Sarah Carrell
UX. UI. Research.
The lack of adequate transportation options for seniors often leads to social isolation, health complications, and an overall decline in quality of life. I designed ThriveRide, a platform to connect seniors and caregivers with local transportation that can accommodate specific rider needs.
To better understand the space in which this problem exists, I first reviewed research that had already been conducted on this issue.
1 in 5 Americans are over the age of 65. Among this demographic, over 20% are unable to drive because of health conditions.
Socially isolated seniors are more likely to develop chronic health conditions as well as mental and emotional disorders.
Despite the demand for innovative solutions to this widespread problem, transportation options for seniors continue to suffer from a lack of coordination and community resources.
I conducted user interviews with 5 participants to further understand the behaviors, pain points, needs, and goals of my users. Participants were seniors who no longer drive and caretakers of seniors.
The majority of transportation services do not adequately accommodate individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities common to senior citizens.
Without access to transportation, seniors struggle to manage essential daily activities such as getting to medical appointments, picking up prescriptions, and shopping for essentials.
Cost is a major barrier to accommodating transportation for seniors who typically are living off of retirement savings or government assistance.
Reliability, respect, and building lasting relationships is critical to establishing trust with seniors and caregivers.
Seniors with disabilities frequently experience feelings of loneliness, shame, guilt, anxiety, and depression.
A lack of understanding modern technologies is often a barrier to older adults adopting digital platforms.
Create inclusive designs that seniors can use, regardless of functional limitations.
Design to improve the lives of seniors by creating a tool to help them regain independence and freedom.
Streamline the process of accessing and coordinating adequate transportation for seniors and caregivers.
Design a smooth, efficient, and consistent experience that users can rely on.
Considering the user needs that I uncovered during my research, I created a sitemap to identify what product features should exist and how to organize the structure.
Sketching screens first allowed me to creatively explore ideas in a flexible and tangible way before making higher fidelity designs.
These wireframes served as the foundation for my designs. Creating wireframes allowed me to focus on the content, layout, and structure without getting distracted by visual elements.
For users to feel an emotional connection with ThriveRide, it was essential to establish a brand that conveys reliability, wellness, optimism, and compassion. Aligning ThriveRide’s visual design elements to consistently reflect these attributes creates familiarity, trust, and a delightful experience for users.
To identify opportunities for improvement, I created a clickable prototype to simulate the onboarding steps for new users and then conducted 20 min usability tests. Having realistic interactions with the designs allowed participants to provide valuable insight and constructive feedback.
Increases likelihood of user drop-off without completing intended onboarding flow.
Users can now opt to skip steps when completing a rider profile. If they do decide to skip a step, they are prompted with a confirmation message informing them that they will need to complete the step at a later time. Users then confirm they are sure they want to skip the step and they move onto the next or they select cancel and return to the same step.
Lack of clarity and understanding creates uncertainty and disengagement. Users need to know what to expect and why each step is important in order to be invested in successfully completing the onboarding process.
Clear descriptions, instructions, interactions, and additional feedback cues were added to each screen to create a more accessible and seamless user experience.
Clear descriptions, interactions, and instructions are critical when designing for users who are less experienced navigating digital products.
If users want more information before creating an account or rider profile, there is now an optional walkthrough that provides an overview of how the platform works and what to expect.
Designing for an older demographic comes with a unique set of challenges. Understanding the perspectives, needs, and limitations of users is critical to designing effective solutions.
Testing allowed me to uncover valuable insights into user behavior and identify what improvements needed to be made to my designs.
