WandeRest
service design to improve seniors’ walkability in urban environments
Dates: Jun - Aug 2024
Role: Service Designer (on service design team of 6)
Tools: Miro, Figma, Canva, InVideo
Design Challenge
How might we design an innovative and inclusive service that stimulates the local urban economies and enhances walkability in urban areas, making them more sustainable, safe, accessible, and enjoyable for pedestrians of all ages and abilities?
Solution
Through initial secondary research, we honed in on designing an inclusive experience for seniors ages 75+. We conducted interviews, observations, ideation workshops and prototype tests with seniors and local business owners to develop our eventual solution:
Wanderest, a digital app and local service that allows seniors to find participating businesses that offer spaces for them to rest along their journey.
Process
Prep | SECONDARY RESEARCH & SYSTEMS MAPPING
Through desk research and service ecosystem mapping, we identified a vital but underserved audience segment: seniors
After reviewing external resources on walkability trends, challenges, and opportunities, we created a systems map to aggregate key actors in the service ecosystem and their relationships to pedestrians.
In our synthesis, we realized that there was a clear gap in serving the needs of the elderly, especially those in urban areas.
OUR HYPOTHESIS
If we create desirable "life-centered" walking conditions for elderly people (75+) to complete their routine tasks, it will increase quality of life, accessibility, pedestrian safety, and health for all humans dwelling in urban environments.
Explore | INTERVIEWS
Seniors share: walking is a source of emotional and physical wellbeing, but it’s hindered by safety concerns
We started with in-depth research to understand the lives of seniors in walking environments:
7 interviews with seniors, trainers, and caregivers,
2 observations in urban settings
These activities helped us define the 3 personas, among which was Amelia, who became a central figure in our design process, representing the needs and aspirations of many seniors we aimed to serve.
PRIMARY PERSONA
Amelia is a 76-year-old who values her independence and wants to “age well”, but requires an assistive device and faces mobility challenges on her daily outdoor walks.
Through journey mapping Amelia’s typical walk, we realized a critical source of tension and (sometimes actual) pain: road intersections and sidewalk hazards!
Key Quotes:
Given our insights, we focused on addressing obstacles that diminish confidence in walking:
HMW eliminate hazards along pedestrian pathways to make walking safer for elderly folks?
Ideate | IDEATION WORKSHOP
Upon guiding 4 seniors through a co-creation workshop, we realized we’d overlooked a critical factor: restrooms!
We invited 4 seniors to join us in a virtual co-creation/ ideation session. To adapt to participants’ technology familiarity, we combined analog workshop methods (paper & pen) with Zoom to capture their ideas for Crazy 8’s.
From this session, we identified a key insight about walking: while considerations about physical harm are high, seniors have the specific need to find a place to rest and socialize, especially to use the restroom.
Concept | STORYBOARDING
We honed in on the concept of a “senior VIP rest card” to address needs of seniors and local businesses
After reviewing the outputs of the ideation workshop, our team considered 4 solution ideas:
benches with comfort & interactive features (e.g., entertainment)
pop-up amenities (e.g. booths) offered along a walking path
convenient search tools for local activities and amenities
senior “VIP passes” to gain access to local businesses offering rest spots
We voted to move forward with option 4: VIP Pass, as it aligned best with our design challenge to make streets more accessible and stimulate local economies.
Prototype & Test | RAPID PROTOTYPING
In testing our concept, we found that “ease of use” means flexibility, but it looks different for seniors vs. business owners
To test our proposed service solution, we conducted:
2 virtual workshops for 4 seniors to present a service advertisement video and complete a Lego walkthrough
4 in-person interviews with business owners (restaurant, cafe, wine shop, gift store) to test the interactive wireframe app
Findings
Seniors prefer flexibility and resist restrictive language or interfaces. It’s crucial to frame instructions as suggestions rather than mandates.
Seniors rely on established strategies to get around, so it's essential to keep information up-to-date to ensure their confidence.
The more populated a city, the lower the incentive for offering free services. Business owners require ease of customization to adapt to unexpected foot traffic.
Prototype & Test | SERVICE BLUEPRINT
Our future-state, end-to-end service blueprint addressed the concerns we heard from seniors and businesses
IN SUMMARY
Ultimately, WandeRest can significantly impact seniors' quality of life by increasing their comfort, confidence, and community interaction (while supporting their local economy)
By addressing key barriers to walking for seniors, our solution:
Empowers senior independence by providing an reliable, easy-to-use service for locating accessible rest spaces.
Enhances the quality of life for seniors by making city environments more walkable and accessible, encouraging them to stay engaged and explore their surroundings.
Creates a win-win situation for local businesses by increasing foot traffic and potential revenue, while serving a valuable demographic.
Contributes to the overall health of seniors by promoting regular walking, which is crucial for physical, mental, and social well-being.
Upon implementation, we would measure success through the following criteria:
Some Big Takeaways:
-
When planning workshops around ideation, always double the time you think it will take to create ideas. At the 1-hour mark in our ideation session, participants were only starting to get comfortable with the process.
-
Instead of teaching people to use a new technological platform like Miro for our ideation workshop, we combined analog workshop methods (paper/pencil) with familiar technology (Zoom) to streamline the experience.
-
What is a key need, goal, or pain point to users may be so obvious to them that it requires an extra push to get them to reveal it. It will often be something that even ChatGPT won’t pick up on. For us, this was the realization that restrooms were an essential consideration in the walking experience for seniors, and we needed to design for this.