vibhu krishna
VYKARIOUS
a human-centered approach to end-of-life
openIDEO is a platform that hosts global challenges pertaining to important community-wide issues. On more or less of a whim, I decided to enter one such challenge: How might we reimagine end-of-life experience for ourselves and our loved ones? After brainstorming in my apartment, I arrived at an idea: Vykarious. When it made the final round of competition, I gathered a team of creative directors, tech strategists, and designers to help breathe life into the concept. This content was originally published on openIDEO.
VYKARIOUS: AN OVERVIEW
Vykarious is a platform that would transform the traditional bucket-list into a dynamic journey
towards fulfillment and deep human connection.
It stirs up spontaneity in both the asker and the completer of a given action. Simply dancing in the rain, or doing yoga in the Rockies, or whatever the "ask" may be enriches the lives of both parties involved. Vykarious provides a way to meaningfully connect with other people and influence lives even from the hospital bed. For those registered as Vykings, it provides adventure and a powerful, living memory that transcends political and cultural borders. Here's how it works:
THE HUMAN CONNECTION
The driving force behind Vykarious is human connection. It has the potential to forge unexpected friendships, but also strengthen bonds between family members. In speaking to people whose parents were aging and less mobile, I realized that the "bucket list" or "if you could do one more thing" topic was somewhat unchartered. In other words, many sons and daughters do not really know what their parents or grandparents want (I learned about my father's desire to visit a woman who helped raise him in Calcutta just last week). Vykarious is a platform to not only open this dialogue, but allow these dreams to come to fruition.
Vykarious has two main groups of users:
I. The ill or elderly who may no longer be able to fulfill dreams they have, who may be feeling a loss of connection, and who want to lead a mission.
II. People seeking to forge connections with the ill or elderly, who are driven by adventure, spontaneity, and humanitarianism.
PRELIMINARY PLATFORM DESIGN
