How to inform wheelchair users about the roads?

Route:able helps people with disabilities to be informed of the road conditions and thereby reduce their frustration of moving on inaccessible roads when they go out to meet their friends.

PLATFORM

Progressive app

WORK DONE

Research, Emphathy map, User Persona, Competitive analysis, User Interface, Prototype, User testing

TIME FRAME

2 weeks

OVERVIEW

I found this project challenging because I had to empathize with the situation of a physically disabled person, and provide a solution according to certain requirements that are not normally considered by digital products.

Research

PROBLEM STATEMENT

After compiling the results of the survey and interviews in the empathy map, we were able to establish the problem to be solved.

HOW MIGHT WE & RESEARCH

In the research phase, we posed the question "How might we..." to develop the interviews and surveys, which gave us the answers to address what the app should cover. Most respondents use at least 2 apps to help them plan the route, but none help them identify the accessibility of the journey.

USER PERSONA

We defined the user persona, David, based on our research and empathy map. He would like to be informed of road conditions so that he knows ahead of time which path has the fewest barriers when he goes out in his wheelchair to meet his friends.

JOURNEY MAP

David's journey map shows the different barriers he has to deal with just to go for a beer with a friend.

LO FI WIREFRAMES & SKETCHES

At this Lo-Fi sketching stage, we began to determine the basics that we were going to use to make our user flow and the features that would be implemented in Mid-Fi. After this stage we again did research on accessibility on mobile devices as it was a fundamental part to implement, due to the theme and user.

Define and Prototyping

USER FLOW

This is our user flow showing the path from the accessibility settings to the addition of a barrier on the route that is not yet on the map.

USABILITY TESTING

In the mid fi we were able to define the features that the app should have, apart from the map and the search engine. To define the accessibility options we based them on the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and received feedback from stakeholders to make them even more specific in the Hi-Fi prototype.

MOODBOARD

For the moodboard we saw that even though there are color disabilities, it is not necessary to make the design in black and white, as long as the relevant information is delivered also with icons and text, people with chromatic disabilities can still access the information. Contrast is very important between colors, for the final design we use darker colors to cover the color contrast ratio.

STYLE TILE

In the style tile we defined the elements that were necessary to create the Hi-Fi prototype and test it with users, where the feedback was to increase the font size, although in the accessibility settings it is possible to do so.

HI FI PROTOTYPE

This is the final prototype, the whole process of designing and prototyping was done in Figma.

Key learnings 

This project reafirm that research is crucial to put ourselves in the user's shoes and learn about their daily problems.

It is relevant to show the information most clearly and simply possible so that it is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities, who are not offten included when creating digital products.

Empathizing with this user, I learned that there are not disabled people, but there are disabled environments.

valsolari@gmail.com