Bizguru: A Mobile-Based Digital Marketing Guide for Elderly

Abstract

Every country in this world including Malaysia had implemented a lockdown phase for a long period to break the deadly virus chain. Many shopping complexes and factories had suffered a huge amount of loss because they were forced to stop operating temporarily. In fact, according to a recent local news report, almost two million people in Malaysia had lost their job which had affected the elderlies that solely relies on the monthly allowance provided by their working child to support their living expenses. Elderlies that implemented the traditional way of business, like offline stores faced difficulties in acquiring customers because they chose to self-isolate at home. As a solution, a mobilebased learning application that promotes Digital Marketing knowledge was built and made available to Android smartphone users only. It is a modernized alternative to acquire knowledge that suits the current digitalized environment. The objectives of this study are to design, develop, and evaluate a mobile-based Digital Marketing guide named BIZGURU. However, in this study, the mobile application design is focused on the elder group to cater to their needs. The method used in this study is known as the ADDIE model that consists of five phases; analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The target users are retired elderlies aged 60 years old and above that use an Android smartphone and are interested to gain new knowledge. The purpose of the proposed application is to help retired elderlies find an alternative to gain income at a late age to continue to support their living expenses. Based on the findings from the expert evaluation, pilot test, and usability test, BIZGURU had acquired a good rating on the overall performance with high usability score using Mobile Learning Usability Attitude Test (MLUAT) and System Usability Score (SUS) instrument. Therefore, with BIZGURU, the elderlies had more exposure to other alternatives of gaining income and avoid poverty which helps to fulfill the 1st goal of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on eradicating poverty issues. Besides, this purposed application also provides learning opportunities for elderlies that desire to gain knowledge at late age which can help fulfill the 4th goal of SDG on promoting life-long learning opportunities for all.