In October 2022, commissioned by the Shantou branch of the State Taxation Administration, our research team joined the Guangdong Provincial Standard Project on Age-Friendly Mobile E-Government Services. The aim was to establish a systematic, research-based framework that could guide the design of digital public services for older adults.

The project had two major outputs. The first was the redesign and launch of an age-friendly version of the provincial social security service mini-program, which addressed immediate usability challenges faced by older users. The second was the drafting and official publication of the provincial design standard for age-friendly digital services (DB44/T 2678—2025), released on June 11, 2025.

Official website screenshot of the standard (original page in Chinese, translated)

Together, these two outcomes demonstrate a pathway from practical service optimization to institutionalized design standards, illustrating how design research can inform both practice and policy.

We began with a nationwide analysis of 36 major mobile government service platforms and collected over 12,000 records of real user interactions from older adults in authentic service contexts. The findings revealed that most existing platforms lacked consistent standards for age-friendly design. Interface structures and procedural logics varied widely, forcing older adults—who generally have lower digital adaptability—to relearn tasks on each platform. This not only created stress for users but also imposed high development costs for service providers.

To explore a bottom-up approach, we selected the social security service, one of the most frequently used and impactful services for older people, as the testing ground. Supported by the Guangdong Provincial Taxation Bureau, we conducted in-depth interviews, contextual observations, and service blueprinting in service halls. This helped us map the user journey from discovering the service to completing a task, identifying key issues such as confusing information hierarchies, low visibility of functional entry points, poor text readability, and redundant process steps.

Frontline staff guiding older users through the digital service at a government hall

The challenge lay in balancing three factors: complex administrative procedures, technological constraints, and user experience requirements. To achieve this, we invited government administrators, frontline staff, developers, older users, and designers to co-design the improvements. Based on their feedback, we streamlined processes and redesigned the interface to match new, simplified task flows. For example, the high-frequency service of “residents’ social security payment” was reduced from a multi-page, 10+ step process to two main pages with two key steps, partly enabled by automatic data pre-filling.

As a result, the average completion time dropped from about 7 minutes to around 1 minute. These changes were approved by administrators and technically supported by developers, allowing us to launch the pilot version within three months. By June 2025, the mini-program has supported nearly 500,000 older users in accessing their social security services more easily.

Comparison of optimized processes: redesign of 15 major workflows in the “Social Security” module

Interface redesign: original interface (far left) versus the age-friendly version, where tasks can now be completed with simple buttons instead of navigating multiple pages

Analysis of user challenges encountered during service use

Building on the pilot, we moved to drafting the Guangdong Provincial Design Standard for Age-Friendly Mobile E-Government Services (DB44/T 2678—2025). The difficulty was finding a balance between top-down policy requirements, real user needs, and the diverse contexts of digital public services. The standard had to avoid being overly prescriptive, while still offering actionable requirements with direct impact on user experience.

The final standard focused on two basic user needs: information perception and comprehension, and task execution. It organized requirements under three main dimensions: interface layout, visual elements, and functional components. For example, Section 5.3.2 (“Data Entry Components”) specifies that when older users are required to provide information such as names, locations, or numbers, the interface should offer selection components rather than manual input fields. This reduces typing burden, minimizes errors, and aligns with real-world usability.

Between March 19 and October 5, 2024, the draft standard was published online for consultation through the Guangdong Provincial Government Service and Data Administration website. We collected nearly 100 suggestions from institutions and municipalities, which were integrated into revisions. After several rounds of review, hearings, and formal defense, the standard was officially issued on June 11, 2025. It is now publicly available on the National Standards Information Public Service Platform.

Cover of the provincial standard (DB44/T 2678—2025) and screenshot from the National Standards Information Public Service Platform (original page in Chinese, translated)

This project illustrates how design can operate across scales, moving from practical service redesign to institutionalized regulation. Methodologically, it demonstrates how participatory and empirical research—including large-scale interaction data, ethnographic observation, and co-design workshops—can generate both immediate improvements and long-term guidelines.

Our work also highlights the role of designers as mediators between users, institutions, and technical systems. Rather than focusing solely on interface aesthetics, the process required translating user experience principles into formats understandable and actionable for government agencies and software developers.

Our project also received broad media coverage and recognition. News outlets, government websites, and university channels emphasized the significance of the age-friendly digital service and the provincial standard, underscoring its role in promoting digital inclusion for older adults.

Selected Media Reports：

Press conference in 2023 announcing the launch of the age-friendly mini-program in Guangdong

In March 2024, we returned to the government service hall to conduct follow-up interviews with frontline staff and older users. An unexpected finding emerged: staff reported that the age-friendly version not only improved usability for older adults, but also made it easier for them to guide older users through digital services, reducing the time they needed to provide individual assistance.

This insight shifted our attention toward the role of support networks—the people and relationships that mediate between older users and digital services. In subsequent research, we drew on the concept of “Human Infrastructure” from the CSCW field, which highlights the social arrangements, distributed practices, and often invisible forms of labor that keep technical systems functional. From this perspective, age-friendly design is not only about simplifying interfaces for individuals, but also about enabling surrounding support networks—such as staff, family members, and community helpers—to assist older adults more effectively.

Building on this, we launched a new round of interviews and analysis, which is now being developed into a research paper submitted to CHI 2026.