mutually beneficial product.

Before designing anything, I looked at local data to validate the problem was real, not assumed:

• Active aging: INE (Spain's national statistics institute) data shows Murcia has one of the country's most pronounced active-aging demographics.
• Unwanted loneliness: Fundación "la Caixa" (2020) identifies unwanted loneliness among older adults as a public health issue in Spain: isolation isn't just about contact, but about the loss of an active social role.
• Student population: UMU, UCAM, and Erasmus students in Murcia exceed 50,000, with pre-career anxiety documented by university counseling services.

I conducted exploratory research with both audiences:

• 10 retired professionals
• 18 university students

Exploring what would motivate someone to mentor, what would make a student trust a mentor, realistic time commitments, and what information users needed before connecting.

My original plan involved recruiting through universities and senior centers.

GDPR requirements and lengthy authorization processes made that unworkable within a 4-week timeline.

I pivoted to convenience sampling: senior participants through trusted personal connections at a bingo hall, and students through personal networks and Erasmus Facebook groups.

Lesson: a good methodology needs to be rigorous, but also adaptable to real-world constraints.

Research revealed two very different definitions of value:

Retired professionals wanted to share knowledge, feel useful, and maintain social connection through focused sessions that fit their routines.

They were split 50/50 on mentoring one student deeply vs. several at once, and asked for extra features like brain games and discussion forums.

Students cared about career development, practical advice, and trustworthy mentor profiles (a mentor's background, career history, and photo mattered as trust signals).

72% preferred a free, ad-supported version over paid subscriptions.

Rather than forcing one interaction model on both groups, I adapted the experience to each:

• Retiree experience: simple, visible, focused: larger touch targets, fewer decisions per screen, lower information density.
• Student experience: informative, detailed, flexible: more information upfront, especially mentor credibility.

This became an important inclusive design principle for the project: accessibility isn't always about giving everyone the same experience. It can mean adapting the experience to different needs.

I moved through: Sketches → Wireframes → Visual Concepts → Usability Testing → High-Fidelity Prototype, testing two visual directions with both audiences before finalizing the interface.

• Retirees: 9 of 10 participants preferred the simpler visual direction, with larger buttons and fewer elements.
• Students: 14 of 18 participants preferred the version with more information upfront about the mentor.

These results directly shaped the final UI and confirmed the decision to run two information densities inside one product ecosystem.

For retired professionals — large touch targets, clear actions, simple navigation, reduced information density.

For students — richer information earlier in the journey, especially mentor credibility and professional background.

Lazos taught me that designing for different generations requires more than simplifying an interface. It requires understanding different motivations, routines, and definitions of value.

This project strengthened my interest in UX Research, accessibility, and inclusive product design: taking a concept from an initial problem through research, testing, and a high-fidelity prototype.

With a longer timeline and fewer bureaucratic constraints, I would expand the work in three directions:

• Deeper qualitative research: More in-depth interviews with both profiles to refine the empathy maps further, overcoming the initial access barriers at senior centers and care homes.
• National scalability: Testing whether the model extends beyond Murcia to other Spanish regions with similar demographics.
• Multilingual expansion: Adapting the service for other languages, so the intergenerational exchange could also support foreign-language practice across borders.

Role: UX Researcher & UX/UI Designer

Grade: 9.5/10

Location: Murcia, Spain

Duration: ~4 weeks

Methods: User Research · Competitive Analysis · Ideation · Wireframing · Usability Testing · UI Design · Prototyping

Thank you for exploring Lazos!

This project reinforced my belief that good UX starts with understanding people (especially when their needs, expectations, and abilities are different).

I’m particularly interested in creating clear, accessible, and human-centered experiences where research directly informs design decisions.

I’d love to connect and talk about how I could contribute to your next product or team.