Healthy aging by design

As an international student in Sheridan’s Digital Product Design graduate certificate program, Yuke (Aurelia) Yi embraced the opportunity to apply her User Experience (UX) research expertise through a collaboration between Ottawa-based AIM Fitness, an online fitness training company helping older adults improve their strength, mobility and overall health and Sheridan’s Centre for Elder Research (CER). For Yi, the project offered more than an academic experience — it provided a firsthand look into Canadian research and workplace workflows while allowing her to contribute to real-world business solutions that she can showcase on her resume and draw on confidently when she enters the workforce.

Ahead of its 12th anniversary, Aim Fitness set out to refresh its virtual platform and membership model to better serve older adults. Working under the supervision of CER Research Manager Isabel Paniak and supported by Director of Research & Innovation, Dr. Lia Tsotsos, and Schlegel Innovation Leader in Arts and Aging, Dr. Kate Dupuis, Yi played a key role in a mixed-methods evaluation to guide updates to the company’s business model, marketing strategy and website design.

Yi’s role included helping design surveys and conduct interviews with 26 adults aged 55–80 who participated in bi-weekly programming. The participants’ feedback revealed that consistent on-demand access improved motivation, routine-building, strength, mood and overall well-being, while also highlighting the importance of social connection and stronger onboarding and navigation for new users. Yi further strengthened the project, which was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Mobilize grant, by completing a competitive analysis of senior-focused fitness platforms across Canada and North America, which informed the development of website wireframes and the project's final report.

Being new to Canada, Yi found the experience invaluable in understanding how structured long-term research projects operate within the Canadian context. She was able to develop and strengthen her research and design skills, including qualitative data analysis from interviews and surveys, synthesis of market and competitor insights, and user-centered design thinking to translate findings into practical solutions. She also developed strong stakeholder collaboration skills, learning how to manage partner needs and expectations.

Yi's time as a student researcher has become a defining part of her professional portfolio. The applied nature of the project — working with a Canadian company, contributing to a formal research report and developing tangible design outputs — has provided her with skills and experiences she can highlight in interviews and implement in her future career.

Encouraging other Sheridan students to explore research opportunities, she says “research doesn’t have to be intimidating. At its core, it’s driven by curiosity about people, society, and real-world problems that go beyond what we learn in textbooks. Today’s careers require more than technical skills — they require research thinking, problem-solving, and the ability to contribute ideas in complex, real situations. These experiences give students the opportunity to develop those skills and prepare for that reality.”

Interested in learning more about how to get involved as a student in research, innovation and entrepreneurship at Sheridan? Visit sheridancollege.ca/generator.